Ocean & Water

The National Severe Storms Laboratory needs YOUR help with a research project!

If you live in the area shown on the map, the Precipitation Identification Near the Ground project (PING) wants YOU to watch and report on precipitation type.

PING is looking for young, old, and in-between volunteers to make observations—teachers, classes and families too! We have collected tens of thousands of observations since 2006, already making PING successful because of your help.

PING volunteers can spend a little or a lot of time making observations. The basic idea is simple: the National Severe Storms Laboratory will collect radar data from NEXRAD radars in your area during storm events, and compare that data with YOUR observations.

Why? Because the radars cannot see close to the ground, we need YOU to tell us what is happening. Scientists will compare your report with what the radar has detected, and develop new radar technologies and techniques to determine what kind of precipitation—such as snow, soft hail, hard hail, or rain—is falling where.

CyberTracker Conservation is a non-profit organisation that promotes the vision of a Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Network. Our ultimate vision is that smart phone users worldwide will use CyberTracker to capture observations on a daily basis.

CyberTracker is the most efficient method of gps field data collection. You can use CyberTracker on a Smartphone or handheld computer to record any type of observation. CyberTracker, which requires no programming skills, allows you to customize an Application for your own data collection needs.

The Marine Debris Tracker mobile application allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. Data you submit is available to download online and you also have access to mapping all data, worldwide. Marine Debris Tracker is a joint partnership of the NOAA Marine Debris Division and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI), located within the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia.

Help the Large Pelagics Research Center improve scientific understanding of large pelagic species by catching, measuring and releasing juvenile bluefin with conventional “spaghetti”-ID tags.

The LPRC initiated its Tag A Tiny program in 2006 to study the annual migration paths and habitat use of juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna.

As of 2012, 1258 recreational fishermen have helped LPRC to tag 1,645 bluefin, mostly juveniles from 1-4 years old, and some “medium” size fish, nearing 70 inches. All of the records are entered into the Billfish Foundation, NMFS, and ICCAT databases.

The iSeeChange Almanac is a socially networked weather Almanac for communities to collectively journal their climate experiences -- their observations, feelings, questions, and decisions --- against near-real time climate information.

Founded in April 2012 in Western Colorado, iSeeChange is a public radio and media experiment that fosters multimedia conversations between citizens and scientists about how seasonal weather and climate extremes affect daily American life. From the earliest spring recorded in the history of the United States, a landmark wildfire season, nationwide droughts, and weather records breaking everyday, climate affects every citizen and binds communities together.

iSeeChange is produced by Julia Kumari Drapkin in Western Colorado at KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio as a part of Localore, a nationwide production of AIR in collaboration with Zeega, with principal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We just launched the Almanac this week in Western Colorado. Stay tuned for more locations in the coming year!

Help track the health and abundance of the mid-Atlantic scallop fishery!

Researchers at the University of Delaware have developed a new robot-based approach to surveying marine life the ocean floor. They use Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which can navigate underwater without direct human control, to take photos of marine life in its natural habitat.

By becoming a SubseaObserver you'll play a roll in ocean conservation by helping organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) make better decisions about how to manage the scallop fishery now and for future generations.

As a SubseaObserver you can name your own virtual AUV and choose what part of the mid-Atlantic you'd like to explore.

SubseaObservers also includes information about scallop biology, how the fishery is managed, how AUVs work and where they're used.

Digital Fisher needs volunteers to help analyze deep-sea videos -- 15 seconds at a time. Volunteers watch a short video of the ocean and click on a simple response.

The NEPTUNE Canada observatory has recorded thousands of hours of video from underwater cameras, but there is currently no software sophisticated enough to automatically identify a wide variety of animals. This is where you come in!

With no training at all, you'll be able to help scientists unveil the mechanisms that shape the animal communities of the ocean. You'll help scientists answer fundamental questions about biodiversity, species behavior, and the impact of various environmental factors.

IceWatch USA gives you the opportunity to help scientists study how our climate is changing. With as little as 10 minutes, you can report information that will help to analyze how our climate will change in different regions of the United States and how our ecosystems are reacting to the change.

Due to the increased emissions of greenhouse gases, among other factors, our climate is changing. Accurately recording and analyzing "ice on" and "ice off" events (also known as "ice phenology"), as well as other factors like snow depth, air temperature, and wildlife observations, offers a practical way to learn how climate change affects our environment. Even if you live in a southern state that doesn't experience ice, your winter observations of air temperature, precipitation, and wildlife are still important for the big picture.

IceWatch USA needs your help, and becoming an IceWatcher is very easy. All you need to do is:

1. Choose a location to observe over the winter, such as a nearby lake, bay, or river.
2. Record and report your observations.

Your information will be entered into a database, compared to other reports, and shared with interested scientists. IceWatch USA is also a proud partner of the National Phenology Network.

Get started today!

CoCoRaHS, The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages who measure and report precipitation. By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive website, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications.

Each time a rain, hail, or snow storm occurs, volunteers take measurements of precipitation from their registered locations (reports of 'zero' precipitation are encouraged too!). The reports are submitted to the website and are immediately available for viewing. It's educational, but moreover, fun! Just wait until you start comparing how much rain fell in your backyard vs. your neighbor!

The data are used by the National Weather Service, meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities, insurance adjusters, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor and recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community.

Great Lakes Passive Sampling is a research project being conducted by the Lohmann Lab at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Polyethylene passive samplers are essentially just pieces of plastic that can absorb hydrophobic contaminants from the air or water. To obtain data in many different areas, we depend on a network of volunteers to deploy, recover, and return these samplers to us.

Participating is simple: we can send samplers and other supplies necessary to set up the samplers. You record the date and location where you set up your sampler, and then leave it for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, you take down the sampler and send it back to us, and we analyze it to see what's present in the air or water at your site.

By deploying polyethylene passive samplers in the water and air throughout the Lake Ontario and Lake Erie region, we can measure levels of persistent hydrophobic organic pollutants and analyze how the amounts of these chemicals change in different locations.

You are walking along the beach on a sunny spring day. But what is that? Something is moving slowly out of the water. It looks like a large crab, covered in barnacles and mussels. Creepy? Ugly? No, its home! At least for all those critters that live on Horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs have been around for more than 250 million years, unimpressed by dinosaurs and ice ages.

Since then, Horseshoe crabs have played a key role in coastal ecosystems: the eggs are eaten by shore birds, juveniles are food for sea turtles, and adults aerate the ocean floor through their digging activity.

We believe Horseshoe crabs serve another important function: as substrate for many invertebrate species such as mussels, barnacles and snails. Many marine species require hard substrates to live on, and such substrates are historically rare on the predominantly sandy beaches of the Eastern US.
In more recent times, docks and boats may offer new opportunities for intertidal species - but what about animals that do not like the tidal influence? Are there even species living on Horseshoe crabs that we have not discovered yet?

Help us decipher who lives on Horseshoe crabs! Take clear pictures of Horseshoe crabs and their when you see them on the beach, and send them to us. Just let us know when and where you saw the crab. That's it.

In return, we will post the best pictures on our website and explain every epibiont that you discovered on the Horseshoe crab. New species will be featured on the site, and we would like to name our most successful discoverers.

With your help, we will be able to address the following questions:
Which region has the highest diversity of Horseshoe crab epibionts? When are the crabs found the most? The least?
Moreover, we will build a valuable resource for school classes, beach walkers and everybody else who ever wanted to know: What is that thing sitting on this Horseshoe crab?

Horseshoe crabs come to the beaches to mate and lay eggs when the tides are highest. This happens at full and new moons. This means you will see Horseshoe crabs most likely around the following dates:
Thursday, April 25 (Full Moon)
Friday, May 10 (New Moon)
Saturday, May 25 (Full Moon)
Saturday, June 8 (New Moon)
Sunday, June 23 (Full Moon)
Saturday. July 6 (New Moon)
Monday, July 22 (Full Moon)

Redmap (Range Extension Database and Mapping Project) is a citizen science project that invites members of the community to spot marine species that are outside of their usual range (or distribution) at various points around Australia. In collecting this information Redmap is generating a database of "out of range" sightings to assess which species are shifting their ranges and whether these shifts are consistent with warming waters. Redmap is hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Young people and adults collect information on stream health and post biological, chemical and physical data, photos and videos on an interactive map. This provides information to the public, to scientists and to conservation groups about local water quality. The Creek Freaks website includes data forms and activity guides to get started monitoring aquatic macroinvertebrates (stream insects and crustaceans), water chemistry, and to take visual observations and physical measurements of the stream and streamside vegetation.

Yelkouan Shearwater Project aims at determining the seasonal changes in the movements and numbers of globally threatened Puffinus yelkouan in the Marmara Sea.

It is the first research project focusing on the populations of this species passing through two important Turkish straits in the Marmara Sea. The project will provide more accurate information on the knowledge obtained by the previous research in the Bosphorus and the movement patterns of endemic Yelkouan Shearwaters will be identified through the extended study area to better understand the whole picture in the Mediterranean Basin and to take part in the global conservation of this species.

Yelkouan Shearwater Project is funded by Rufford Small Grants.

Join seafarers in the global scientific experiment to study marine phytoplankton.

The phytoplankton underpin the marine food chain, so we need to know as much about them as possible. To participate in this project, you'll need to create a Secchi Disk, a tool that measures water turbidity, and use the free iPhone or Android ‘Secchi’ application.

You can take a Secchi Disk reading as often as you wish, every day, once a week, twice a month, or just occasionally. The data you collect will help scientists around the world to understand the phytoplankton.

Join in and help make this the world’s largest public marine biological study.

Where are the invasive species in Maine? Where aren’t they? Students, educators, citizens, and scientists are working together to find out.

