Browsing by Subject "citizen science"
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(2024)It has been argued that due to the specific characteristics of small islands, traditional concepts of sustainability cannot be applied to these territories. Instead, there is a need for a tailored approach. This thesis examines an approach for assessing small island sustainability, called habitability. The concept was created on the island of Kökar and then further developed by The Archipelago Institute at Åbo Akademi University. Habitability is described as a tool for developing islands and smaller communities, characterized by their presence to water. The framework states that sustainable societies must be habitable to survive, develop and keep their resilience. The habitability concepts aim to be an inclusive and transparent process, engaging the local island community and gathering local knowledge for the report. The thesis examines the habitability method across four research concepts: Citizen Science, Sustainability, Community Engagement, and Purpose. Local coaches from islands that have completed their reports were interviewed using a semi-structured interview style. Findings indicate that the method's reliance on local knowledge proves applicable and has several strengths. There were variations in sustainability discourse across sites, from a system-perspective to addressed criticism towards the concept of sustainability. In these cases, the report was proven supportive in talking more openly about sustainability issues. Community participation was mainly active, with the coaches emphasizing the importance of leadership and cooperation in driving change. The perceived purposes for the report were increasing knowledge, acting as a tool for future action and empowering islandness, aligning with proposed sustainability assessment purposes. The report's role in informing decision-making and potentially catalyzing political engagement is highlighted. Implications suggest that the habitability concept, grounded in local knowledge and community engagement, offers a rather flexible and participatory approach for assessing small island sustainability. However, challenges remain regarding data ambiguity and could possibly be improved through stakeholder training and follow-up. Further research is encouraged on participant diversity, motivations, and possible influence of project objectives on the results. In conclusion, it would be important to empower local knowledge and build collective resilience in addressing island sustainability challenges.
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(2024)Biodiversity loss is one of the pressing challenges of the 21st century, affecting ecosystems and people around the world. One of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss are invasive alien species (IAS). Prevention of the arrival and spreading is the most efficient management option for IAS, which requires consistent monitoring, to ensure early detection. Effective surveillance of IAS may be challenging to conduct by authorities and professionals alone, and alternative data sources are needed to gather up-to-date data on species distributions. Novel data gathering tools and research approaches can provide easily available digital data for researchers to use. One of these options is citizen science (CS), where citizens are participating in scientific research. CS provides a cost-effective way to gather species observations in wide geographical and temporal scales. Citizen observations of IAS are seen as a valuable data source to support professional monitoring and they have been increasingly utilized in IAS research in recent years. The aim of my thesis was to study what kind of information have citizens produced on IAS in Finland. I studied the spatial and temporal distributions, as well as the taxonomic component of citizen observations of IAS, in the Finnish Biodiversity Info Facility’s open access database. Spatial distribution of the observations was visualized in choropleth maps and the spatial clustering of the data was studied with Moran's I, kernel density estimations and standard deviational ellipses. Additionally, I studied if there were IAS observations from the Finnish Natura 2000-sites as protected areas have been noted to be vulnerable to invasions. These data were also compared to expert observations (research projects, ecological surveys), to see differences between the datasets. Results showed that citizens had observed over 30 IAS in Finland and the majority of observations (52.77%) were made in recent years (2020–2023). Observations came from all regions of Finland, with high concentrations on the southern part of the country and around highly populated municipalities. Comparisons to expert observations suggested that citizens could provide complementary information on species less observed by experts and geographically in the northern part of the country. IAS monitoring in Finland can therefore benefit from citizen observations to fill in gaps in species distributions. The citizen observations did, however, include certain limitations and biases that need to be taken into account in further research. The methods used in this study can be repeated and used to inform decisions on where to implement management actions for IAS.
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