The Illinois RiverWatch Network is a citizen science program that for over 2 decades has trained volunteers to do water quality monitoring in small order streams throughout the state. The volunteer-collected data includes both habitat and biological parameters, with a focus on macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of stream health. Since its inception, the Illinois RiverWatch Network has collected data annually during May and June at over 800 sampling sites across the state
Results/Conclusions
Using this large citizen-science-collected dataset, we have shown a relationship between stream channelization and macroinvertebrate indicators of stream health, with unchannelized streams showing better quality ratings. Further, we were able to observe this effect despite our sites being spread across varied urban and rural landscapes throughout the state. Findings like these can inform and support natural resources management and restoration decisions. Our results were also highly significant, and the community-based approach provided a degree of statistical power that would be difficult to match through traditional scientific approaches. In addition, this case study shows how decisions about experimental design and data collection methods can improve the reliability and usefulness of citizen science research. Decisions made early on in a program about how data are collected and recorded can prevent the use of certain types of statistical analysis, or conversely can lead to robust and convincing results that can then be impactful in a variety of contexts.