Citizen Science in the "New Normal": Climate Change, COVID and Inclusivity

Dr. Julia K. Parrish

Professor and Associate Dean, University of Washington

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted how a changing climate has resulted in ever more extreme conditions. In the North Pacific marine environment this includes regime shifts, short-term extreme events typified by El Niño, and marine heatwaves. Ecosystem responses are myriad; and mass mortality events (MMEs) are one such response. Since 2014, the North Pacific has experienced eight seabird MMEs starting in the California Current system and moving north into the Bering Strait (2017-21) where now annual spikes are the new normal. Citizen science data from the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) documents a shift in the frequency, magnitude, taxonomic breadth and causality of North Pacific seabird MMEs; one of the clearest demonstrations of upper trophic response to a changing climate.

Citizen science is a growing phenomena allowing non-science publics access to data collection, monitoring, and research projects across the spectrum of science. COASST is a 21 year-old hands-on, environmental citizen science program with ~800 active participants collecting monthly data on beached birds at ~450 sites from California to Alaska.

The COASST experience suggests that: (1) people are highly motivated to contribute to place-based science rooted in their own communities; (2) non-scientists can be as good if not better than scientists at data collection and protocol adaptive management; (3) citizen science can provide broad-scale, fine-grain environmental data that is impossible to collect any other way; and (4) it's about time mainstream science paid attention to these data and this enviro-social phenomena.