Community science to the rescue: capturing water quality data during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted all aspects of human activity, including environmental research and monitoring. Despite a lack of laboratory access and other restrictive measures, we adapted an existing community science monitoring program to continue through the summer of 2020. We worked with local community groups to recruit 58 volunteers who collected lake water samples from 60 sites on 16 lakes in south-central Ontario from June to September 2020. We organized drop-off depots and had volunteers freeze samples to monitor nearshore nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) and chlorophyll-a. A survey was distributed to volunteers to analyze lake-front property owners’ activities during the pandemic. We found spatial patterns in nearshore water quality across the lakes, with sub-watershed development being a significant predictor of nutrients and chlorophyll-a. Additionally, pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic (2020 and 2021) nutrient concentrations were compared, but there was no clear impact of the pandemic on nearshore nutrient concentrations, despite changes in lake-front property owners activities. Overall, this study demonstrated the ability of community science to provide water quality data on a large spatial scale despite a major societal disruption, providing insight into regional nutrient trends during the first year of the pandemic.

Community science for assessing the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems: Water quality monitoring, restoration, and outreach by young naturalists in Nova Scotia, Canada

“…While the Nature Guardians and other Atlantic Canada-based groups benefit from the enviable situation where water monitoring equipment including a YSI multi-parameter probe is available to rent for free from the Atlantic Water Network, other low-cost equipment options and regional equipment banks exist to provision other locations worldwide. 9 – 11 While community science initiatives do not replace scientific data collection methods, they offer a flexible, low-cost, participatory model which can complement other methods and increase community investment.…”

“…Partnering with public institutions, such as Universities or conservation authorities, could help address these challenges. 14 For example, a contemporaneous study 11 adapted an existing community science monitoring program to monitor lake water quality during the summer 2020 pandemic research interruption. In contrast to the Nature Guardian youth model, this lake monitoring study was more formalized, providing standardized training to program participants in the form of videos and detailed visual and written instructions for collecting and storing samples, and processing samples centrally at their lab.…”

“…In contrast to the Nature Guardian youth model, this lake monitoring study was more formalized, providing standardized training to program participants in the form of videos and detailed visual and written instructions for collecting and storing samples, and processing samples centrally at their lab. 11 In the case of the Nature Guardians program, the main goal is education, to give the youth hands on experience monitoring and solving an environmental issue, with a secondary purpose of sharing data with partners who work in water quality or park management. Success with other participatory monitoring has demonstrated that with appropriate protocols, these goals can coexist – high quality data can be produced by community science groups which is comparable with specialist collected data.…”

“… 9 Community science is a growing but still under-utilized approach to ecosystem monitoring, 17 , 18 and these distributed local initiatives can enhance and complement research programs and mandated government monitoring work. 11 …”

“…While the Nature Guardians and other Atlantic Canada-based groups benefit from the enviable situation where water monitoring equipment including a YSI multi-parameter probe is available to rent for free from the Atlantic Water Network, other low-cost equipment options and regional equipment banks exist to provision other locations worldwide. [9][10][11] While community science initiatives do not replace scientific data collection methods, they offer a flexible, low-cost, participatory model which can complement other methods and increase community investment. Some challenges of this community-based freshwater monitoring model are shared by other forms of water monitoring and community science initiatives, such as when unexpected challenges such as park visitation bans during the COVID-19 lockdown led to gaps in data collection.…”