associate professor Dankook Univ., Republic of Korea
Background/Question/Methods
The Paridae family of birds is used as a bioindicator to determine the health of and change in urban ecosystems. Many scientists use artificial nest boxes to breed these birds and understand their life history characteristics. However, research on monitoring artificial nest boxes needs data collection during the breeding period of the target species and is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, citizen-science projects, which involve the general public in scientific research activities, are undertaken to study large-scale phenomena in ecosystems and collect vast amounts of biodiversity data. In addition, as the popularization of smartphones is making data management and sharing easier, opportunities to participate in various citizen-science projects are increasing.
In this study, we used smartphones to monitor artificial nest boxes and quantitatively identify data that can be collected from participating citizens. The study site was the city of Suwon, Republic of Korea, and citizens living nearby were recruited so that artificial nest boxes could be easily installed and activities regularly monitored. The installation and observation of artificial nest boxes were separately recorded through the mobile app, and observation was separately carried out when the boxes were used and not used by birds.
Results/Conclusions
In total, 98 citizens participated in the program, and 179 artificial nest boxes were installed in the green space of the study site. Overall, 1163 observations were recorded through the mobile app during the study period, and citizens performed an average of 6.5 observations. The number of observations per month ranged from 610 to 4, and the number of monitoring activities tended to decrease as the program lengthened. The mobile app showed that 57 (31.8%) of 179 artificial nest boxes were used by birds. However, regarding the characteristics of the life history of birds, we found a large deviation depending on the capabilities of the participating citizens.
The citizen-based large-scale artificial nest box–monitoring activity using the mobile app helped us investigate a wider area compared to a field survey performed by only scientists. Future research needs to minimize the process of monitoring artificial nest boxes and implement measures to increase the interest of participating citizens.
This work was conducted with the support of the Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through its Urban Ecological Health Promotion Technology Development Project, and funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (2019002770001).
