Wetlands Australia 33: Citizen scientists hit Sunshine Coast wetland to help ClimateWatch

Author: Lisa Ryan, Sunshine Coast Council

In addition to providing important ecological benefits, wetlands can also be important sites for learning and community engagement.

Located in the heart of Kabi Kabi Country on the Sunshine Coast, the Maroochy River wetlands have always been important sites for learning and passing on knowledge of Country. In this same spirit, for the past 30 years volunteers from the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary Support Group in partnership with Education Queensland and Sunshine Coast Council, have been engaging actively in citizen science programs in an effort to monitor, better understand and care for the wetlands. Over this time, new challenges such as climate change have arisen and new technologies like smartphones developed that can enhance and support efficient and effective citizen science programs.

In September 2020, the Maroochy Wetlands Support Group and Sunshine Coast Council, with funding support from the Australian Government Communities Environment Program, launched Sunshine Coast’s first ClimateWatch walking trail. ClimateWatch is a citizen science initiative of Earthwatch Australia that aims to understand phenology - the seasonal behaviour of Australia's plants and animals and how this is affected by changes in temperature and rainfall (eg. flowering, fruiting, breeding, migration and hibernation). Shifts in phenology are simple indicators for climate change responses in the natural world.

Launch of Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary ClimateWatch Trail. L-R Mr John Tucker (President Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary Support Group), Mr Ted O’Brien (Federal member Fairfax) and Cr Maria Suarez (Sunshine Coast Environment Portfolio Councillor), Uncle Tais K'Reala Randanpi (Kabi Kabi elder) and Prof Patrick Nunn (Director Sustainability Research Centre, University Sunshine Coast). Photo: Karlee Hooper.

As one of the first continent-wide phenology projects, ClimateWatch is an ambitious program that enables every Australian to be involved in collecting and recording data that will help shape the country’s scientific response to climate change. Over 100 indicator species have been selected based on being relatively common and easy to identify, safe to observe and having observable seasonal processes – with 49 of these species are known to occur within the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary.

Sanctuary visitors can easily participate in ClimateWatch by downloading the free app and submitting photos and seasonal field notes of their observations along the trail. The website also contains a field guide with ID photos and tips for what to look for when making field notes. For flora this might be first flowering or fruiting, new shoots or leaf fall. For birds this could be nesting, migration, breeding or even specific foods being eaten. Photos are all GPS tagged.

At the sanctuary, ClimateWatch is enabling the methodological capture and collation of important climate-related observations that previously were only being recorded anecdotally. The information is collated in a national database - The Atlas of Living Australia - providing a basis for detecting trend changes. Identifying such trends are essential for understanding and managing the impacts of climate change at a National level but can also inform management plans and climate adaption strategies locally, especially around biodiversity.

While the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary ClimateWatch Trail will provide useful data for Australia’s climate scientists, more importantly, it will also encourage community engagement in citizen science and -who knows- it may even provide the inspiration for the next generation of scientists.

Further information

Download the free ClimateWatch app from google play or the app store. ClimateWatch App for iPhone/Android

Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary Support Group members. L-R Derek Foster, Jo Foster and Debra Wedmaier entering ClimateWatch observations on a grey mangrove (Avicennia marina). Photo: Lisa Ryan.