The COVID-19 lockdown has had a marked effect on citizen science projects, such as the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, SABAP2. With their mobility severely constrained, most citizen scientists in South Africa were not able to submit full protocol lists during the Alert Level 5 lockdown. There was a 70% decline in full protocol list submissions in April 2020, and only 20% of the number of pentads was surveyed, compared with the same period in the previous three years. The decline in ad hoc lists is also evident, with about a 50% decline in the number of lists submitted and 25% of the usual number of pentads. The number of citizen scientists submitting ad hoc lists only declined by about 15% in April, compared with previous years, indicating that volunteers were still eager to contribute to the atlas project, despite the challenging conditions. The BirdLasser ‘Lockdown Challenge’ further encouraged participation. Although the ability of citizen scientists to contribute full protocol lists to SABAP2 may have suffered, other projects with a scope more suited to lockdown thrived. The ‘Lockdown Garden Surveys’ instigated as part of a study of urban bird communities proved extremely successful, with 283 people regularly contributing point counts, many on a daily basis. The overwhelmingly positive response to initiatives like these indicates that the lockdown may have actually increased people’s desire to participate in citizen science. The pandemic also has put the spotlight on nature within cities, encouraging people to take a fresh look at their surrounding greenspaces. The accompanying boom in citizen science and interest in nature is something that must be harnessed going forward, and we hope this can be sustained despite the harsh economic climate exacerbated by the pandemic.

COVID-19锁定对诸如南部非洲鸟类地图集项目SABAP2等公民科学项目产生了显着影响。由于行动能力受到严重限制，南非的大多数公民科学家在“ 5级警报”锁定期间无法提交完整的协议清单。与前三年同期相比，2020年4月提交的完整实验方案清单下降了70％，接受调查的五单元组数量仅减少了20％。临时列表的减少也很明显，提交列表的数量减少了约50％，而普通五单元组的数量减少了25％。临时提交的公民科学家人数与往年相比，4月的名单仅下降了约15％，这表明尽管条件艰巨，志愿者仍然渴望为地图集项目做出贡献。BirdLasser的“锁定挑战”进一步鼓励了人们的参与。尽管公民科学家向SABAP2贡献完整协议列表的能力可能受到了影响，但其他范围更适合锁定的项目蓬勃发展。作为对城市鸟类群落研究的一部分，“锁定花园调查”被证明是非常成功的，有283人定期提供点计数，其中许多每天都在进行。对此类举措的压倒性的积极反应表明，封锁实际上已经增加了人们参与公民科学的愿望。这场大流行还使城市内的自然成为人们关注的焦点，鼓励人们重新审视周围的绿地。随之而来的是公民科学的发展和对自然的关注，这是必须加以利用的，尽管大流行加剧了严峻的经济环境，但我们希望这种情况能够持续下去。