AmSci Opportunities

Image from Wikipedia: Monarch Butterfly

The great Fall migration of the Monarch Butterfly has begun. You may soon see hundreds of butterflies fluttering overhead has they instinctively navigate their way to the very same spot in Mexico where their parents left from last spring… they’ve never been there before, but they somehow know exactly where to go… one of twelve isolated mountain tops in central Mexico.

Join the citizen science program with Journey North and help track the observations of the flight of the butterfly. Starting August 28 through the arrival of the Monarchs in Mexico by the end of October, the program will post weekly news updates of the migration progress. This will certainly be an interesting and exciting process to follow, so DPRI AmSci Journal will also be keeping an eye on the flight in our Today’s Science News section!

Journey North: Monarch Butterfly Fall Migration Program [ VISIT ]

Register to Watch and Report your Butterfly Observations [ JOIN ]

Environmental researchers from the University of Southern Australia are soliciting assistance from citizen scientists to help better understand the still mysterious behavior of the possum. Because the animal lives among and shares space with humans, it’s difficult to track and monitor their behavior without trespassing and interfering with the neighborhood.

So, Professor Chris Daniels has set up a brief on line survey for locals to submit observations–including the lack of observations–of the possum population. With the critical assistance from citizen science, he hopes to gain new insight into the population distribution of possums and how people manage their interactions with the creature.
“Spies needed for ‘Operation Possum'” :: The Advertiser :: August 20, 2008 :: [ READ ]

Operation Possum Online Survey [ VISIT and take th SURVEY ]

Just completing its second summer of data collection, a great new program brings citizen scientists from across the country to report observations on life cycle events from plants in their own backyard. The program called Project BudBurst is lead by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Phenology Network, and collects information on the timing of the first bud, first flower, and seed dispersal for plants.

Visit Project BudBurst to learn more about the research, download the program activity guide, and plan to submit your critical observations for next year’s cycle in Spring 2009.

Frogs make music … and like any great sonorous pattern, one only has to learn more and experience a little to appreciate it as true music. This is what University of Nebraska-Lincoln herpetologist Dennis Ferraro is trying to support with his compilation of “Frog Calls of Nebraska” [ order online ].

Learning the rhythms of frogs can certainly be aesthetically pleasing, but even more so a detailed knowledge of the frog language can help scientists track population trends. A decline in frog populations has become such a concern, that 2008 is the official “Year of the Frog“.

Online databases exists for local regions as well as a national program supported by the National Wildlife Foundation that allow citizen scientists the opportunity to learn specific frog calls and report the findings for nation-wide monitoring systems.

“Frog calls of Nebraska CD will help fans and trackers” :: The Lincoln Journal Star :: August 3, 2008 :: [ READ ]

Online database for Nebraska: Amphibians & Reptiles of Nebraska [ VISIT ]

Join FrogwatchUSA [ VISIT ]

During the Summer of 2009, NASA will torpedo a big barrel of metal into a forever dark spot on the Moon producing an explosion on the order of 2,000 pounds of dynamite. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is designed to target a location that is permanently located in a shadow of the Sun where there is a possibility of having water ice stored at the constant estimated temperature of 40 degrees above absolute zero.

We won’t actually be able to see the crash on the surface, but the plume is what is of interest … if water ice existed in the dark spot, then it might be thrown up into the hyper-thin atmosphere and water molecules vaporized into constituent H and OH, which can then be detected by their characteristic wavelengths.

Let alone that this mission is the first critical experimental step to returning human beings to the Moon — for permanent residence — but, the greatest part of this lunar research program is that NASA will be scheduling the event so that amateur astronomers in Hawaii and the western United States will be able to monitor the action from their backyard telescopes (as well as professional astronomers with their multi-million dollar telescopes).

Learn more about the LCROSS mission by following the links below and find out how you can take part in the experiment. Mission scientists believe that the impact plume will be visible from amateur-class telescopes with apertures as small as 10 to 12 inches. NASA will be activity soliciting images from the public and will be posting additional information on this outstanding opportunity on their website.

DPRI AmSci Journal will keep a watch on the developments, so stay tuned! (And, be sure to register with DPRI to receive free email updates!)

A new citizen science survey of migratory birds in South Africa is being launched this week by the Ndlovu Node of the SA Environmental Observation Network. Locals will record observations of the arrival of specific species to help track the migratory behavior, which might be related to potential issues in regional climate change. In particular, as habitats change, birds will migrate to alternate areas that might better match their climate preferences.

This study is expanding on results earlier this year from the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which found significant decreases in migrations of certain bird species from Africa into Europe.