Community Science
Community Science Projects at The Maritime Aquarium
Community science is the voluntary involvement of the public in scientific research. Community scientists can help design experiments, collect data, analyze results, and solve problems. Their work helps researchers successfully complete their projects and gain a better understanding of the natural environment. Anyone can be a community scientist! It doesn't matter your location, age, background, or experience level.
Community science is the voluntary involvement of the public in scientific research. Community scientists can help design experiments, collect data, analyze results, and solve problems. Their work helps researchers successfully complete their projects and gain a better understanding of the natural environment. Anyone can be a community scientist! It doesn't matter your location, age, background, or experience level.
City Nature Challenge:
Invented by citizen science staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Lila Higgins) and California Academy of Sciences (Alison Young). The City Nature Challenge is an international effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. It’s a bio blitz-style competition where cities are in a contest against each other to see who can make the most observations of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people. This 4-day event is held in the spring and The Maritime Aquarium has been organizing the Fairfield and Westchester County City Nature Challenge since 2020.
Freshwater Mussels of Connecticut:
Freshwater mussels are one of the most imperiled groups of animals in the United States. Nearly 35 species have gone extinct in the last 100 years. Today, of the 12 freshwater mussel species found in Connecticut, seven are endangered, threatened, or are species of concern. The goal of this project is to collect presence absence data on freshwater bivalves in Connecticut. To gain a better understanding of the distribution and status of these invertebrates, The Maritime Aquarium has developed the Freshwater Mussels of Connecticut project. Volunteers will be able to participate independently or during staff led outings and report where mussels are observed.
FrogWatch
Frogs and toads play a crucial role in wetland ecosystems and are considered indicators of environmental health. Many frog and toad populations have been in decline, and it is important to understand the scope, geographic scale, and cause of these declines. FrogWatch U.S.A. is a national citizen science project run through A.Z.A. focused on inspiring conservation through education. Once volunteers are trained to identify frogs by their unique calls, they select a local wetland to monitor through the spring and summer. We have partnered with Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History and Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo to form the Peabody-Beardsley-Maritime Chapter. Trainings are held in late winter/early spring.
Project Limulus
This tag-and-release research/education project focuses on population ecology of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) in Long Island Sound.
Jennifer Mattei of Sacred Heart University's Biology Department is the principle investigator of this long-term community-wide research project. The Maritime Aquarium participates by training volunteers to tag and collect data on horseshoe crabs encountered during field studies.
Horseshoe crabs have great ecological and biomedical importance. Survival of migratory shorebirds has been linked to the horseshoe crab's breeding season as these birds depend on horseshoe crab eggs as a food source to fuel a 9,000-mile migration. Additionally, a component in horseshoe crab blood is used to detect bacterial contamination in manufactured drugs and other pharmaceutical products. By understanding the population dynamics of this species, we will be better able to manage their harvest and prevent their extinction.
Terrapin Tracking Team
The Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys t. terrapin) is a species of special concern in the state of Connecticut. One of the greatest threats to turtles, including the diamondback terrapin, is road mortality. In an effort to mitigate car strikes, The Terrapin Tracking Project was developed by The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), The Connecticut Department of Transportation, The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, and Western Connecticut State University. Trained citizen scientists are assigned a roadway to monitor for terrapin mortalities once a week from April through September. Trained monitors need to be 18 years or older. Children can accompany a trained adult.
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Who can participate in citizen science projects?