Bioblitzes and other biodiversity discovery citizen science projects have long been popular methods to engage the public in documenting biodiversity and to help assess biodiversity in particular locations. Their design, however, has often prioritized public engagement over scientific and conservation goals. Given the value of biodiversity data (e.g., species occurrence, abundance, and phenology) in a rapidly changing environment, there are strong incentives to improve the design of bioblitzes and other biodiversity discovery activities to collect data that can be better applied to addressing ecological questions and to informing conservation decisions. In this project, we review major outcomes and lessons learned from the past 100 years of biodiversity discovery citizen science (and roughly 15 years of bioblitzes) in US national parks, with a particular focus on Acadia National Park in Maine. We also provide recommendations for designing and implementing future biodiversity discovery programs.
Results/Conclusions
Biodiversity discovery citizen science projects have contributed data sets that have been critical to understanding changes in biodiversity in US national parks. For example, in Acadia National Park, one recent study resurveyed a citizen science inventory of the flora from the late 1800s and found that roughly one sixth of species have disappeared from the park during that time. More recently, bioblitzes have given more mixed information because most have not been implemented with rigorous sampling designs, or have overextended their sampling areas beyond the capacity of the volunteers. Even these bioblitzes, however, have identified new occurrence records for particular parks, including early identifications of invasive species, and have identified some species new to science. We suggest some specific methods and questions that may help biodiversity discovery citizen science result in better scientific and conservation outcomes. For example, projects can focus on specific taxonomic groups or locations (not entire parks) appropriate for the particular volunteers. In particular, ecologists and conservationists might target biodiversity observations at sentinel locations, locations that are subject to occasional disturbance, or locations of management actions, such as vegetation restoration.