Goals and approaches in the use of citizen science for exploring plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems: A review

Abstract

The role of citizen science in environmental monitoring has received significant interest in the research community over the last decade; with citizen scientists playing a key role in engaging with, and gathering, scientific evidence to support natural resource management. The involvement of citizen science in aquatic research is growing. Recent studies highlight the successful application of citizen science to support plastic pollution research within marine systems. In contrast, our knowledge on how citizen science can support plastic pollution research in limnetic studies is limited, with no known published systematic reviews on this topic. The involvement of citizen science within hydrological monitoring has been widely discussed, however, the majority of reviewed literature focuses on commonly targeted water quality parameters (i.e. nutrients). This review, for the first time, explores the current status of freshwater citizen science focused on plastic pollution based on a synthesis of 12 peerreviewed publications. In this paper we consider the environmental and geographic extent of the research, scope and methodological approaches taken, involvement of citizen science within the research and the quality of the data collected. Alongside this, emerging issues in freshwater are also discussed with a strong focus on how citizen science can contribute to this growing knowledge pool. The use of citizen science within the field of freshwater plastic pollution remains niche, with the majority of projects following the contributory model of citizen participation. The inclusion of methods and standardized approaches relating to citizen recruitment, engagement and training in the peer-reviewed literature are limited; with greater transparency key to opening up citizen science potential within this evolving research field.

Evaluating community science sampling for microplastics in shore sediments of large river watersheds

“…Another consideration with the current research is that it has mirrored previous community science project design for freshwater plastic pollution sampling, where there is only a contributory focus for the Community Scientists (Cook et al 2021). This is where the projects are designed by scientists while the members of the public primarily contribute data.…”

Opportunities, approaches and challenges to the engagement of citizens in filling small water body data gaps

“…CrowdWater—Table 1 ). There is also the potential to support biodiversity monitoring (Schmeller et al, 2009 ; Chandler et al, 2017 ) and plastic-pollution research (Cook et al, 2021 ; e.g. PlasticsOrigin project https://www.plasticorigins.eu/ ).…”

Community Science-informed Local Policy: a Case Study in Pinole Creek Litter Assessment

“…To apply science in its fullest sense, scientists must work with community members during the scientific process (McKinley et al, 2017;Watkins, 2022). Plastic pollution research has a long history of community collaboration on data collection (Cârstea et al, 2022;Cook et al, 2021;Rambonnet et al, 2019). Still, much of this appears to be driven by researchers, not the community itself, as in this project.…”