As part of the Vital Signs community you can help steward the 32,000 miles of rivers and streams, 6,000 lakes and ponds, 5,000 miles of coastline, and 17 million acres of forest that are threatened by invasive species.

Together we are using scientific tools and habits of mind to look for native and invasive species in local habitats. We are sharing what we find and do not find online. We are contributing to a greater understanding of our shared environment.

The SeaBC Sea Bird Count is a citizen science project organized by a volunteer group of long-distance birding sailors from around the world. The idea of a “SeaBC” was inspired by popular, long-standing land-based counts such as Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and the Census Bird Count (CBC) in the U.K.

Our mission is to benefit seabird conservation by mobilizing the worldwide boating community to document ocean bird sightings, providing critical and seldom-recorded data on seabird abundance and distribution and on ocean migration routes. SeaBC sea bird count data goes to Cornell University’s eBird database, where boaters’ sightings become a resource for scientists worldwide.

Seabird knowledge is described as a frontier science: Last year a new seabird species was discovered and a species believed to be extinct was sighted. For some species, breeding or wintering areas remain unknown. This lack of knowledge is troubling given that BirdLife International estimates one-third of seabirds are now vulnerable or globally endangered due to threats from predators on nesting grounds, some fisheries, and plastics.

Marine Metre Squared (MM2) is an easy way to survey the intertidal community. Monitor a 1m x 1m square patch of your local rocky shore once every season by recording the animals and plants that live there.

Take fun in special scientific studies and fun educational challenges such as hunting for pest species, looking for evidence of animals breeding, and measuring seaweed growth.

Help others identify their new finds with the online forum. Submit your own questions and encourage others around New Zealand to take part.

The perfect project for families looking for holiday activities, schools and community groups looking for ways to engage with and improve their local environments.

The project website and database will be launched during Seaweek (2 - 10 March 2013).

Prepare to get wet and muddy for science! We're looking for citizen scientists in North Carolina to help us learn more about the large, charismatic aquatic insects known as water sticks.

Simply find a body of water in your area, follow the protocol, and submit your data! We'll teach you how to identify the water sticks you find and how to cheaply build any equipment you don't already have (you'll have most of it). And if you don't find anything in the body of water you choose, no problem! Every bit of information helps and anything you can share is useful. With YOUR help, we can discover more about the seasonality, habitat preferences, and distribution of water sticks - together!

The River Watch Program is a voluntary asks pilots to report observed river ice conditions. Pilots are asked for reports on what they see along their normal route of flight and at their standard flight level. The purpose of the program is to assist the National Weather Service in providing accurate forecasts, warnings, and navigation information.

The National Weather Service is responsible for monitoring the ice breakup process to identify the potential for flooding due to ice jams. Alaskan rivers are also heavily used for transportation and knowledge of the status of the breakup process is useful for knowing when it is safe to use boats. Reports from observers can significantly increase the information available for these purposes.

Beginning November 14 through the end of the year, students ages 13-18 around the globe are invited to participate in “Data Detectives”, an engaging web experience to learn about how Big Data will impact their lives and the world they will be inheriting.

Data Detectives is the student component of the Human Face of Big Data, a global crowdsourced project conceived by “Day in Life” series creator Rick Smolan. It aims to help people better visualize the ways big data is shaping our future on this planet, and includes a smartphone app, worldwide events, a large format illustrated book with an interactive iPad app, and a documentary.

The Data Detectives initiative invites students to answer questions, explore fascinating examples of how Big Data is changing their world, interact with real-time data and see how other students around the globe are impacted in similar and different ways.

Utah Water Watch (UWW) is a water quality education and data collection program that seeks to increase awareness about the importance of water quality and promote stewardship of Utah’s aquatic resources.

UWW is a partnership between USU Water Quality Extension and the Utah Division of Water Quality that creates a way for the public to help in monitoring Utah’s lakes and streams. This is a free program for volunteers of all ages to monitor water quality once a month and report the data to water managers.

Help scientists recover Arctic and worldwide weather observations made by United States’ ships since the mid-19th century.

These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and will improve our knowledge of past environmental conditions. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and tell the stories of the people on board.

Hurricane Sandy is currently moving northward along the East coast of the USA (as of 10/29/12), and is expected to collide with a cold front and move inland across the northeastern USA during the next several days. On Friday, WaterIsotopes initiated a call for assistance in collecting samples of precipitation (both rain and snow) associated with the passage of this system.

The goal is to develop an unprecedented spatial and temporal dataset documenting the isotopic composition of rainwater (and snow) associated with this major storm system. These data will tell us about water sources and cycling within the storm system.

We're hoping to see evidence for changes in water sources to the storm as it first collides with the approaching cold front and then leaves the ocean to traverse the NE USA.

ZooTeach is a website where teachers and educators can share high quality lesson plans and resources that complement the Zooniverse citizen science projects. Citizen science offers a unique opportunity for any person, of any age, of any background to get involved and make a contribution to cutting edge science. Here at Zooniverse headquarters we believe that getting students involved in citizen science offers educators a free, easily accesible and inspiring opportunity to bring real science into the classroom.

Join thousands of people around the world in a conversation about World Wide Views on Biodiversity. What do you think about the way biodiversity is managed? How do you think we should solve the problem of biodiversity loss? Tell us – and see what others are saying!

On Saturday, September 15, people in over 30 countries joined together for a day of deliberations about these issues. There is still time to add your voice – use the materials on the project's site to learn more about the issue of biodiversity, and then chime in with your ideas. Strike up a conversation with your friends to help inform your decision, or leave a comment to start a discussion with others.

Biodiversity is the species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity in an area, sometimes including associated components such as landscape features or climate. Still feel like you need to know more? You can dive deep into the issues with information from some of the National Research Council’s recent and historic work on the topic. Or skip ahead to the booklet, which all participants in the World Wide Views on Biodiversity deliberations received.
Charge:

Vote to add your voice to the conversation.

This DIY mapping tool was the first developed by Public Lab, as part of the Grassroots Mapping project. Citizens use helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high resolution “satellite” maps of areas such as in the Gulf Coast and Gowanus Canal. Although this tool has been in use for two years, components of the kit -- kite and balloon design, the rig, the camera -- continue to evolve as they are adopted in new places and adapted for new purposes. Besides the aerial mapping tools, Public Lab has also developed MapKnitter.org, an online tool for stitching aerial images into maps.

Infrared photography can help in assessing plant health, and has been used on satellites and planes for agricultural and ecological assessment primarily by vineyards, large farms and large-scale (read: expensive) research projects. By creating and open-sourcing a low-cost near-infrared camera and working with wetlands advocates, farmers and environmental activists, the Public Lab community has begun to explore grassroots uses for this powerful analytic technique.

The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance invites boaters, fishermen, and divers to report their sightings and send in their photos of basking sharks. Your data will help scientists monitor the local population and better understand their migration patterns.

The Shark Observation Network invites Southern California divers to report sightings and submit their photos and videos of Sevengill Sharks, a species whose numbers are seemingly on the rise in the waters off San Diego. Your data will help scientists conduct a long-term study of the population and better understand the Sevengill's migration patterns.

We need your help to better understand dragonfly migration in North America. Although it spans three countries and has been documented since the 1880s, North American dragonfly migration is still poorly understood, and much remains to be learned about migratory cues, flight pathways, and the southern limits of overwintering grounds. Become part of an international network of citizen scientists and help monitor the spring and fall movements of the 5 main migratory species in North America, or report on these species throughout the year at a pond or wetland of your choice.

Our volunteers monitor Atlantic coast beaches from Maine to Florida documenting seabird mortality events on any scale, from a single dead gull, to a mass die-off of shearwaters.
The data collected serves as baseline for comparison after oil spills or major disease outbreaks, and as a baseline resource on the impacts of offshore development projects (e.g. oil drilling or wind) on seabird populations.

What should we do about climate change?

Somehow we have to answer this question. You can help. The Climate CoLab seeks to harness the collective intelligence of contributors from all over the world to develop solutions to the problem of global climate change.

In this online global forum, people can create, analyze and select detailed proposals outlining the actions they believe should be taken to address climate change.

Housed within the Department of Geography at the Saint Mary's University campus, this network will serve as a location that members of the community can contact when they have a question about:

How to monitor/measure the environmental quality of the ecosystems in their community (based on Environment Canada's Ecological Monitoring and Assessment (EMAN) Protocols.

How to "access" scientific and social scientific data related to the environment.

How to use this data and utilize technology as a tool to further their understanding of their communities.

World Community Grid's mission is to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity. From your own computer, you can contribute to important scientific research!

World Community Grid uses technology called BOINC that allows you to donate your computer's idle time and energy to collect and pool data for projects like computing for clean water, finding the cure of dengue fever, or fighting childhood cancer.

All results will be in the public domain and made public to the global research community.

Adventurers and Scientist for Conservation is a unique initiative that helps create working reationships between scientists and adventure athletes to perform some truly unique research. Projects have been created all over the world and by groups of all kinds. The project even provides training for adventurers to become adventure-scientists.

The exciting benefits from these projects are numerous. Adventurers benefit by contributing to meaningful conservation research in areas that they visit. Additionally, scientists benefit from attaining inexpensive data that would have been previously hard or impossible to acquire. By no means, however are these adventure research projects limited to avid adventurers and professional scientists. Programs can be created anywhere for any age group. The goal of the project is to train and inspire the next generation of citizen scientists. In short, Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation will help you create a project, recruit participants, and start an Adventure Science project near you!

The Brook Trout Pond Survey Project is an effort to recruit volunteers to identify previously-undocumented wild brook trout populations in remote Maine ponds.

Maine brook trout are a special resource, and we need to know where they are before we can protect and manage them appropriately. The information collected by volunteer anglers will help inform future fisheries management decisions.

