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Thank you all for your great ideas and resources! Here's a summary of the ideas and links that came as a result of my question. - Len
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Washington State (and some other states) has a citizen monitoring network called NatureMapping. Citizens/groups can enter and retrieve data about wildlife and water quality monitoring. You can go to: http://depts.washington.edu/natmap/water/ and look at the water quality module.
In Clark County WA, the County runs a water quality monitoring program on various streams and lakes. On Vancouver Lake, water samples are collected to be tested for blue-green algae since it is such a problem. Citizen volunteers use meters to determine DO, pH, etc but send the samples to a lab to be analyzed, here's the website.
http://www.clark.wa.gov/water-resources/monitoring/lakemonitor.html
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Society for Amateur Scientists may have some useful information: www.sas.org
Association for Zoos and Aquaria might offer some insight into volunteer projects: www.aza.org
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We have put together a web site to provide exactly the kind of advice you are requesting. It is based on a NSF-sponsored conference on citizen science held last year: www.citizenscience.org, and we add to it continually.
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I have participated in citizen monitoring for harmful algal blooms in Maine and they (the state department of marine resource) trained the participants to identify the different types of algae in the water. They supplied them with field microscopes and books of pictures of the key culprits in their region to keep an eye out for. I thought it was very well done.
Monitoring the temperature, nutrients and dissolved oxygen in the lake will also give you an idea of causes (temp and nutrients) and effects (dissolved oxygen).
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Another aspect of your study may be to bring in things that can affect the growth of the algae. For instance, light pollution around lakes may prevent zooplankton, such as Daphnia, from eating surface algae. This causes algal blooms that can kill off the lakes' plants and lower water quality.
There is a citizen science project called GLOBE at Night that may be one way to monitor the light pollution in the area of the lake with the algae. For more information about this project, see www.globe.gov/GaN/.
>>> Len Adams <[log in to unmask]> 8/5/2008 2:27 PM >>>
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Hi,
We're hoping to work with volunteers to help us assess and identify algal growth in local lakes. Our project is currently very fuzzy and is being considered because citizens are concerned about the effects that certain algal blooms can have upon children and pets. Currently our efforts have been limited to a handful of informational workshops, but it seems like we could do so much more! I'm hoping that some of you that have experience with such projects might be willing to share some words of wisdom or point me in a direction where I might learn more about project structure, reasonable outcomes or help in identifying potential weaknesses of a citizen science project.
Thanks,
- Len
Len Adams
Health Promotion Specialist
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Dept.
3629 South D Street, MS:315
Tacoma, WA 98418-6813
253 798-6129
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- Stephen King
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