People-powered science will play a role in Australia’s bushfire recovery, with more than 20 projects underway involving citizen scientists of all ages.
CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is working with key agencies and community groups to support research underway throughout bushfire impacted areas.
The Citizen Science Bushfire Project Finder website allows members of the public to contribute to projects ranging from air quality, to identifying and confirming animal and plant sightings while maintaining safe social distancing practices.
People can also get involved online by identifying animals in camera images.
Projects on the website include:
- Australian Museum project Wildlife Spotter enables users to identify animals in photos taken by camera traps around Australia, assisting researchers in monitoring the effects of bushfires on Australian fauna.
- South Australia’s Department for Environment and Water are using camera traps to monitor the flora and fauna recovery on Kangaroo Island.
- There are several projects which people can contribute their sightings of plants and wildlife returning to fire affected areas.
- Some projects also collect information about the intensity of fire impacts, observed fire behaviour, effects on water quality running off of fire grounds, and impacts of the smoke on people’s health.
The website was developed in collaboration between CSIRO, the Atlas of Living Australia (a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy capability) and the Australian Citizen Science Association.
The Project Finder also features a geographic filter enabling users to identify available projects in their area. It can be accessed at www.csiro.au/bushfireprojects.
More information about CSIRO’s emerging citizen science work is available at www.csiro.au/citizenscience.
From: https://www.ala.org.au/blogs-news/media-release-citizen-science-to-aid-bushfire-recovery