AppEAR: Una aplicación móvil de ciencia ciudadana para mapear la calidad de los hábitats acuáticos continentales

Autores/as

  • Joaquin Cochero Instituto de Limnología “Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet” - Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CONICET. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3957-6819

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.18.28.2.0.686

Resumen

La ciencia ciudadana, o ciencia participativa, es el proceso a través del cual el público en general contribuye activamente a proyectos científcos. En las últimas décadas, los proyectos de ciencia ciudadana proliferaron gracias a Internet y están demostrando ser muy útiles para complementar los monitoreos ambientales “tradicionales”. AppEAR (“app” para la Evaluación de Ambientes Ribereños) tiene como objetivo contribuir al mapeo del estado de los ambientes acuáticos continentales, con énfasis en el hábitat de sus riberas y costas, dentro de un marco de ciencia ciudadana colaborativa. Consiste en una aplicación móvil gratuita que permite a los usuarios evaluar el hábitat de ríos, arroyos, lagos y estuarios desde dispositivos móviles, a través de cuestionarios y fotografías. La aplicación también incluye material educativo y lúdico para diferentes edades, relacionado con las características y el cuidado de los ecosistemas acuáticos de aguas continentales. En su primer año, el proyecto AppEAR incorporó ~460 usuarios que aportaron información sobre 131 sitios muestreados en todo el país. A través de sus contribuciones, los ciudadanos científcos reconocieron las problemáticas ambientales más comunes, que incluyen el uso del suelo que rodea al sitio, la calidad de la vegetación de ribera y la presencia de basura. Aunque es importante conocer y reconocer las limitaciones del uso de herramientas digitales masivas para recolectar datos con fnes científcos, se las debe entender como un complemento de las técnicas tradicionales de monitoreo, que pueden enriquecer las distintas etapas de los estudios de investigación.

https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.18.28.2.0.686

Citas

Anbumozhi, V., J. Radhakrishnan, and E. Yamaji. 2005. Impact of riparian buffer zones on water quality and associated management considerations. Ecological Engineering 24:517-523.

Belmar, O., D. Bruno, F. Martínez-Capel, J. Barquín, and J. Velasco. 2013. Effects of flow regime alteration on fluvial habitats and riparian quality in a semiarid Mediterranean basin. Ecological Indicators 30:52-64.

Bowser, A., D. Hansen, J. Preece, Y. He, C. Boston, and J. Hammock. 2014. Gamifying citizen science. Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work and social computing - CSCW Companion 14:137-140.

Burke, J., D. Estrin, M. Hansen, A. Parker, N. Ramanathan, S. Reddy, and M. B. Srivastava. 2006. Participatory Sensing.

Cardinale, B. J., M. A. Palmer, C. M. Swan, S. Brooks, and L. Poff. 2010. The Influence of Substrate Heterogeneity on Biofilm Metabolism in a Stream. America 83:412-422.

Carpenter, S. R., V. H. S. N. F. Caraco, D. L. Correll, R. W. Howarth, A. N. Sharpley, N. F. Caracco, D. L. Correll, R. W. Howarth, A. N. Sharpley, and V. H. Smith. 1998. Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. Ecological Applications 8:559-568.

Ceccaroni, L., and J. Piera. 2017. Analyzing the Role of Citizen Science in Modern Research.

Cochero, J., A. Cortelezzi, A. S. Tarda, and N. Gómez. 2016. An index to evaluate the fluvial habitat degradation in lowland urban streams. Ecological Indicators 71.

Cohn, J. P. 2008. Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research? BioScience 58:192-197.

Conrad, C. C., and K. G. Hilchey. 2011. A review of citizen science and community-based environmental monitoring: Issues and opportunities. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 176:273-291.

Conrad, C. T., and T. Daoust. 2008. Community-Based Monitoring Frameworks: Increasing the Effectiveness of Environmental Stewardship. Environmental Management 41:358-366.

Cooper, C. B., J. Dickinson, T. Phillips, and R. Bonney. 2007. Citizen science as a tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecology and Society 12.

Le Coz, J., A. Patalano, D. Collins, N. F. Guillén, C. M. García, G. M. Smart, J. Bind, A. Chiaverini, R. Le Boursicaud, G. Dramais, and I. Braud. 2016. Crowdsourced data for flood hydrology: Feedback from recent citizen science projects in Argentina, France and New Zealand. Journal of Hydrology 541:766-777.