The Brook Trout Pond Survey Project is a collaborative effort by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Council of Trout Unlimited, and Maine Audubon.

The Illinois RiverWatch program engages citizen science volunteers in stewardship, education, and science for Illinois rivers. By becoming a trained volunteer, you can help collect a variety of quality ensured data and help contribute to statewide biological monitoring efforts. There are over 1,500 volunteers already monitoring streams in the state, but there are still more streams waiting to be claimed!

The training process involves attending a workshop that will help train volunteers in data collection and give you all the tools you need to monitor a stream of your choice. Soon, you will be a true citizen scientist and take part in collaborative efforts to keep Illinois’ streams clean and beautiful, sharing your data with other organizations, state agencies, and private interests.

River otters are ideal ambassadors for habitat preservation and restoration since they are charismatic carnivores reliant on healthy watersheds to thrive. The River Otter Ecology Project strives to build understanding and shed light on the conservation status and ecology of the North American river otter and the ecosystems they inhabit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our work will serve to fill key gaps in the biology and ecology of these elusive but important aquatic carnivores while also directly engaging the public in their conservation through field-research, environmental education and strategic restoration partnerships.

Osprey Watch is a project of the Center for Conservation Biology for birdwatchers across the nation to help identify osprey nests and observe osprey behavior. The project hopes to acquire data across a large enough spatial scale in order to address three pressing issues associated with aquatic ecosystems: climate change, depletion of fish stocks, and environmental contaminants. Ospreys are great indicators of the health of aquatic ecosystems as they are sensitive to small changes in fish populations and water quality.

OspreyWatch has almost 500 Osprey Watchers monitoring almost 800 nests across the nation and in Europe. Ospreys are incredible birds of prey and viewing them in the wild can be an amazing experience. And it may be easier than you think. Many osprey nest in man made objects and might even be right outside your backdoor.

So grab a camera, some binoculars, and locate a nest near you to add photos and descriptions to OspreyWatch’s interactive map. You can even find other nests in your area and help monitor and add updates to nesting activity.

The Secchi Dip-In is an annual event in which volunteers contribute to our understanding of water quality in the world.

Individuals in volunteer monitoring programs take a transparency measurement on one day during the weeks surrounding Canada Day and July Fourth. You can monitor lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, rivers, or streams, but you must already have the equipment and training. These transparency values are used to assess the transparency of volunteer-monitored lakes in the United States and Canada.

The Dip-In is open to any qualified individual in the world that monitors transparency, temperature, or pH in rivers, streams, estuaries, lakes, or reservoirs. One goal of the Dip-In is to increase the number and interest of volunteers in environmental monitoring.

Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.

Marine scientists need your help to categorize the complex calls of Killer Whales (Orcas) and Pilot Whales and to understand what the calls mean.

Whales and dolphins make sophisticated sounds that play a critical role in communicating, orienting in the ocean environment, and locating food. Scientists have already begun to categorize Killer Whale calls; however, Pilot Whale calls are much less studied.

Project organizers have assembled recordings of two species from across the world's oceans and seas. Citizen scientists simply listen to individual whale calls and identify potential matching calls. Your contribution will help researchers understand what the whales are saying. You can also help discover whether certain calls are made by an individual, one group, or across broad areas.

Help NASA find life on Mars by exploring the bottom of the lakes of British Columbia, Canada.

The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) has been investigating the underwater environment with DeepWorker submersible vehicles since 2008. Now with MAPPER, you can work side-by-side with NASA scientists to explore the bottom of these lakes from the perspective of a DeepWorker pilot.

The PLRP team makes use of DeepWorker subs to explore and document freshwater carbonate formations known as microbialites that thrive in Pavilion and Kelly Lake. Many scientists believe that a better understanding of how and where these rare microbialite formations develop will lead to deeper insights into where signs of life may be found on Mars and beyond. To investigate microbialite formation in detail, terabytes of video footage and photos of the lake bottom are recorded by PLRP's DeepWorker sub pilots. This data must be analyzed to determine what types of features can be found in different parts of the lake. Ultimately, detailed maps can be generated to help answer questions like "how does microbialite texture and size vary with depth?" and "why do microbialites grow in certain parts of the lake but not in others?". But before these questions can be answered, all the data must be analyzed.

Reef Watch provides free training to community volunteers to monitor temperate marine environments using non-destructive, internationally recognised techniques.

Volunteers generate valuable scientific data that informs adaptive management for conservation of the marine environment.

Reef Watch engages and empowers the community through education, which raises awareness about the marine environment and fosters a sense of stewardship that is vital to the long-term health of marine environments.

Creek Watch is an iPhone application created by IBM Research that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. We aggregate the data and share it with water control boards to help them track pollution and manage water resources. You can use the map on the left to explore the data that people have contributed, or see recent contributions as a table.

The Creek Watch App uses four pieces of data:

The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more pieces).
A picture of the waterway.

This data helps watershed groups, agencies and scientists track pollution, manage water resources, and plan environmental programs.

Creek Watch is a project developed at IBM Research - Almaden in consultation with the California State Water Resources Control Board's Clean Water Team.

The iPhone application is now available free on the iTunes store, so you can get started contributing data!

If you are a SCUBA diver, we ask that you send us data logged by your dive computer, so we can put it to scientific use! Millions of divers dive all around the world everyday, with state-of-the-art dive computers that log temperature as a function of depth. As a citizen scientist scuba diver, you can help put this information to the use of oceanographers and marine scientists. Send us your dive site location & an export of your dive computer log; or just write up in an email the information you record in your logbook (like surface temperature, bottom temperature, date, time, location, dive computer brand)!

The goal of this project is to channel temperature & location data from divers to scientists. The data collected will be processed by graduate students and will be made available online on our website for anyone to download.

The New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network encourage participants to get involved with the annual horseshoe crab monitoring program on various reference beaches throughout New York’s Marine District. Participants assist with the collection of scientific data that is used to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in NY State, and will help determine the management and conservation of this important species throughout the region.

This data will be used by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in New York’s Marine District, and to assist with the regional management and conservation of this species through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

If you participate in this educational survey you will be helping to collect data on horseshoe crab spawning abundance, size, sex and tag returns around full and new moon evenings from May to July.

Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program is working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to develop and organize this project.

Science Hack Day is a 48-hour-all-night event that brings together designers, developers, scientists and other geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking, and building 'cool stuff'. By collaborating on focused tasks during this short period, small groups of hackers are capable of producing remarkable results. Some Hack Days have a specific focus. There have already been very successful Music Hack Days and Government Hack Days. It's time for a Hack Day focused on science!

Bonaire National Marine Park needs your help to control the invasion of Lionfish. Volunteers in the Netherlands Antilles gently attach a marker on dead coral in the immediate vicinity of the Lionfish.

The Indo Pacific Lionfish Pterois volitans/miles is a predatory, venomous fish which has been introduced as an invasive species in the Atlantic Basin. This invasive carnivore can significantly reduce biodiversity of a local habitat and can drive important fish species to extinction, negatively affecting coral reef ecosystems.

WARNING: This project is potentially dangerous. Most of the fish's spines are venomous and can cause extreme pain!

STE - Scuba Tourism for the Environment is aimed at obtaining information on the Red Sea marine biodiversity state, by collaborating with volunteer dive tourists.

In this way the research can provide the institutions with tools to implement conservation and preservation measures, and at the same time it contributes to the development of ecotourism in the area, providing the tourists with a discerning, active and useful way to increase their naturalistic awareness and recreational value of their holidays.

LiMPETS (Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students) is an environmental monitoring and education program for students, educators, and volunteer groups. This hands-on program was developed to monitor the ocean and coastal ecosystems of California’s National Marine Sanctuaries to increase awareness and stewardship of these important areas.

Two distinct monitoring programs make up the core of the LiMPETS network: the Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program and the Sandy Beach Monitoring Program. Both programs are designed to provide students with the opportunity to experience the scientific process firsthand. Through research-based monitoring and standardized protocols, students develop their problem solving skills, gain experience using tools and methods employed by field scientists, and learn to analyze data. The online data entry system allows our participants to archive their data electronically and to view and analyze their results over time.

The LiMPETS network provides authentic, hands-on coastal monitoring experiences that empower teachers, students and the community to conduct real science and serve as ocean stewards.

Invasive self-cloning crayfish are on their way to a stream or lake near you!

We need your help to monitor our waterways for the invasion of new species of crayfish. High on our priority list is Marmokrebs, a species that reproduces asexually – making it an extremely successful intruder in pristine ecosystems. Let’s make sure we know exactly where this and many other potentially invasive species are headed!

Take pictures of crayfish and tell us where and when you found it. The goal of this project is to help monitor waters for introduction of new and potentially invasive species of crayfish.

Invasive crayfish have had devastating effects in many freshwater ecosystems across the world, often driving local fish and invertebrate species to extinction. With your help, we can make sure to prevent this from happening here! Thanks in advance for helping us in this important project!

EcoSpark's Changing Currents program introduces grade 8-12 students from across the Greater Toronto Area (Toronto, Peel, Durham, and York school boards) to their area's watersheds. Students get outside, put on hip waders, explore a local river stream, and learn about its importance and quality.

By participating in the program students will:

use benthic macro-invertebrate bio-monitoring to examine the health of their local river or stream (it's easy!),
contribute to a GTA-wide study of watersheds, and
have the chance to take action around what they discover

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography has been funded by the Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program to assess the distribution of wrack in the salt marshes of coastal Georgia. Marsh wrack is the dead marsh grass that forms large layers on top of the water or the marsh surface.

The project will map the distribution for a number of different years from aerial photographs to determine how much wrack is present in coastal Georgia and where wrack is found in different seasons. The project also aims to study how long wrack persists in a variety of marsh settings.

