The role of community science in orthopteran research

Abstract

Orthopterans are commonly encountered in rural, suburban, and urban landscapes and have charismatic songs that attract the public’s attention. These are ideal organisms for connecting the public with science and critical concepts in ecology and evolution, such as habitat conservation and climate change. In this review, we provide an overview of community science and review community science in orthopterans. Best practices for orthopteran community science are provided, with a focus on audio recordings and highlighting new ways in which scientists who study orthopterans can engage in community science. Before the modern era, scientific discovery was commonly made by people who were not scientists by profession (Brenna 2011, Miller-Rushing et al. 2012). This began to change in the middle of the nineteenth century when science became highly academic, with greater “gatekeeping” of knowledge, and data collection became increasingly expensive. As a result, much of the knowledge gained during that time has been effectively withheld from non-scientists in difficult-to-obtain scientific journals, and there were few opportunities for the public to directly engage with scientific research. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort from the scientific community to change the way we engage with the public. These “citizen” or “community” science projects are filling gaps in the modern approach to scientific inquiry (Jordan et al. 2012, Toomey and Domroese 2013, Johnson et al. 2014). Here, we provide an overview of community science and highlight the exciting and unique role that community science can play in orthopteran research. We focus on how acoustic surveys can be used to study orthopteran biodiversity, provide best practices for orthopteran community science, and suggest future avenues for research.