Daniels, R. B., and J. W. Gilliam. 1996. Sediment and Chemical Load Reduction by Grass and Riparian Filters. Soil Science Society of America Journal 60:246.

Danielsen, F., N. D. Burgess, P. M. Jensen, and K. Pirhofer-Walzl. 2010. Environmental monitoring: The scale and speed of implementation varies according to the degree of peoples involvement. Journal of Applied Ecology 47:1166-1168.

Dawson, F. H., and U. Kern-Hansen. 1979. The Effect of Natural and Artificial Shade on the Macrophytes of Lowland Streams and the Use of Shade as a Management Technique. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie 64:437-455.

Dickinson, J. L., B. Zuckerberg, and D. N. Bonter. 2010. Citizen Science as an Ecological Research Tool: Challenges and Benefits. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 41:149-172.

Dris, R., H. Imhof, W. Sánchez, J. Gasperi, F. Galgani, B. Tassin, and C. Laforsch. 2015. Beyond the ocean: contamination of freshwater ecosystems with (micro-)plastic particles. Environmental Chemistry 12:539.

Fitzpatrick, M. C., E. L. Preisser, A. M. Ellison, and J. S. Elkinton. 2009. Observer bias and the detection of low-density populations. Ecological Applications 19:1673-1679.

Francis, R. A., and S. P. G. Hoggart. 2009. Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London. Urban Ecosystems 12:465-485.

Gómez, N., and J. Cochero. 2013. An index to assess the habitat quality in Southern Coastal Fringe of the Río de la Plata and its relations with other environmental indicators. Ecologia Austral 23.

González, M., and D. Tánago. 2011. Riparian Quality Index (RQI): A methodology for characterising and assessing the environmental conditions of riparian zones 29:235-254.

Haklay, M. 2015. Citizen Science and Policy: A European Perspective. Common Labs. Case Study Series 4:76.

Hupp, C. R. 1992. Riparian Vegetation Recovery Patterns Following Stream Channelization: A Geomorphic Perspective. Ecology 73:1209-1226.

Irwin, A. 1995. Citizen science: A study of people, expertise and sustainable development. Page Routledge.

Irwin, A. 2001. Constructing the scientific citizen: science and democracy in the biosciences. Public Understand Sci 10.

Kapp, K. M. 2012. The gamification of learning and instruction : game-based methods and strategies for training and education. Pfeiffer.

Klemann-Junior, L., M. A. Villegas Vallejos, P. Scherer-Neto, and J. R. S. Vitule. 2017. Traditional scientific data vs. uncoordinated citizen science effort: A review of the current status and comparison of data on avifauna in Southern Brazil. PloS one 12:e0188819.

Kruger, L. E., and M. A. Shannon. 2000. Getting to Know Ourselves and Our Places Through Participation in Civic Social Assessment. Society and Natural Resources 13:461-478.

Lake, P. S., M. A. Palmer, P. Biro, J. Cole, A. P. Covich, C. Dahm, J. Gibert, W. Goedkoop, K. Martens, and J. Verhoeven. 2000. Global change and the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems: Impacts on linkages between above-sediment and sediment biota. BioScience 50:1099-1107.

Langhans, S. D., S. D. Tiegs, M. O. Gessner, and K. Tockner. 2008. Leaf-decomposition heterogeneity across a riverine floodplain mosaic. Aquatic Sciences 70:337-346.

Lavado Contador, J. F. 2005. Adaptive management, monitoring, and the ecological sustainability of a thermal-polluted water ecosystem: a case in SW Spain. Environmental monitoring and assessment 104:19-35.

Lepczyk, C. A., O. D. Boyle, T. L. Vargo, P. Gould, R. Jordan, L. Liebenberg, S. Masi, W. P. Mueller, M. D. Prysby, and H. Vaughan. 2009. Symposium 18: Citizen Science in Ecology: the Intersection of Research and Education. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 90:308-317.

Liddle, M. J., and H. R. A. Scorgie. 1980. The effects of recreation on freshwater plants and animals: A review. Biological Conservation 17:183-206.