To do this, the project needs citizen scientists to help document marsh wrack sites. Volunteers will do the following activities:

1. Identify site or sites that you can document at least weekly by taking photos.
2. Gather latitude/longitude location data for each site.

Anyone who helps out will get a copy on the final results of the study and acknowledgement of their help in the text

The ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library is a visual database of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) encounters and of individually catalogued whale sharks. The library is maintained and used by marine biologists to collect and analyse whale shark encounter data to learn more about these amazing creatures.

The Library uses photographs of the skin patterning behind the gills of each shark and any scars to distinguish between individual animals. Cutting-edge software supports rapid identification using pattern recognition and photo management tools.

You too can assist with whale shark research by submitting photos and sighting information. The information you submit will be used in mark-recapture studies to help with the global conservation of this threatened species.

Volunteers are needed weekly to collect water samples and other physical climate measurements, then identify species of phytoplankton under a light microscope while watching for potentially harmful algal blooms (HABs) and signs of environmental disturbance in our marine waters.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, working with many partner organizations, has established Mitten Crab Watch as a public reporting and information network to track the distribution, abundance, and status of this invasive species for the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Get a snapshot of the health of the Boise River watershed by monitoring water quality! Citizen groups, schools, families, and individuals are invited to participate in this fun event which takes place at numerous sites along the Boise River and tributaries from Lucky Peak to Star. No experience necessary! A knowledgeable trainer will meet you at your assigned location to assist with monitoring.

Download and play the ACTUV Tactics Simulator and submit your results to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Your results will help develop the future of anti-submarine warfare.

Think you can best an enemy submarine commander so he can’t escape into the ocean depths?

If you think you can, you are invited to put yourself into the virtual driver’s seat of one of several Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) configurations and show the world how you can use its capabilities to follow an enemy submarine.

DARPA’s ACTUV program is developing a fundamentally new tool for the Navy’s ASW toolkit and seeks your help to explore how best to use this tool to track quiet submarines. Before autonomous software is developed for ACTUV’s computers, DARPA needs to determine what approaches and methods are most effective. To gather information from a broad spectrum of users, ACTUV has been integrated into the Dangerous WatersTM game. DARPA is offering this new ACTUV Tactics Simulator for free public download.

This software has been written to simulate actual evasion techniques used by submarines, challenging each player to track them successfully. Your tracking vessel is not the only ship at sea, so you’ll need to safely navigate among commercial shipping traffic as you attempt to track the submarine, whose driver has some tricks up his sleeve.

Give it a try!

The OPAL Water Survey needs citizen scientists in England to record what life they see in local ponds and to conduct simple tests for water clarity and pH. By contributing, you'll help scientists learn more about how polluted lakes and ponds in England actually are.

Animals living in the water can tell us a great deal about how polluted the water may be. Some species struggle to survive in polluted waters, while others are more tolerant. By telling us what life you see in your local pond you’ll discover more about the water's health and contribute to valuable scientific research.

This is one of five OPAL surveys across England to learn more about the state of the environment. Anyone can get involved. The studies are open to all ages and abilities, and your contribution will be important in helping scientists build up a picture of England's natural environment.

The Encyclopedia of Life is an online, collaborative project where you can learn about any species on Earth, as well as contribute information and submit photos. This global initiative seeks to create an "infinitely expandable" resource for all of our planet’s 1.9 million known species.

The Encyclopedia of Life draws from existing databases, such as AmphibiaWeb and Mushroom Observer, and sponsorship from a number of leading scientific organizations. The scientific community and general public can contribute to this growing body of knowledge by posting images to the Flikr group and adding tags and text comments to any species page. In addition, citizen naturalists with a demonstrated commitment to quality science can apply to become curators who are responsible for maintaining the project's vetted content.

This proposed nutrient survey of the Mississippi River watershed seeks to glean a better understanding of the distribution of inorganic nutrient sources into the Mississippi River.

By conducting this study, we seek to identify 'hot spots' within which to target follow-up research and engineering efforts aimed at decreasing the load of nutrients introduced into this river - and in so doing, successfully mitigate their consequent effect upon the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources coastal shark survey monitors the populations of our resident shark species. We need volunteers to come out on the boat with us to help catch, measure, tag, and release sharks. Participants must be 18 or older, must not get seasick, and must be ok being out on the water all day in a boat that has no shade or bathroom. We leave from Charleston, SC.

The Master Watershed Steward program trains citizens across the state of Arizona to serve as volunteers in the protection, restoration, monitoring, and conservation of their water and watersheds.

We all live in a watershed, also known as a drainage basin or catchment. Each watershed is defined by an area of land that drains water downhill into a common water body. The health of watersheds is especially impacted as our growing population, and thus our demand for natural resources, increases. Learning to look past political boundaries and view land as divided by natural boundaries helps us better manage resources as a complete, more sustainable system.

As a Master Watershed Steward you can help to improve the health of your watershed. The project's informative, research-based training will give you the knowledge to make better, more informed decisions related to your own land, community and watershed. Master Watershed Stewards are highly trained volunteers working closely with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Stewards may come from a variety of backgrounds, but all have a passion for our environment! To become certified, Master Watershed Stewards participate in over 40 hours of course and field work to learn the basics of watershed science.

You work with community organizations including watershed partnerships and various state agencies to implement projects throughout Arizona to monitor, maintain and restore the health of our watersheds. Ongoing volunteer projects include: photopoint monitoring in the Tonto National Forest and Saguaro National Park, riparian assessments along urban and preserved corridors, outreach at Arizona Project WET Water Festivals, free private well testing and collaboration with NEMO to develop Watershed Based Plans.

The Master Watershed Steward Program is a partnership of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's Water Quality Division.

Join RainLog's network of over 1,000 volunteers that use backyard rain gauges to monitor precipitation across Arizona and in neighboring states. Data collected through this network will be used for a variety of applications, from watershed management activities to drought planning at local, county, and state levels.

All you need to participate is a rain gauge and access to the Internet. Volunteers select a rain gauge, install it at home, and report daily total rainfall amounts through the online data entry form. Volunteers are asked to track daily or monthly precipitation amounts.

Precipitation amounts are highly variable across Arizona due to topography and seasonal weather patterns. This is especially true during the monsoon season, when thunderstorms can produce heavy rainfall that is very localized.

Your observations will provide valuable information to be used in drought monitoring and resource management decision-making.

All data posted by volunteers is available in real-time in maps. These maps are useful in tracking high-resolution variability in precipitation patterns and potential changes in drought status. As more people participate and more information is gathered, the resolution of the maps will improve.

Help scientists recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I. These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and improve a database of weather extremes. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and the stories of the people on board.

iNaturalist is a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world.

From hikers to hunters, birders to beach-combers, the world is filled with naturalists, and many of us record what we find. What if all those observations could be shared online? You might discover someone who finds beautiful wildflowers at your favorite birding spot, or learn about the birds you see on the way to work. If enough people recorded their observations, it would be like a living record of life on Earth that scientists and land managers could use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and anyone could use to learn about nature.

That's the vision behind iNaturalist. So if you like recording your findings from the outdoors, or if you just like learning about life, join the project!

Eye on Earth brings together scientific information on air and water quality with feedback and observations from millions of ordinary people. You'll be able to view air and bathing water quality for the majority of Europe as well as provide your own feedback.

Eye on Earth represents a partnership between Microsoft and the European Environmental Agency. It includes information on the water quality for more than 22,000 bathing sites throughout Europe. It also includes information on air quality for more than 1,000 air quality monitoring stations throughout Europe.

Over five years, the site will grow to include information on many other environmental topics and turn into a global observatory for environmental change. It will broaden the thematic spectrum of environmental information by integrating prominent environmental challenges of our times, such as ground level ozone and other forms of air pollution, oil sills, biodiversity, and coastal erosion.

Join the fun!

Participants will engage in community-based water quality reporting, data sharing, and analysis. Get involved in water quality issues in Toronto, Canada.

"Juturna" is a web-based geographic information system that supports the collection, analysis, data sharing and reporting of community collected water quality data. It is currently implemented to support EcoSpark's "Changing Currents" program that links water quality monitoring to environmental and science curriculum in schools. This project addresses requirements of data sharing and monitoring specified in Annex 4 of the Canada-Ontario Agreement. It provides a collaborative mechanism among researchers at York University, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the civil society organization EcoSpark (formerly Citizens Environment Watch) to monitor environmental conditions of local watersheds.

Stream Monitoring is a statewide program for Wisconsin citizens interested in learning about and improving the quality of the state's streams and rivers. As a volunteer for monitoring through Beaver Creek Reserve Citizen Science Center, you will collect information once a month May through September from one of the numerous streams in the Lower Chippewa Basin.

This project is designed to monitor and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in West-central Wisconsin through heightened awareness and education. Volunteers participate in a variety of ways, including collecting samples of aquatic invasive species, talking to boaters at area boat landings, and conducting water quality monitoring.

Watershed Watch increases the understanding of New Mexico's water quality, river ecology and fisheries health through hands-on science in a real-world context. Students gather data on biological, chemical and physical indicators and make presentations to local data users including acequias (irrigation canals), school boards, federal agencies and watershed groups. Students become engaged in environmental studies of issues beyond the classroom to that address critical water issues in local regions.

The Common Loon Citizen Science Project needs volunteers to conduct surveys at 45 high priority lakes in Glacier National Park to document presence of common loons and observations of breeding and nesting behaviors.

Common Loons are a Montana Species of Special Concern, and Glacier National Park harbors about 20 percent of Montana’s breeding pairs. Since 1988, data has been collected once every year during Loon Days. Analysis of these data indicate lower reproductive rates for pairs in the park compared to the rest of Montana. Finally, there is evidence that loons are adversely impacted by human disturbance at nest and nursery sites.

