AtlantECO

The logo of the AtlantECO project

The aim of subtask 4.2.3 was to generate and implement a light version of AtlantECO’s protocols to be carried out by citizen scientists along latitudinal and longitudinal routes across the Atlantic.

The first phase of the subtask focused on the development of smaller, affordable, easy-to-use instruments for genomics and imaging, and on the generation of simple yet comprehensive protocols to be used for data collection for citizen science. The second phase of the subtask focused on the deployment, feedback collection and subsequent improvement of the protocols and instruments in an iterative process.

The first phase of the project (2020-2021) has been dedicated to improving the instrumentation . Taking advantage of Tara’s Atlantic crossing in December 2020, instruments for both plankton collection (High Speed Net, HSN) and plankton imaging (PlanktoScope) were embarked and compared to their state-of-the-art commercial equivalents present on board (decknet and Flowcam respectively). The results obtained during Tara’s transect have been published in 2022 in open access (Mériguet et al, 2022). The problems encountered and the feedback obtained from Tara’s sailors, used as first citizen scientists, let to the development of the final versions of the HSN and PlanktoScope to be deployed in AtlantECO. These versions were further tested for 1) technical performance, with deployment of the instruments in several laboratories participating in AtlantECO (Lombard’s and Lopes’ labs) and 2) usability,  with a workshop organized in collaboration with the Institut Nicod for Cognitive Science (Paris), aimed at testing instruments usability along with a first version of protocols for citizen science.

From 2022 to 2024, 30 citizen scientists (ranging from engineering students to professional sailors, psychologists, finance officers and graphic designers, a.o.) have operated onboard their boats to collect data on plankton with the S4S lighter protocols and instruments, for a total of ~200 samples. 

In addition to the samples, feedback on the experience was collected from the citizens who participated in the project. This feedback will be analyzed in the context of a doctoral thesis at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris focusing on the interaction between science and society and on how citizen science affects the cognition of the ocean in the participants.

Thanks to the actions undertaken by the subtask 4.2.3 of AtlantECO, long-term collaborations have been established between the civil society (e.g Ocean Trotter, South Wind Shipyard) and the scientific laboratories of AtlantECO (Sorbonne University, Cape Town University) that will continue beyond AtlantECO.

As an unexpected result, one of the instruments developed in the first phase (the PlanktoScope) has been adopted by several laboratories implicated in AtlantECO (Lombard’s, Lopes’, Rocke’s, Freire’s labs) as a routine instrument for plankton imaging.

Overall, the work carried out in subtask 4.2.3 highlighted both the complexity and the potential of citizen science approach and stressed the importance of training and of clear and usable instructions for successful data collection. We have learned a great deal on the difficulties of carrying out high-quality citizen science of the ocean, in particular concerning data quality and metadata reliability, and on the solutions we can implement to face these challenges.

AtlantECO has allowed to set the basis for a stronger, more reliable citizen science of the ocean for the years to come.