Malmqvist, B., and S. Rundle. 2002. Threats to the running water ecosystems of the world. Environmental Conservation 29:134-153.

Milne, R., S. Rosolen, G. Whitelaw, and L. Bennett. 2006. Multi-party monitoring in Ontario: Challenges and emerging solutions. Environments 34:11-23

Miretzky, P., A. Saralegui, and A. F. Cirelli. 2004. Aquatic macrophytes potential for the simultaneous removal of heavy metals (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Chemosphere 57:997-1005.

Mishra, V. K., and B. D. Tripathi. 2008. Concurrent removal and accumulation of heavy metals by the three aquatic macrophytes. Bioresource Technology 99:7091-7097.

NABCI Canada. 2016. State of North America’s birds.

Nürnberg, G. K. 1996. Trophic State of Clear and Colored, Soft- and Hardwater Lakes with Special Consideration of Nutrients, Anoxia, Phytoplankton and Fish. Lake and Reservoir Management 12:432-447.

Steelink, C. 1977. Humates and Other Natural Organic Substances in the Aquatic Environment. Journal of Chemical Education 54:599-603.

Steinberg, C. 2013. Ecology of humic substances in freshwaters : determinants from geochemistry to ecological niches. Springer Science and Business Media.

Strayer, D. L. 2006. Challenges for freshwater invertebrate conservation. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 25:271-287.

Sullivan, B. L., T. Phillips, A. A. Dayer, C. L. Wood, A. Farnsworth, M. J. Iliff, I. J. Davies, A. Wiggins, D. Fink, W. M. Hochachka, A. D. Rodewald, K. V. Rosenberg, R. Bonney, and S. Kelling. 2017. Using open access observational data for conservation action: A case study for birds. Biological Conservation 208:5-14.

Sullivan, B. L., C. L. Wood, M. J. Iliff, R. E. Bonney, D. Fink, and S. Kelling. 2009. eBird: A citizen-based bird observation network in the biological sciences. Biological Conservation 142:2282-2292.

Tabacchi, E., L. Lambs, H. Guilloy, A.-M. Planty-Tabacchi, E. Muller, and H. Décamps. 2000a. Impacts of riparian vegetation on hydrological processes. Hydrological Processes 14:2959-2976.

Tabacchi, E., L. Lambs, H. Guilloy, A.-M. Planty-Tabacchi, E. Muller, and H. Décamps. 2000b. Impacts of riparian vegetation on hydrological processes. Hydrological Processes 14:2959-2976.

Theobald, E. J., A. K. Ettinger, H. K. Burgess, L. B. DeBey, N. R. Schmidt, H. E. Froehlich, C. Wagner, J. HilleRisLambers, J. Tewksbury, M. A. Harsch, and J. K. Parrish. 2015. Global change and local solutions: Tapping the unrealized potential of citizen science for biodiversity research. Biological Conservation 181:236-244.

Tulloch, A. I. T., H. P. Possingham, L. N. Joseph, J. Szabo, and T. G. Martin. 2013. Realising the full potential of citizen science monitoring programs. Biological Conservation 165:128-138.

US EPA. 1997. Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual. Page (US EPA, ed.). URL: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/stream.pdf.

Wagner, M., C. Scherer, D. Alvarez-Muñoz, N. Brennholt, X. Bourrain, S. Buchinger, E. Fries, C. Grosbois, J. Klasmeier, T. Marti, S. Rodriguez-Mozaz, R. Urbatzka, A. D. Vethaak, M. Winther-Nielsen, and G. Reifferscheid. 2014. Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: what we know and what we need to know. Environmental Sciences Europe 26:12.

Whitelaw, G., H. Vaughan, B. Craig, and D. Atkinson. 2003. Establishing the Canadian Community Monitoring Network. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 88:409-418.

AppEAR: Una aplicación móvil de ciencia ciudadana para mapear la calidad de los hábitats acuáticos continentales

Descargas

Publicado

2018-08-15

Cómo citar

Cochero, J. (2018). AppEAR: Una aplicación móvil de ciencia ciudadana para mapear la calidad de los hábitats acuáticos continentales. Ecología Austral, 28(2), 467–479. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.18.28.2.0.686

Número

Sección

Comunicaciones breves