The Common Loon Citizen Science Project educates park staff and volunteers on successful identification and observation techniques when surveying for loons in hopes of increasing our understanding of this species. By improving accuracy of sightings and surveys and increasing coverage of lakes with loons throughout the nesting season, the project aims to gather season-long information to gain a better estimate of the health of Glacier National Park's loon population. The project will also use the data to begin to identify factors affecting nesting success.

Since 2005 the Glacier National Park Citizen Science program has enlisted trained park visitors, staff and volunteers to collect scientific information that would otherwise be unavailable to resource managers and researchers due to lack of personnel or funding. For citizen scientists, the rewards are a sense of stewardship and a greater awareness and understanding of the park’s resource issues. For the park, it provides a wealth of data which can be used to increase understanding of our natural resources, offering an opportunity to get much-needed baseline information about key plant and animal species.

The International Sea Turtle Observation Registry is a database of sea turtle sightings to help sea turtle biologists and conservations track and understand the distribution of sea turtles around the world. You can help!

When you see a live turtle, please report it to the registry. Data will be made available to scientists and managers to improve the understanding of our marine environment.

The North Carolina Sea Turtle Project trains volunteers to monitor sea turtle activity along the entire coast of North Carolina.

There are a number of ways that your citizen science efforts can help protect sea turtles in North Carolina. Volunteers are needed to:

- walk small sections of beach each morning from May to August to look for turtle tracks and nests
- help guard the nests as they become ready to hatch each evening from July to October
- respond to strandings
- transport injured turtles to rehabilitation centers

All the data collected by the project are organized and disseminated to the state and federal agencies that use the information to make management decisions.

The North Carolina Sea Turtle Project, run by the state Wildlife Resources Commission's Division of Wildlife Management, is committed to monitoring North Carolina's sea turtle population. The project would not be possible without the help of hundreds of volunteers!

SKYWARN is a national network of volunteer severe weather spotters. The spotters are trained by local National Weather Service Forecast Offices on how to spot severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, and flooding. In some parts of the country, spotters also report snowfall and ice accumulation.

During hazardous weather, such as severe thunderstorms, floods, tornadoes, snow and ice storms, SKYWARN volunteers report what is happening at their location. They are asked to report whenever certain criteria are met such as when one inch of rain has fallen, four inches of snow is on the ground, a thunderstorm is producing hail, or trees have been blown down.

Reports arrive at the forecaster's office via the telephone, fax, Internet, and amateur radio. The reports are combined with radar and satellite data to determine what the storms will do next. Spotters provide the "ground-truth" to forecasters. Radar may tell us that heavy snow is falling, but it can not tell us how much snow is on the ground or if rain is mixing with the snow. Spotters do. The reports are used by forecasters to send out public statements, warnings and advisories, and short-term forecasts.

Two-thirds of SKYWARN volunteers are licensed amateur radio operators. Amateur radio plays a big role in the SKYWARN program. During severe weather, amateur radio volunteers man a radio station at our office. They talk to our spotters in the particular area that a storm is hitting and request information needed by the forecasters such as hail size or rainfall accumulation. Large storms such as hurricanes can knock out phone service. SKYWARN amateur radio volunteers help us when there are communications outages so that we can continue to receive weather reports and feed warnings and other critical information out to communities.

SKYWARN volunteers are people who either have a strong interest in weather or are public service oriented. This includes amateur radio operators, REACT members, or emergency response personnel. Our spotters are all ages beginning as young as 14 and range well into retirement age. We have farmers, pilots, engineers, housewives, lawyers, television cameramen, teachers, students, firemen, and more. Our volunteers are truly diverse but with a common interest in weather and a strong desire to help their community.

Participants throughout Wisconsin are asked to collect freshwater mussel shells or to take photos of live mussels from rivers, lakes, or streams. Over half of Wisconsin's 51 native mussel species (also known as clams) are listed as species in greatest need of conservation, or we need information on where they currently occur. Threats like habitat alteration (dams, silt) and the presence of invasive mussels (zebra mussels) pose major threats to the existence of our native mussels. The Mussel Monitoring Program of Wisconsin would like your help in finding out what mussels occur in your area!

CitSci.org is a platform that supports a variety of citizen science programs using a centralized database to store and deliver science data, with a focus on community based monitoring programs. This platform allows program coordinators to create their own projects and datasheets, manage members, define measurements, create analyses, and even write feedback forms.

Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET) volunteers conduct beached bird surveys along the east coast of the United States in order to identify and record information about bird mortality. Volunteers examine the spatial pattern of bird carcass deposition and how it varies across time.

The project brings together interdisciplinary researchers and citizen scientists in a long-term collaborative effort to identify and mitigate threats to marine birds.

These surveys provide baseline information about bird mortality and help to detect mass mortality events such as oil spills, algal toxins, and disease outbreaks. Marine birds can serve as indicators of ecosystem and human health; monitoring the threats they face and their mortality patterns can teach us about the health of the marine environment.

This project relies heavily on a working partnership between concerned citizens with an incomparable understanding of local ecosystems and natural phenomena, and scientists with the training and knowledge to synthesize and verify the data generated by local residents. Through this synergistic relationship, scientists exponentially increase the amount and range of data they can access, and residents come to see the larger patterns and trends of which their local ecosystem is a part.

The Colorado River Watch Network supports volunteers who monitor the water quality at strategically located sites across the Colorado River watershed from West Texas to the coast. The network serves as an early warning system that alerts the Lower Colorado River Authority to potential water quality threats.

The network's mission is to encourage and support community-based environmental stewardship by providing citizens, teachers, and students with the information, resources, and training necessary to monitor and protect the waterways of the lower Colorado River watershed.

Volunteer monitors submit data for approximately 120 sites each year, with an average annual total of roughly 1,000 monitoring events reported.

The Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford is building a sound map of the world as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. We need your help!

We’re asking people across the world to use our new iOS app on their iPhones or iPads (or any recorder) to record short clips from different sound environments, or "soundscapes"--anything from the inside of a family car to a busy shopping centre. Then we ask volunteers to comment on their soundscapes and upload them to our virtual soundscape map.

Recordings and responses will be analyaed by acoustic scientists, and significant findings will be reported on this website.

Sound Around You aims to raise awareness of how our soundscape influences us, and could have far reaching implications for professions and social groups ranging from urban planners to house buyers.

This is a local, month-long extension of World Water Monitoring Day, during which volunteers in New Jersey's Morris and Somerset Counties will collect basic water quality data from the streams and lakes in the Great Swamp Watershed. The project runs from September 18, the official date of the international water monitoring day, through October 18. The organizers plan to repeat it in the same time frame every year.

World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) is a worldwide education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.

Florida LAKEWATCH is a volunteer water-monitoring program that facilitates "hands-on" participation in the management of lakes, rivers, and coastal sites through monthly sampling activities. Participants work with researchers at the University of Florida to collect samples that, when analyzed, will contribute to the understanding of Florida’s water bodies.

All volunteers attend a two-hour training session on how to collect water samples and monitor lakes. As a trained LAKEWATCH volunteer, you will help develop a database of water chemistry for your particular lake, river, or coastal site. These data can then be used to establish trends and develop an overview of how your site fits into the overall picture of Florida water bodies.

Volunteers receive a free newsletter subscription and invitations to free Florida LAKEWATCH volunteer appreciation meetings. Don't miss out!

Explore, share, and contribute photos of animals around the world. Animals and Earth is a resource for photos of all species, their behavior, habitats, and conservation efforts.

There are several ways you can participate.

Option A: Find photos or issues you care about by browsing our photo collection of animals and earth photos. Gather a photo collection, create a blog, and start your own conservation effort using our content

Option B: Grab your camera and help document the flora and fauna of your place on earth.

Option C: Help identify animals and places on our site by adding photo locations and Latin names for animals photos that are not identified yet. Post photos to websites, blogs and social networks promotes awareness and conservation.

Wisconsin NatureMapping is the place for citizens, students, and professionals to map their observations of Wisconsin wildlife.

As you know, wildlife knows no property boundaries. A robin will flit from tree to tree with no regard to whether that tree is in a state park or in your backyard. But what if that robin builds a nest in the tree outside your window? Who monitors that nest? What about the deer that come into your yard and eat your vegetables? Who is monitoring them?

The answer is: YOU are! You know your backyard and your neighborhood better than most natural resource professionals do simply because YOU live there and YOU see the critters that live there every day!

To best manage wildlife populations, Wisconsin state biologists need to have as much information as possible about where a species lives. That means they need to know just as much about where species are when they are NOT on public land as when they are. And YOU are the critical link to making sure they get that information.

Another very important reason you should NatureMap is because the wildlife observations you submit to Wisconsin NatureMapping are used to better inform the Wisconsin State Wildlife Action Plan. This is a federally mandated plan in which the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources must describe how they will manage all of the species of Wisconsin wildlife. Map your wildlife observations today!

Collect Gulf Oil Spill data using your iPhone. MoGO (Mobile Gulf Observatory) is an app that turns you and your iPhone into a "citizen scientist" helping wildlife experts find and rescue oiled birds, sea turtles, and dolphins.

The MoGO app allows you to take and submit photos of oiled, injured, and dead marine and coastal wildlife; tar balls on beaches; oil slicks on water; and oiled coastal habitats.

Volunteer birdwatchers with the Puget Sound Seabird Survey gather valuable data on wintering seabird populations in the Puget Sound. The project is organized by the Seattle Audubon Society.

During monthly winter surveys from October to April, volunteers identify and count birds from the Puget Sound shoreline using a protocol designed by leading seabird researchers. Volunteers count all species of coastal seabirds including geese, ducks, swans, loons, grebes, cormorants, gulls, terns, and alcids. These data will be used to create a snapshot of seabird density on more than three square miles of nearshore saltwater habitat.

