Community science for assessing the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems: Water quality monitoring, restoration, and outreach by young naturalists in Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

Community science models that complement formal scientific investigations are valuable tools for addressing gaps in knowledge and engaging the community. Freshwater quality monitoring and vulnerability assessment, for example, are essential for conserving freshwater ecosystems, but often suffer from limited resources. While municipal programs focus on priority areas, community-based models can improve overall coverage both spatially and temporally. As an example of how community science initiatives centered on freshwater ecosystems enhance monitoring capacity, we present the case of the Young Naturalists Club (YNC) in Nova Scotia, Canada. The YNC's Nature Guardians program involves youth aged 10–14 in water monitoring, restoration, and outreach activities within Shubie Park, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Between 2018 and 2021 the Nature Guardians collected water monitoring data at multiple park locations, and shared findings with city authorities and the Atlantic Water Network. In response to high bacteria counts, and concerns over nutrient influxes, the group's 2021–2023 restoration efforts have aimed to improve water quality, focusing on native plantings and outreach signage. This type of community-based monitoring offers several advantages, including local site selection based on community concerns, the potential for low-cost long-term monitoring, and community engagement. While a community-based monitoring model presents certain challenges including data standardization and verification, it offers a broader reach and can produce high-quality data when appropriate protocols are followed. This case underscores the potential of a community-based water quality monitoring approach and highlights the potential for community science to augment existing assessment structures, ultimately contributing to more resilient and sustainable freshwater ecosystems.

Introduction

Despite the importance of water quality monitoring and vulnerability assessment, there is often a lack of capacity for this work due to resource constraints, including personnel, funding, and time. ¹ Community-based approaches can help to address these constraints through complementary initiatives, and have the added benefits of supporting public participation and education.^1–3 While municipally funded monitoring programs can support specific priority areas, such as popular swimming beaches, ⁴ a complementary community-based model allows for greater coverage both spatially and temporally. One such model is the case of the water monitoring, outreach, and restoration being accomplished by a community science youth group in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Young Naturalists Club (YNC) is a Nova Scotia-based youth not-for-profit and registered charity providing natural history programming since 2006. ⁵ The Nature Guardians, a YNC program tailored to children ages 10–14 years old, has been engaged in water monitoring, outreach, and restoration activities in Shubie Park, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia since 2018 with the permission of park staff.

Case report

Between 2018 and 2021, when permitted by local COVID-19 regulations, the Nature Guardians collected water monitoring data at 4 (2018–2020) or 7 (2021) locations within the park. These sites represent distinct features within the park, such as locks, a duck pond, a shoreline dog park, a stream adjacent to the highway, and a marsh. With approximately 15 youth participants and 2–3 events per year, the group used a YSI multi-parameter probe and methods from the Fox Point Lake Water Quality Monitoring Program designed by Coastal Action ⁶ for community science projects to obtain bacteria counts (2018–2019 Enterococci, 2020–2021 E. coli), and measurements of surface temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, and total dissolved solids. Site details such as slope, ground cover, vegetation, and canopy cover were also recorded (Table S1). The group shared its findings with the Atlantic Water Network through the “Atlantic DataStream”, a free, open-access data portal for water quality data, and with the city of Halifax through contact with city planners and councilors.

In tandem with their water monitoring activities, the group has been engaged ongoing in restoration efforts within Shubie Park since 2018. Between 2018–2020 these efforts focused on seeding and planting pollinator-supporting plant species in various areas of the park, but the 2021 (2 events), 2022 (2 events), and 2023 (3 events) plantings focused specifically on improving water quality in Shubie Park (Fig. S2). This was both in response to concerns about excess nutrient influxes and to the bacteria counts that the group recorded – several sites including the duck pond and dog park had Enterococci levels which far exceeded the Health Canada guidelines for primary contact (≤70 cfu/100 ml) ⁷ at 1560 avg cfu/100 ml (2018, dog park beach) and 474.5 avg cfu/100 ml (2018, duck pond). These fecal contamination findings are consistent with the results of a commissioned pollution control study conducted by Stantec Consulting reported in the media on August 11 2019 which also highlighted the dangers of cyanobacteria from excess nutrient influxes. ⁸ The Nature Guardian's water quality planting has primarily focused on revegetating the denuded area adjacent to the dog park's shoreline. The group has planted native tree, shrub, and plant species with a goal of deceasing the vulnerability of this area to nutrient and bacteria influxes; ongoing efforts include additional planting activities. In collaboration with the park staff, the Nature Guardians also led the initiative to design and install a permanent metal sign at the dog park. This sign provides information on cyanobacteria and advises visitors on how they can be better stewards of the park (Fig. S3).

