Abstract

Hoyer, MV, Canfield, DE Jr. 2021. Volunteer-collected water quality data can be used for science and management. Lake Reserv Manage. 37:235–245.

This study addresses concerns that comparison studies between professional and volunteer-collected data have been of limited scope, conducted under experimental conditions, and that results may not be applicable to existing large-scale, long-term volunteer monitoring datasets. Historical (2008 to 2019) phosphorus, nitrogen, chlorophyll, and Secchi data collected by 5 Florida organizations charged with monitoring water quality were compared with Florida LAKEWATCH volunteer-collected data from 216 lakes. The state organizations had National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC)-certified laboratories and LAKEWATCH used modified procedures needed to accommodate a volunteer program. The lakes are located in central Florida, range in trophic status from oligotrophic to hypereutrophic, and provided approximately 650 independent overlapping annual geometric mean pairs for comparison. Paired t-tests comparing logarithmic transformed annual geometric mean data pooled from all professional organizations with similar overlapping volunteer-collected data showed significant (P < 0.05) differences for phosphorus, nitrogen, and Secchi depth but not for chlorophyll. The significant differences when reported arithmetically were only 1.1 µg/L, −1.1 µg/L, and 0.1 m, respectively. Regression analyses on the same data showed strong significant (P < 0.05) relations with coefficient of determinations (R²) of 0.91, 0.98, 0.79, and 0.78 for phosphorus, nitrogen, chlorophyll, and Secchi depth, respectively. Slopes for each paired regression were not significantly different from 1. These results demonstrate that volunteer-collected data were equivalent to data collected professionally, that the quality of volunteer data can be similar to that produced by NELAC-certified laboratories, and thus that data are adequate for both research and management.

摘要

Hoyer, MV, Canfield, DE Jr. 2021。志愿者收集的水质数据可用于科学和管理。湖泊保护区管理。37:235-245。

这项研究解决了以下问题：专业数据和志愿者收集的数据之间的比较研究范围有限，在实验条件下进行，结果可能不适用于现有的大规模、长期志愿者监测数据集。由负责水质监测的 5 个佛罗里达组织收集的历史（2008 年至 2019 年）磷、氮、叶绿素和 Secchi 数据与佛罗里达州 LAKEWATCH 志愿者从 216 个湖泊收集的数据进行了比较。州组织拥有国家环境实验室认证会议 (NELAC) 认证的实验室，而 LAKEWATCH 使用了适应志愿者计划所需的修改程序。这些湖泊位于佛罗里达州中部，营养状况从贫营养到超富营养，并提供了大约 650 个独立重叠的年度几何平均数对进行比较。配对t检验比较从所有专业组织汇集的对数转换年度几何平均数据与相似的重叠志愿者收集的数据显示 磷、氮和 Secchi 深度的显着差异 ( P < 0.05)，但没有叶绿素的差异。算术报告的显着差异分别仅为 1.1 µg/L、-1.1 µg/L 和 0.1 m。对相同的数据回归分析显示出强显著（P 与测定的系数（<0.05）关系- [R ²) 对于磷、氮、叶绿素和 Secchi 深度分别为 0.91、0.98、0.79 和 0.78。每个配对回归的斜率与 1 没有显着差异。这些结果表明，志愿者收集的数据与专业收集的数据相同，志愿者数据的质量可以与 NELAC ​​认证实验室产生的数据相似，因此数据是足够研究和管理。