Puget Sound Seabird Survey is the only land-based, multi-month survey in the central or south Puget Sound.

Orca Project volunteers in Port Townsend, Washington document orca bones for an online bone atlas, assist in orca education with children's groups, take part in assembling a full-size skeleton for display, participate in the design of a new orca exhibit and conduct research on underwater sounds using a hydrophone.

The project’s goals are to improve public awareness of the challenges faced by killer whales--toxic contamination, underwater noise pollution, and diminishing food supplies in the Puget Sound--as well as develop an appreciation for the whales’ remarkable social bonds and communication abilities.

Funded by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, other organizations, and matching funds, the Orca Project will focus on both the transient and resident killer whales seen in the Northwest United States.

The Orca Project will also offer public lectures, free science classes for Olympic Peninsula students, tours of articulated whale skeletons for school classes, hands-on activities for after-school groups, Bring Your Bones Day (a community event with resident experts helping identify and reveal the mysteries of bones), and focused outreach to the maritime and marine community of Port Townsend, Washington.

Volunteers for the East Jefferson County Marine Mammal Stranding Network collect data on dead, stranded, or abandoned marine mammals at selected Washington State beaches. Participants also "pup sit" seal pups while they are being weaned onshore in order to keep curious dogs and humans at a safe distance while the mother seal hunts.

Volunteers sign up to cover particular beaches and are trained to respond and collect vital data that can be used to establish baseline information on marine mammal communities. The data will be used by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other organizations.

Maryland's Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary needs volunteers to collect, count, and identify macroinvertebrates (small animals without backbones) in its streams. The sanctuary is in southern Anne Arundel County, 20 miles east Washington, D.C., and 18 miles south of Annapolis, Maryland.

One indicator of good water quality is a diverse and abundant population of macroinvertebrates. A dip in oxygen levels or a plume of pesticide can make a stream inhospitable to more sensitive animals.

Benthic macroinvertebrates--ones that dwell on the bottom of streams--can reveal much about the health of their watery environment. Since these animals more or less stay put, they are reliable indicators of water quality at each sampling site.

If you like to hike and wade in shallow streams, this project is for you! Monitoring takes place several times a year, and each sampling takes about two hours in the field and another two hours of processing in the lab.

Volunteers are needed to help the South Yuba River Citizens League, based in Nevada City, California, collect monthly water quality data at 45 different sites in the Yuba Watershed.

We are the leading regional advocates for creating resilient human and natural communities throughout the greater Yuba River basin by restoring creeks and rivers, regenerating wild salmon populations, and inspiring and organizing people—from the Yuba’s source to the sea—to join in our movement for a more wild and scenic Yuba River.

We train participants to use pH and conductivity meters and to conduct dissolved oxygen titrations in the field in order to collect information on the health of their rivers and streams. We also offer volunteers the opportunity to be involved in other monitoring activities, including health assessments of meadows, sampling of benthic macroinvertebrate and algae, surveys of river vegetation, and temperature logging.

The Coral Reef Monitoring Data Portal is a new tool designed to support, enhance, and widen the scope of existing monitoring efforts in Hawaii. The data portal was developed and is managed by the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL). It was created in partnership with and in support of community-based monitoring programs coordinated by the State of Hawaii DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Aquanimity Now, the Digital Bus, Project S.E.A.-Link, and other local organizations and agencies, through funding obtained from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to CORAL’s Hawaii Field Manager Liz Foote, “We wanted to develop a 'one-stop-shop' for community based coral reef 
monitoring in Hawaii. This site was developed in support of current efforts such 
as the University of Hawaii Botany Department and Division of Aquatic Resources' herbivore grazing protocols, and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National 
Marine Sanctuary's water quality monitoring program. This online data entry and 
reporting system will greatly expand the scope and impact of these monitoring 
efforts, and the associated resources provided on the site will empower and equip 
many more community members to get involved.”

BEACH volunteers monitor high-risk Washington state beaches for bacteria. Beaches are considered high-risk when they have a lot of recreational users and are located near potential bacteria sources.

Monitoring can indicate pollution from sewage treatment plant problems, boating waste, malfunctioning septic systems, animal waste, or other sources of fecal pollution. BEACH volunteers monitor for an indicator bacteria called "enterococci." The presence of this bacteria at elevated levels means there is a potential for disease-causing bacteria and viruses to also be present.

BEACH is intended to reduce the risk of disease for people who play in saltwater. The program strives to educate the public about the risks associated with polluted water and what each of us can do to reduce that risk.

UPDATE: As for December 2012, the project is not accepting new volunteers.

State of the Oyster Study volunteers help monitor bacterial contamination levels in edible shellfish collected from privately owned Washington state beaches in Hood Canal and throughout Puget Sound

Volunteers collect oyster and clam samples from their beaches at specific times during summer months. Washington Sea Grant arranges for laboratory testing of these samples, which are analyzed for the presence of harmful bacteria or for bacterial indicators of fecal contamination. (Volunteers must cover the lab fees.) Washington Sea Grant then helps participants interpret their test results and, if needed, works closely with them to identify and remedy the sources of observed contamination.

Through the years, State of the Oyster has has helped waterfront residents on more than 300 Washington state beaches learn what makes for safer oysters and clams and how to minimize fecal contamination in their waters.

Since 2000, volunteers with Vermont's Black River Action Team have helped to clean up and take care of the Black River and its tributaries.

Among our activities are the WaterWorx Bug Hunts: Throughout the year, as a way of assessing the overall health and condition of the water, we explore what lives beneath the surface of the river. Larvae of caddisflies, stoneflies, and mayflies are the most commonly used critters for this purpose. We’ll gather aquatic insects from the bottom of the river, sort them by body type, then identify and count them. Over time, we’ll start to get a good picture of the quality of the river.

So all you folks near Windsor County, Vermont, grab some simple equipment and your sense of adventure: We're going on a Bug Hunt!

The Salish Sea Hydrophone Network needs volunteers to help monitor the critical habitat of endangered Pacific Northwest killer whales by detecting orca sounds and measuring ambient noise levels. Volunteers are especially needed to help notify researchers when orcas are in the Salish Sea, which encompasses the waters of Puget Sound and the surrounding area.

Sponsored by a coalition of organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Whale Museum in Olympia, Washington, the network consists of five hydrophones, each hooked up to a computer to analyze the signal and stream it via the internet.

Even though software is used to distinguish animal from other underwater sound, human ears do a better job. So volunteers monitor the network from their home computers anywhere in the world, and alert the rest of the network when they hear whale sounds. Sometimes boats or onshore monitors are deployed to observe the whales while they are making sounds. Researchers hope to learn more about the uses of orca communications and whale migration patterns.

SoundCitizen is a community-based water sampling network in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. We’d love your help.

SoundCitizen focuses on scientific investigation and knowledge discovery of the chemical links between urban settings and aquatic systems. We study fun compounds (cooking spices) and serious ones (emerging pollutants).

We are staffed by undergraduate students at the University of Washington, whose individual research topics help define the overall scientific aims of the program.

SoundCitizen encourages involvement with citizen volunteers and school groups, who voluntarily collect water samples from aquatic systems, perform a series of simple chemical tests, and then mail samples to the lab to be analyzed for cooking spices and emerging pollutants. Our scientific findings illustrate strong seasonal links between household activities (cooking, cleaning etc.) and the subsequent release of chemical “fingerprints” of these activities in aquatic and marine environments.

Based in Australia, Seagrass-Watch recruits volunteers around the world to assess and monitor this ocean plant, which is an important indicator of the health of coastal environments. The project has participants at some 259 sites across 17 countries.

Working with a local coordinator, participants collect quantitative data on seagrasses and their associated fauna by means of simple, yet scientifically rigorous monitoring techniques. At least one participant at each monitoring event must have passed a Seagrass-Watch training course or have a degree (or similar) in environmental/marine science and be able to demonstrate competency in Seagrass-Watch methods and protocols. The information collected is used to assist the management of coastal environments and to prevent significant areas and species being lost.

Seagrasses, the only flowering plants that can live underwater, are the main diet of dugongs and green turtles, and provide a habitat for many, smaller marine animals, some of which, like prawns and fish, are commercially important. They also absorb nutrients from coastal run-off and stabilize sediment, helping to keep the water clear.

The Seagrass-Watch program has a simple philosophy of involving those who are concerned, and includes collaboration/partnerships between community, qualified scientists, and data users, such as environment management agencies.

Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, needs citizen volunteers to conduct water chemistry tests during visits to the park.

Participants will use water chemistry test kits to monitor phosphates, dissolved oxygen, nitrates/nitrites, pH, and temperature at three locations around Seward Park.

After a short training course, volunteers are welcome to check out a kit and run the analysis any time. The more data, the better! Volunteers can even conduct tests during a lovely walk around the park -- it's exercise with a subplot!

Seward Park needs volunteers to monitor the plankton of Lake Washington in King County, Washington, over time to assess the health of the lake.

The research is based on the premise that plankton exhibit the effects of environmental change better than chemical or other physical data. Also, long-term monitoring of changes in species composition have signaled the beginning of a decline in European lakes and in Lake Washington in the past.

Volunteers take water samples from a few sites around the lake and count the different types of plankton under the microscope in a Seward Park laboratory. The project needs contributions in a variety of areas, including collecting, counting, and recording plankton.

COASST is a network of citizen scientists that monitor marine resources and ecosystem health at 300 beaches across northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

Team volunteers pledge to survey their beach every month. In return, the COASST office pledges to put all of the data together, decipher the patterns across the entire survey range, and give that information back out to volunteers and the communities.

COASST believes that the citizens of coastal communities are essential scientific partners in monitoring marine ecosystem health. By collaborating with citizens, natural resource management agencies, and environmental organizations, COASST works to translate long-term monitoring into effective marine conservation solutions.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream needs citizens to monitor and improve the state's streams, wetlands, lakes, and estuaries.

