Pollinators of sunflowers through citizen science: an adult education approach

english

2023

volume 31, issue 1

adult education   pollinators   sunflowers

Prirodoslovni muzej Slovenije

We conducted a citizen science project where the participants observed pollinators on sunflowers. Individual or group observations resulted in over 1800 observation sessions with over 5000 pollinators counted, at various locations across Slovenia. The aim of the project was first to use the framework of citizen science as a teaching platform in adult education to educate the participants about pollinators and their importance, and second, to study the pollinators of sunflowers based on the time of the day, weather, and different geographical characteristics. We focused on studying the differences based on the level of urbanization, altitude, and between different regions. The results are consistent with the previous studies of pollinator communities in Slovenia, however, we are aware of the unbalanced dataset resulting from an uneven distribution of observing sites and observation times. This is a common outcome in citizen science projects but can be addressed with careful planning in future studies.

20.10.2023