The value of marine ecological data collected by volunteers
Judy Foster-Smith*, Stewart M. Evans
The Dove Marine Laboratory (The School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University), Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear NE30 4PZ, UK
Received 28 August 2002; received in revised form 18 November 2002; accepted 18 November 2002
Abstract
Volunteers are potentially a huge scientific resource but there is scepticism among some scientists about the reliability of data
collected by inexperienced people. An assessment was therefore made of the ability of a group of 13 volunteers, recruited by the
Earthwatch Institute, to collect valid data in a project that aimed to map the distribution and abundance of common littoral
organisms on shores of the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland. The volunteers ranged considerably in age, educational background,
knowledge and experience. They were capable of performing straight-forward tasks, such as learning to identify species, recording
their occurrence on specific parts of the shore and making length measurements of samples of some gastropods. They made some
recording errors during the fieldwork but similar errors were also made by experienced scientists and it is recommended therefore
that all ecological studies should include quality control of data whether or not they involve volunteers. The assessment of abun-
dance was problematic. Volunteers’ assessments for some species were inconsistent and there is evidence that individuals interpreted
the scale in different ways. It is suggested that these problems stemmed from: (1) a lack of field experience in the volunteers; (2)
inadequate guidelines on the use of the abundance scale; and (3) insufficient training before field surveys commenced. However,
projects themselves may benefit in unexpected ways from the input of volunteers. They contributed taxonomic and computing skills
to the current project. Members of the group also offered new insights by developing hypotheses relating to populations of gas-
tropods during their fieldwork. These were tested and could have formed the basis of longer-term research programmes. There were
also educational benefits for the volunteers who were involved in the project. These included increased knowledge of marine issues
and clearer understanding of the ways in which scientific studies are undertaken.
# 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Volunteer data; Validation; Quality control; Littoral species mapping; Conservation
1. Introduction
National and international programmes for the con-
servation of biological diversity inevitably place enor-
mous burdens on national science budgets (World
Conservation Strategy, 1980). Individual plans are
ambitious but, while governments, especially those in
the developed world, have allocated some additional
financial resources to relevant research (e.g. Biodi-
versity: The UK Action Plan, 1994), there is widespread
belief that conservation research is seriously under-fun-
ded (e.g. Lewis, 1999). There is almost certainly con-
sensus that science has neither the manpower nor the
financial resources to meet the demands that are being
placed upon it (e.g. Hodgson, 1999).
However, much of the research that is needed to fulfil
biodiversity action plans is labour intensive but techni-
cally straight-forward. Volunteers could make impor-
tant contributions to it, representing a potentially huge
workforce. Indeed, they have already made significant
contributions to scientific knowledge through their par-
ticipation in a range of studies, particularly ones that
have been guided by experienced scientists. Examples
include surveys of the abundance and distribution of
waders and wildfowl in British coastal waters (Prater,
1981); beached bird surveys (Stowe, 1982); the distribu-
tion of Australian birds (Blakers et al., 1984); changes in
benthic and pelagic communities in Jakarta Bay due to
organic pollution from the city of Jakarta (Harger,
1988); coral reef surveys in Singapore (Chou, 1994) and
Belize (Mumby et al., 1995); coastal zone management
in Australia (Jacoby et al., 1997; Wescott, 1998); North
Sea pollution studies (Evans et al., 2000) and monitor-
ing juvenile lobsters (Ellis and Cowan, 2002). The
0006-3207/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00373-7
Biological Conservation 113 (2003) 199–213
www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon
* Corresponding author. Te.l: +44-191-252-4850; fax: +44-191-
252-1054.
E-mail address: judy.foster-smith@ncl.ac.uk (J. Foster-Smith).