Identifying Barriers to Citizen Scientist Retention When Measuring Pollination Services

Abstract

Pollination Investigators is a citizen science program designed to quantify the pollination service provided within home gardens. The goal of our initial study year was to develop and evaluate an experimental protocol using a survey to gather participant feedback. At three workshops held in the spring of 2014 we distributed sampling protocols along with eight (two of each species) sweet pepper, cucumber, tomato, and sunflower seedlings to 64 volunteers. Volunteers established the seedlings in their home garden and compared fruit weight and seed set among open pollinated flowers with flowers bagged to exclude insect visitors. At the end of the season only 14.1% of volunteers submitted any pollination services data. Using a follow-up survey, we identified the steps within our protocol that prevented volunteers from continuing with the project, and prescribe protocol revisions to improve volunteer retention when measuring garden pollination services.

Promoting Data Collection in Pollinator Citizen Science Projects

“…We also used Wilcoxon rank sum tests to compare responses to statements within each training to determine the primary motivation for trainees to attend trainings. The study sample size was similar to contemporary pollinator citizen science projects (see Birkin and Goulson 2015;Klienke et al 2018), and all analyses were performed in R (R Core Team 2017).…”

“…Many citizen science projects have an overarching goal of conserving wild and managed bee pollinators (Ullman et al 2010;Potter and LeBuhn 2015;Bloom and Crowder 2016;LeBuhn et al 2016;Le Féon et al 2016;van der Wal et al 2016 Domroese andJohnson 2017;Pocock et al 2018). However, the factors that affect data collection in pollinator citizen science projects have rarely been studied (but see van der Wal et al 2016;Domroese and Johnson 2017;Klienke et al 2018), hindering the development of projects that could promote global pollinator populations. We show that regardless of project methods, volunteers were attracted to our citizen scientist trainings mainly to learn more about pollinators, rather than to assist with data collection on pollinators.…”

“…Our project that used photography to monitor plantbee interactions was far less likely to receive data submissions than the one that monitored cavity-nesting bees with nest boxes. Other studies have found that pollinator projects that require the volunteers to complete multiple challenging steps suffer from low rates of data collection (Birkin and Goulson 2015;Klienke et al 2018). For example, Klienke et al (2018) assessed effects of bees on crop pollination using citizen scientists.…”

“…Other studies have found that pollinator projects that require the volunteers to complete multiple challenging steps suffer from low rates of data collection (Birkin and Goulson 2015;Klienke et al 2018). For example, Klienke et al (2018) assessed effects of bees on crop pollination using citizen scientists. Although 76% of participants in their trainings volunteered to collect data, only 14% of participants did so.…”

“…Engaging volunteers in monitoring may help to provide researchers with essential data on the factors mediating pollinator population declines (Kaartinen, Hardwick, and Roslin 2013;Le Féon et al 2016;Pocock et al 2018). However, the factors that promote data collection in pollinator citizen science projects are largely unknown (but see van der Wal et al 2016;Domroese and Johnson 2017;Klienke et al 2018), contributing to uncertainty in the methods that may be most useful for wild and managed bee pollinator conservation worldwide.…”