The project goals are to increase public awareness of Georgia's water pollution and water quality issues, provide citizens with the tools and training to evaluate and protect their local waterways, encourage partnerships between citizens and their local government, and collect baseline water quality data.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream has teamed up with government and non-government groups to provide access to technical information and assistance for citizens interested in preserving and restoring the banks and vegetation along their waterways. This network will help local governments, educate citizens about the importance of protecting riparian corridors, and provide landowners with the information they need to reduce erosion, improve water quality, and provide wildlife habitat with native plantings.

Tracking Climate in Your Backyard seeks to engage youth in real science through the collection, recording, and understanding of precipitation data in the forms of rain, hail, and snow.

The purpose of this project is to encourage youth, specifically ages 8-12, to better understand the scientific process by engaging them in the collection of meaningful meteorological data in their community. In this way, youth develop an understanding of scientific methods and standardization, and by recording and sharing their data through a citizen science project, they recognize the importance of accurate data collection. The citizen science portion of the project, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, collects precipitation data for scientific analysis and for issuance of severe storm warnings and flash flooding events. We believe that when youth know they are contributing data to a real, scientific cause, their engagement levels rise.

This National Science Foundation-funded project is a collaboration between the Paleontological Research Institution and Museum of the Earth, which have experience in professional development and informal education, New York State 4-H, which provides an excellent outreach base and fosters hands-on, experiential learning for youth, and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, which runs a citizen science project to record precipitation measurements in an online database.

The Harbor Porpoise Monitoring Project needs volunteers for observations and surveys at locations near Anacortes, Whidbey Island, and San Juan Island, Washington.

The historic range of the harbor porpoise has diminished dramatically in the last 60 years. Surveys of the population are done infrequently and there is inadequate data on the current status of the population.

Participants will help in assessing the feasibility of using passive acoustic monitoring devices to track population status and trends of this species. This may include land-based animal observations and/or handling instruments from a boat.

The Community Aquatic Monitoring Program works with volunteers to monitor the health and marine productivity of Canada's water ecosystem.

Volunteers collect biological data from live small fish and crustaceans that are captured and released. These data include the identification of fish and crustacean species; the numbers of fish and crustaceans; water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen; general aquatic vegetation profiles; and sediment and water samples.

With this information, scientists working with government agencies and universities can undertake nutrient analyses, organic loading assessments, and identify changes in the aquatic community structure. With this in hand, identification of cause may be determined and actions put into place to mitigate potential negative impacts.

Virginia's Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy needs citizen volunteers to identify aquatic insects in local streams. The type and quantity of these insects, called benthic macroinvertebrates, tell a good story about the quality of water in the stream and its surrounding habitat.

Monitoring is done in teams of three or four experienced and novice monitors who follow the Virginia Save Our Streams monitoring protocol. Team members wade into the stream and use collecting nets to capture live aquatic insects in the riffle and pool portions of the stream.

The data are transcribed to a computer database maintained by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and are used to prepare water quality reports. Because the same stream sites are sampled year after year, project coordinators are able to report on trends in the health of the streams and aquatic life.

The Hudson River Estuary Program and Scenic Hudson are working with citizen scientists to monitor herring and American eel in Ulster County's Black Creek Preserve.

Herring volunteers will observe the creek to see if, where, and when spawning runs occur. Those interested in eels will use nets and trap devices to catch juvenile glass eels, which are counted, weighed, and released unharmed.

Data may help biologists discover why populations of these important fish are declining.

Shark Trust is building a database of shark sightings across the ocean.

Submitting your sightings not only lets you share with the world the animals you have seen, but it also generates important data for researchers and conservationists working with sharks, skates and rays around the world. Your sightings will contribute to our understanding of many species, providing some of the best available data for their management, helping ensure a sustainable future for sharks, skates and rays.

Sightings submitted to Shark Trust will have many potential uses – from learning about the different colour morphologies of skates and rays around the British coast, to understanding the size of whale shark populations around the world. Any sighting or catch of wild elasmobranchs can be submitted to this database. The information is frequently used in not-for-profit decision-making, education, research, environmental and other public-benefit purposes.

Traverse Creek Stewardship (TraCkS) is a group of volunteers who monitor water quality in the Traverse Creek Watershed, which is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in El Dorado County, California.

We are focused on establishing baseline data for water quality conditions in our watershed, to create educational opportunities, to increase stewardship awareness, and to determine if our watershed is healthy. Every year during June, we take "bug" samples at three locations in Traverse Creek. The rest of the year, we meet two nights a month to identify the insects and other small organisms.

No experience is required to participate in TraCkS activities. Our experienced volunteer leaders provide on-the-job training. The water quality of a stream is a combination of its physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. As volunteer citizen monitors, we visit five locations in the Traverse Creek watershed monthly to check on the health of our streams. We take samples of the water and check the temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and turbidity. We also take photos of the stream and sites to monitor changes in the riparian zone. Once a year we do a complete physical and biological assessment.

Vital Signs brings scientists and novices together to investigate species - particularly invasive species - in Maine.

People can participate in many ways: going outside to look for and document invasive and native species with digital images, location and habitat observations; then entering their observations into our online application; and commenting on shared observations from the comfort of their own homes.

GSWA's Stream Team monitors the five streams in the Great Swamp watershed, a 55-square-mile region in New Jersey's Morris and Somerset Counties.

Monitoring includes both chemical and visual assessments. The primary goal of the chemical monitoring program is to measure the volume of water, nutrients, and sediments flowing into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. The main purpose of the visual assessment program is to help gather data for the Watershed Association and the State on water bodies that are not currently being assessed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. All of this data helps to generate a picture of the overall health of our streams and identify areas where where water quality improvements could be made.

The streams within the watershed are the Upper Passaic River, Black Brook, Great Brook, Loantaka Brook, and Primrose Brook, all of which flow into Great Swamp and exit as the Passaic River via Millington Gorge.

Students from five diverse New Jersey high schools use kits purchased with funding from the EPA , the CMX Community Foundation and the RBC Blue Water Project of the Royal Bank of Canada Foundation to measure water quality variables such as dissolved oxygen, water clarity and phosphorus. They are also collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates such as dragonfly nymphs, blackfly larvae and snails that indicate pollution levels in a waterbody.

Students are entering their collected data into a Web-based program created by NJDEP that allows them to analyze data and compare it with data collected at other sites.

The Passaic River Institute PREEMO web site provides links to relevant educational materials and links to other data sets about the river. It will provide a forum where students can post their impressions and questions about ecology and environmental science.

At the end of the school year, the students come together at Montclair State University for a student conference where they present a study they have conducted involving their work on the Passaic River.

Monitor the waters of six counties in Central Wisconsin: Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Waushara, Waupaca, and Winnebago. We are a waders on, in-the-muck environmental group.

Performed monthly on local waters within these six counties, we test for dissolved oxygen, turbidity, temperature, and stream flow. At the beginning of summer we also perform a Biotic Index and habitat assessment. Information is entered into a state database for tracking purposes.

Have you seen a jellyfish on the beach? Report it to Jellywatch -- a public database documenting ocean conditions. We are especially interested in jellyfish washing up, but we also track red tides, squid and mammal strandings, and other indicators of ocean health.

All the data and images that are submitted are freely and instantly available for bulk download, so students, teachers, and scientists can conduct their own research using information gathered from around the globe.

Volunteers wade through creeks in Contra Costa County (California), using the latest technology and scientific protocols to collect baseline data on our local watersheds. Our two primary programs are Bioassessment sampling and GPS Creek Surveys.

Bioassessment - Using aquatic insects as indicators of water quality, volunteers learn more about the health of their neighborhood creeks and identify potential problem areas. While water samples yield a detailed identification of the water at the time of sampling, the density and diversity of bugs in our creeks yield a watershed-level perspective of water quality and habitat viability over time.

GPS Creek Surveys - Using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, volunteers map the physical attributes of the stream channel (substrate, canopy cover, bank characteristics, etc.), extent and type of native and invasive vegetation, and human influences (outfalls, dams, etc.).

Joining a data collection event is a fun way to explore parts of your urban environment most people never see, but they are more than just fun ... they’re science!

Volunteers are provided with equipment and training to collect and process lake water quality samples 8 times each season. Volunteers also take temperature and water clarity measurements in the field at each sampling event. The sampling and processing takes about an hour.

Processed samples are stored by the volunteer until LMVP staff collect them for analysis at the University of Missouri's Limnology Laboratory. At the lab, samples are analyzed for total phosphorus, total nitrogen (plant nutrients), chlorophyll concentration (an estimate of algal biomass) and inorganic suspended solids (sediments).

Klamath Riverkeeper is excited to bring citizen monitoring to the Shasta watershed in 2010 with our first citizen water quality monitoring initiative. We’ll start by training citizens to collect water quality data at points on Yreka Creek and the Shasta River this spring & summer.

The goals of the program are to:
1) Fill a recognized scientific monitoring gap in the Klamath and Shasta River watersheds,
2) Add monitoring capacity to existing and future restoration and stream assessment projects,
3) Provide an educational outreach opportunity to the public in the City of Yreka.

WV Save Our Streams trains citizen scientists in West Virginia how to monitor and become watchdogs over their local wadeable streams and rivers. The program focuses on a biological approach to stream study, which includes the collection and evaluation of the benthic macroinvertebrate community and an assessment of the stream’s basic physiochemical conditions.

Our volunteer monitors help to track the health of the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon. By describing current conditions and identifying trends, we can detect and document changes in water quality and work toward a cleaner river.