Discussion

Community-based water monitoring approaches like the Nature Guardian's water monitoring at Shubie Park have certain advantages over episodic vulnerability studies commissioned by municipalities. Compared to a large-scale study targeting a few representative areas, local, community-led data collection allows for site selection based on community concerns and priorities and low-cost, long-term monitoring. In this case, the Nature Guardians selected a local park that they were concerned about and that held value for them. In addition to the benefits of engaging youth in science, their investment in these issues led to them take action to reduce the vulnerability of the area – their outreach and revegetation initiatives. Being small scale and local, community science initiatives like this one have minimal travel, cost, and logistical barriers compared to larger monitoring programs. While the Nature Guardians and other Atlantic Canada-based groups benefit from the enviable situation where water monitoring equipment including a YSI multi-parameter probe is available to rent for free from the Atlantic Water Network, other low-cost equipment options and regional equipment banks exist to provision other locations worldwide.^9–11 While community science initiatives do not replace scientific data collection methods, they offer a flexible, low-cost, participatory model which can complement other methods and increase community investment.

Some challenges of this community-based freshwater monitoring model are shared by other forms of water monitoring and community science initiatives, such as when unexpected challenges such as park visitation bans during the COVID-19 lockdown led to gaps in data collection. Other challenges are more specific to a community sciences model; these include casual observations not necessarily meeting reporting standards or thresholds for comparability. ¹² For example, while the Nature Guardians collected data for the benthic macroinvertebrate community during their study, no standard protocol such as CABIN ¹³ was used, so the data were only useful within an education and anecdotal context compared to if it had been collected using a standardized approach. Other limitations include the spatial and temporal extent of this work – this is by its nature a case study over a short period of time, where data collection was performed by youth with no specialized training. This unevenness can lead to challenges in validating the community science data, limiting its utility; this is especially true when organizations do not have the means to store or archive samples or replicates for verification. Partnering with public institutions, such as Universities or conservation authorities, could help address these challenges. ¹⁴ For example, a contemporaneous study ¹¹ adapted an existing community science monitoring program to monitor lake water quality during the summer 2020 pandemic research interruption. In contrast to the Nature Guardian youth model, this lake monitoring study was more formalized, providing standardized training to program participants in the form of videos and detailed visual and written instructions for collecting and storing samples, and processing samples centrally at their lab. ¹¹ In the case of the Nature Guardians program, the main goal is education, to give the youth hands on experience monitoring and solving an environmental issue, with a secondary purpose of sharing data with partners who work in water quality or park management. Success with other participatory monitoring has demonstrated that with appropriate protocols, these goals can coexist – high quality data can be produced by community science groups which is comparable with specialist collected data.^10,15 While community science approaches differ in scale, scope, and degree of participant involvement,^10,16 when well designed and supported by motivated community members ¹⁷ they can be highly effective.

Conclusion

At its core, participatory monitoring and restoration represents community investment in the freshwater ecosystems that people use and rely on. Though qualifying the benefits and challenges of community science to participants and the broader community in different contexts is an area of ongoing research, ¹⁶ more eyes on our freshwater ecosystems means the potential for more early detection of issues and the development of community-led initiatives. ⁹ Community science is a growing but still under-utilized approach to ecosystem monitoring,^17,18 and these distributed local initiatives can enhance and complement research programs and mandated government monitoring work. ¹¹

Author biographies

Heather Cray is an instructor at Dalhousie University's School for Resource and Environmental Studies. Her pedagogical and research interests encompass all aspects of restoration ecology, environmental education, and landscape ecology.

Becky Parker is an ecologist and educator with Nature Nova Scotia and the Young Naturalists Club in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her interests include spatially rare plants like novel invasives and species at risk, and she is actively involved in policy, youth education, and conservation outreach.