MyOSD 2014: Evaluating Oceanographic Measurements Contributed by Citizen Scientists in Support of Ocean Sampling Day †
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Authors:
Julia Schnetzer1,2,
Anna Kopf1,2,
Matthew J. Bietz3,
Pier Luigi Buttigieg4,
Antonio Fernandez-Guerra2,5,
Aleksandar Pop Ristov6,
Frank Oliver Glöckner1,2,
Renzo Kottmann2,*
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Published 01 March 2016
- ©2016 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology.
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[open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
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Supplemental materials available at
http://jmbe.asm.org - *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Celsiusstrasse.1, Bremen, D-28359, Germany. Phone: 0049/4212028974. E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract:
The first Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) took place on June 21, 2014. In a coordinated effort, an internationally distributed group of scientists collected samples from marine surface waters in order to study microbial diversity on a single day with global granularity. Concurrently, citizen scientists enriched the OSD initiative through the MyOSD project, providing additional oceanographic measurements crucial to the contextualization of microbial diversity. Clear protocols, a user-friendly smartphone application, and an online web-form guided citizens in accurate data acquisition, promoting quality submissions to the project’s information system. To evaluate the coverage and quality of MyOSD data submissions, we compared the sea surface temperature measurements acquired through OSD, MyOSD, and automatic in situ systems and satellite measurements. Our results show that the quality of citizen-science measurements was comparable to that of scientific measurements. As 79% of MyOSD measurements were conducted in geographic areas not covered by automatic in situ or satellite measurement, citizen scientists contributed significantly to worldwide oceanographic data gathering. Furthermore, survey results indicate that participation in MyOSD made citizens feel more engaged in ocean issues and may have increased their environmental awareness and ocean literacy.
References & Citations
Supplemental Material
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Appendix 1: Answers to the MyOSD questionnaire
Appendix 2: MyOSD data used to locate corresponding SST data pairs with in situ measurement systems and satellite measurements
Appendix 3: OSD data used to locate corresponding SST data pairs with satellite measurements
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Abstract:
The first Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) took place on June 21, 2014. In a coordinated effort, an internationally distributed group of scientists collected samples from marine surface waters in order to study microbial diversity on a single day with global granularity. Concurrently, citizen scientists enriched the OSD initiative through the MyOSD project, providing additional oceanographic measurements crucial to the contextualization of microbial diversity. Clear protocols, a user-friendly smartphone application, and an online web-form guided citizens in accurate data acquisition, promoting quality submissions to the project’s information system. To evaluate the coverage and quality of MyOSD data submissions, we compared the sea surface temperature measurements acquired through OSD, MyOSD, and automatic in situ systems and satellite measurements. Our results show that the quality of citizen-science measurements was comparable to that of scientific measurements. As 79% of MyOSD measurements were conducted in geographic areas not covered by automatic in situ or satellite measurement, citizen scientists contributed significantly to worldwide oceanographic data gathering. Furthermore, survey results indicate that participation in MyOSD made citizens feel more engaged in ocean issues and may have increased their environmental awareness and ocean literacy.

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Author and Article Information
-
Published 01 March 2016
- ©2016 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology.
-
[open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
-
Supplemental materials available at
http://jmbe.asm.org - *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Celsiusstrasse.1, Bremen, D-28359, Germany. Phone: 0049/4212028974. E-mail: [email protected].
Figures
MyOSD in situ sea surface temperature (SST) measurements (filled circle) at a depth of 0–1 meters (A) and 0–5 meters (B). The corresponding Aqua satellite SSTs are shown as hollow squares. The error bars represent the corresponding RMSE calculated from OSD measurements. SST = sea surface temperature; RMSE = root-mean-square error; OSD = Ocean Sampling Day.

Click to view
FIGURE 1
MyOSD in situ sea surface temperature (SST) measurements (filled circle) at a depth of 0–1 meters (A) and 0–5 meters (B). The corresponding Aqua satellite SSTs are shown as hollow squares. The error bars represent the corresponding RMSE calculated from OSD measurements. SST = sea surface temperature; RMSE = root-mean-square error; OSD = Ocean Sampling Day.
MyOSD in situ sea surface temperature (SST) measurements (filled circle) at a depth of 0–1 meters (C) and 0–5 meters (D). The corresponding Terra satellite SSTs are shown as hollow squares. The error bars represent the corresponding RMSE calculated from OSD measurements. SST = sea surface temperature; RMSE = root-mean-square error; OSD = Ocean Sampling Day.

Click to view
FIGURE 2
MyOSD in situ sea surface temperature (SST) measurements (filled circle) at a depth of 0–1 meters (C) and 0–5 meters (D). The corresponding Terra satellite SSTs are shown as hollow squares. The error bars represent the corresponding RMSE calculated from OSD measurements. SST = sea surface temperature; RMSE = root-mean-square error; OSD = Ocean Sampling Day.