The data we collect can be used to protect the health of those who depend on the river, be they human, plant, or animal. The data is also made available to the community, and can also be used to address problems in water quality by indicating when water-related regulations are not being met. Water Quality Monitoring is one step in the process of encouraging community growth that is compatible with the surrounding environment. Our monitoring program’s existence depends on dedicated volunteers who collect quality data each month.

All Missourians rely on streams in one way or another and many of our streams could use a little help. They need teams of people who love clean water, good fishing and health habitat to take care of them, year after year. That's why the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources and the Conservation Federation of Missouri joined to develop the Stream Team Program in 1989.

Promoting citizen awareness and involvement, Stream Teams is a fun, hands-on program for people who want to learn about, care for and protect local waterways. If you are ready to tackle the fun of protecting Missouri's streams start a Stream Team.

Anyone can start a Stream Team:

Individuals and Families: If there is a stream in your community that you and your neighbors are concerned about, you can form a Stream Team to adopt it.

Schools and youth groups: Stream Team is a great way for schools, colleges and universities to teach students about stream ecology while restoring and protecting a local stream.

Community, church of service groups: What better way to serve your community than by adopting, cleaning up and maintaining the health and beauty of a neighborhood waterway?

RiverSweep is an annual event. Fish for shopping carts or gather trash from shore: Do your part to keep Vermont's Black River clean!

You can help in Springfield, Ludlow, Plymouth, Cavendish or any other point on the Black River in Windsor County, Vermont. Work can be done from a kayak or canoe if you have one or from shore (watch for poison ivy!). Stay for an hour, or the whole morning! We'll provide trash bags, snacks, work gloves, a free lunch and a complimentary "thank you" tee shirt.

The Reef Volunteer Fish Survey allows volunteer SCUBA divers and snorkelers to collect and report information on marine fish populations as well as selected invertebrate and algae species along the West Coast of the US and Canada. Keep track of the fish you see while scuba diving or snorkeling. Submit those to an online database.

This is a worldwide program for:
Pacific Coast
Tropical Eastern Pacific
Tropical Western Atlantic
Hawaii
NE US and Canada

Volunteers-In-Parks participants work side-by-side with National Park Service employees to preserve the United States' natural and cultural legacy and to help visitors discover the resources, meanings, and values found in its national parks.

Anyone can be a "VIP": individuals, couples, families, students, and organized groups from all over the United States and the world. Become a VIP and put yourself at the heart of the park experience!

Volunteers-In-Parks participants play an ever-increasing role in national parks through a variety of jobs, including answering visitor questions at an information desk, presenting living history demonstrations in period costumes, building fences, painting buildings, making cabinets, giving guided nature walks and evening campfire programs, assisting with preservation of museum artifacts, maintaining trails, building boardwalks, designing computer programs or park websites, and serving on a bike, horseback, or beach patrol.

National Park Service internships provide learning opportunities through activities such as wilderness re-vegetation, assistance with preservation and restoration projects, water quality monitoring, surveying, educational cave tours, or assisting resource management staff.

Internships offer an interesting and educational experience in some of the most beautiful areas of the country. This is your chance to get actively involved in the stewardship of the United States' national and natural treasures.

Geoscientists-in-the-Parks partners geoscience students and experts with volunteers to conduct scientific research that helps the National Park Service better understand and manage its natural resources.

Participants may assist with research, synthesis of scientific literature, geologic mapping, geographic information system analysis, site evaluations, resource inventorying and monitoring, impact mitigation, developing brochures and informative media presentations, and educating park staff as well as park visitors.

Volunteers selected for the program have a unique opportunity to contribute to a variety of important research, resource management, interpretation and education projects. Parks benefit from a participant’s knowledge and skills in geological or physical sciences, while each participant gains valuable experience by working with the National Park Service. Volunteers with all levels of experience are encouraged to apply.

This sponge monitoring program calls on citizen scientists to submit observations of sponges in local waterways to help biologists prioritize future survey efforts. Freshwater sponges are aquatic animals that grow in lakes, rivers, bogs, and streams attached to submerged rocks, sticks, logs, or aquatic vegetation.

These sedentary animals feed by filtering small particles from the water and are thought to be sensitive indicators of pollution. Limited research seems to indicate that the range of some sponge species is more restricted now than in previous years. This study tries to shed more light on how abundant and widely distributed Wisconsin’s sponges are today.

The Shermans Creek Watershed Monitoring Program calls on citizen scientists to conduct water quality sampling and to measure biological factors that indicate the health of the Pennsylvania creek and its response to pollution.

Volunteers measure nitrate, temperature, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, pH, and turbidity, and conduct regular bacteria monitoring and macroinvertebrate sampling at sites throughout the watershed. The data will be used to provide public education, target areas for restoration and protection projects, and help the county and municipalities with land development plans that protect Shermans Creek.

The National Science Digital Library encourages citizens to help enlarge and strengthen their library of high quality resources and tools that support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

Developers of content in these subject areas, National Science Foundation grantees, educators and learners, and all other members of the community are welcome to recommend digital resources for the library. These resources include activities, lesson plans, Web sites, simulations, or any materials that help educators meet the demands of an increasingly complex technology-based world.

As a national network of learning environments, resources, and partnerships, the National Science Digital Library seeks to serve a vital role in educational cyberlearning for the nation, meeting the informational and technological needs of educators and learners at all levels.

The Juvenile Lobster Monitoring Program is a community-based research program that aims to measure the health and productivity of lobster nursery habitats over space and time. The project measures the abundance and distribution of juvenile lobsters and uses marking and recapture techniques to investigate growth rates and survival.

Program scientists have developed a set of rigorous training tools to teach volunteers how to census lobsters at nursery grounds in the lower intertidal zone. The census data collected by volunteers are extremely valuable as indicators of lobster fishery health because the juvenile lobsters of today represent the catches of tomorrow.

Anyone with the time and inclination (and a good pair of boots!) can participate in this program. It's easy and it's fun. Involving volunteers of different age groups and backgrounds aids in community building and provides public access to scientific research and knowledge. This project can thereby help to bridge the gap between science and the public through hands-on training and accessible learning.

The Marine Mammal Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of injured, sick, and orphaned marine mammals. The Center relies heavily on a dynamic volunteer work force comprised of more than 800 individuals from Mendocino to San Luis Obispo counties. Volunteers handle everything from cleaning pens to preparing food, updating medical charts, administering antibiotics, and taking blood samples.

Volunteering at The Marine Mammal Center is fun and a great way to meet others who share a concern for wildlife and the ocean environment. Your special talents can make an important contribution!

World Water Monitoring Day is an international program that encourages citizen volunteers to monitor their local water bodies. An easy-to-use test kit enables everyone from children to adults to sample local water bodies for basic water quality parameters: temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity), and dissolved oxygen.

Though World Water Monitoring Day is officially celebrated on September 18, the monitoring window is extended to cover the period from March 22 (World Water Day) until December 31. Participants are encouraged to make their observations at anytime within that extended window.

The results of current and past studies are shared with participating communities around the globe through the organization's online Data & Reports page.

ReefBase gathers available knowledge about coral reefs into one information repository. It is intended to facilitate analysis and monitoring of coral reef health and the quality of life of reef-dependent people, and to support informed decisions about coral reef use and management.

A great part of the coral reef resources in the world are in danger of destruction due to over exploitation, degradation of habitat, and changes in global climate. Globally, the resulting loss of income from fisheries is estimated to be billions of dollars a year and affects many millions of people. With this in mind, ReefBase has the following goals:

- Improve sharing and use of data, information, and knowledge in support of research and management of coral reef resources.
- Be the first place where scientists, managers, other professionals, as well as the wider public go for relevant data, information, publications, literature, photos, and maps related to coral reefs.
- Provide free and easy access to data and information on the location, status, threats, monitoring, and management of coral reef resources in over 100 countries and territories.

FishBase is an information system with key data on the biology of all fishes. The information will be used to create up-to-date distribution maps to assist in monitoring trends in biodiversity.

Divers, anglers, aquarists, and researchers can create their personal or institutional databases of where and when they have seen, caught, or acquired a particular fish. Biodiversity managers can create national fish biodiversity databases to keep track of local regulations and uses. Anthropologists can create a database on local knowledge about fish.

Similar to an encyclopedia, FishBase offers different things for different people. Fishery managers, teachers and students, taxonomists, conservationists, policymakers, research scientists, funding agencies, zoologists and physiologists, ecologists, geneticists, and the fishing industry, anglers, and scholars will find more than 100,000 common names of fishes together with the language/culture in which they are used and comments on their etymology.

Earthdive is a global citizen science project that calls on recreational scuba divers and snorkelers to monitor the ocean for key indicator species.

When you participate in Earthdive, your observations are recorded in a special database known as the Global Dive Log and are accessible through a clever Google mapping interface. Over time, observations are aggregated to create a Global Snapshot of the state of the world’s oceans.

In addition to being an international research project, Earthdive is also an advocacy conduit for marine conservation. Each contributor's name is added to a petition demanding action from policymakers to help protect our oceans.

Earthdive is a revolutionary new concept in citizen science and a global research project for millions of recreational scuba divers who can help preserve the health and diversity of our oceans.

EnvironMentors provides mentors to high school students from under-represented backgrounds for college degree programs in environmental and related science fields. The program matches minority high school students with college and university faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and science and environmental professionals, in one-to-one mentoring relationships. Working together, students and mentors develop rigorous environmental science research projects over the course of the academic year.

In the spring, EnvironMentors students present their projects to elementary school classes in their respective school districts and to a team of judges at each chapter's EnvironMentors Fair. The top three students from each chapter travel to Washington, D.C., to present their project at the National EnvironMentors Fair.

EnvironMentors' integrative approach to identifying pressing environmental issues through hands-on application of the scientific method supported by a mentor has proven beneficial all students and life-changing for some.