STEM & Citizen Science Main Menu - Preface What is Citizen Science? Citizen Science Projects Biology Earth Sciences Engineering & Computer Science Environmental Science Mathematics Physics & Astronomy

Chemistry

38642
The concept of citizen science within the field of chemistry has gradually began to unfold within the last couple of decades.  The gradual implementation of citizen science in the field is brought upon the complexities and inherent challenges that are presented in the field.  Particularly, the safety and handling of certain chemicals, the accessibility to chemicals, the financial resources necessary to provide access to to specialized equipment, and the high degree of training required to use the specialized software and or hardware in the field.  Nevertheless, despite these critical challenges, chemistry researchers have successfully utilized citizen science to design citizen chemistry projects to further their research.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Maine, and the National Park Service (NPS) Air Resources Division designed the Dragonfly Mercury Project, a citizen science driven approach to linking surface-water chemistry and landscape characteristics to biosentinels on a national scale.  Working in partnership at more than 50 national parks across the United States, and with citizen scientists as key participants in data collection, to develop dragonfly nymphs as biosentinels for mercury in aquatic food webs. To validate the use of these biosentinels, and gain a better understanding of the connection between biotic and abiotic pools of mercury, this project also includes collection of landscape data and surface-water chemistry including mercury, methylmercury, pH, sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon and sediment mercury concentration.



  
Biochemistry

This page has paths:

  1. Citizen Science Projects Alvaro Quezada