Utilising tourist-generated citizen science data in response to environmental challenges: A systematic literature review.

There has been a proliferation of studies that have examined the impacts of public participation in Citizen Science (CS) that respond to environmental challenges and the recovery of ecosystems, endangered species or other important natural assets. However, comparatively few studies have explored how tourists may play a critical role in the generation of CS data and thus it has been posited that many potential opportunities remain unrealised. By systematically analysing studies that have utilised tourist-generated data in response to environmental challenges or issues, this paper seeks to establish an appraisal of what has so far been established in extant literature and to identify future possibilities for the inclusion of tourists in CS. Via our literature search, a total of 45 peer-reviewed studies were identified via the PRISMA search protocol. Our findings reveal numerous positive outcomes were reported that highlight the significant, yet largely untapped, potential of tourist integration in CS, with studies also offering a range of recommendations on how tourists could be included more effectively to expand scientific knowledge. Notwithstanding, several limitations were observed, and it is critical that future CS projects that utilise tourists for data collection purposes are acutely aware of the challenges they may encounter.

Spatial performance assessment of reed bed filtration in a constructed wetland.

Constructed wetlands (CW) are implemented to improve water quality through filtration by plants (macrophytes), which sequester nutrients and contaminants. Macrophyte beds in CWs reduce the speed of water flow, aiming to improve the water quality by sedimentation and filtration with increasing distance from the inflow. Few studies have assessed spatial distribution and accumulation concentrations of nutrients and contaminants in CW macrophytes as a performance indicator for wetland functionality and management. Macrophytes and water were analysed for nutrient and contaminant accumulation in-situ at a stormwater-fed CW and water remediation site in South Australia. During the austral summer, macrophytes were sampled at 36 sites and water at 46 sites selected by a systematic GIS produced grid covering the entire wetland, which determined distance from the inflow for each site. A total of 144 Schoenoplectus validus (stems and roots) macrophyte samples (i.e. carbon-C, nitrogen-N, Trace elements) and 183 water samples (i.e. total suspended solids-TSS, total nitrogen-TN, total carbon-TC, nitrate-NO3-/ nitrite-NO2- and ammonia-NH4+) were analysed. Concentrations of water chemistry parameters that significantly increased with distance away from inflow included; TC (P = 0.0008), TN (P = 0.0001), and NH4+ (P = 0.0001), while there was significant decrease in TSS (P = 0.0001). The macrophyte S. validus significantly decreased in height (P = 0.0001) and biomass (P = 0.03) with distance from the inflow. Spatial mapping of nutrients and contaminants with distance from inflow identified increasing TC and C characteristics from inflow to outflow and identified where TSS were removed from the water column. Through this spatial assessment approach of the Oaklands CW, management has identified problem areas with flow regimes that require further investigation to enhance macrophyte water filtration performance which can be used in CWs elsewhere in the world.

Establishing the South Australian Macrobenthic Traits (SAMT) database: A trait classification for functional assessments.

Trait-based approaches are increasingly used as a proxy for understanding the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Macrobenthic fauna are considered one of the major providers of ecosystem functions in marine soft sediments; however, several gaps persist in the knowledge of their trait classification, limiting the potential use of functional assessments. While trait databases are available for the well-studied North Atlantic benthic fauna, no such trait classification system exists for Australia. Here, we present the South Australian Macrobenthic Traits (SAMT) database, the first comprehensive assessment of macrobenthic fauna traits in temperate Australian waters. The SAMT database includes 13 traits and 54 trait-modalities (e.g., life history, morphology, physiology, and behavior), and is based on records of macrobenthic fauna from South Australia. We provide trait information for more than 250 macrobenthic taxa, including outcomes from a fuzzy coding procedure, as well as an R package for using and analyzing the SAMT database. The establishment of the SAMT constitutes the foundation for a comprehensive macrobenthic trait database for the wider southern Australian region that could facilitate future research on functional perspectives, such as assessments of functional diversity and changes to ecosystem functioning.

Establishing precise estimates of abundance in patchy habitats of the marine nearshore.

Exploratory investigations of optimal sampling designs are a critical component of the decision-making process in ecology where inherent natural variation can lead to erroneous conclusions if left unexamined. Pilot studies and exploratory analyses that investigate the precision of sampling regimes may reduce the chances of erroneous results and can be used to optimise processing time in larger ecological research programs. In our study, we calculated optimal precision estimates for sampling macroinvertebrates and ichthyofauna in surf-zone wrack accumulations by investigating the precision of the mean for sub-samples of seine nets and also for the number of replicate seine nets to guide future sampling regimes. We discovered that the processing time for individual seine net samples could be reduced by 50% using sub-sampling and that time to process replicate seine net samples could be reduced by 25% while maintaining acceptable precision. In future, we suggest that the use of pilot studies with similar exploratory approaches should be less of an exception and more a critical component of ecological investigations, particularly in under-studied or newly-developing areas of research. Further, these types of exploratory approaches are crucially important in a variety of extremely patchy environments where variability is likely to be high.