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  • Home
  • About
    • What we are about
    • Who we are
      • Professor Peter Macreadie
      • Dr Paul Carnell
      • Dr Stacey Trevathan-Tackett
      • Dr Maria M. Palacios
      • Dr Pawel Waryszak
      • Dr Melissa Wartman
      • Dr Micheli Duarte de Paula Costa
      • Dr Noyan Yilmaz
      • Dr Martino Malerba
      • Dr Lukas Schuster
      • Dr Tanveer Adyel
      • Dr Valentina Hurtado-McCormick
      • Dr Elodie Camprasse
      • Dr Sabiha Marine
      • Dr Vincent Raoult
      • Dr Jacqui Pocklington
      • Interns and Volunteers
      • Alumni
  • Research
    • Wetland Carbon
      • Blue Carbon
        • Seychelles Blue Carbon
        • Queensland Blue
        • Victoria’s Blue Carbon
        • Blue Carbon Management
      • Teal Carbon
        • Farm dams
        • Floating wetlands
        • Revitalising Australia’s Freshwater Wetlands
      • Tea Composition H2O
    • Ecosystem services
    • Ecosystem Restoration
      • Coastal Wetland Restoration
        • The Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program
        • Regenerating Our Coasts
        • Towards Blue Carbon Australian Carbon Credit Units
      • Kelp restoration
      • Freshwater Wetland Restoration
    • Citizen science
      • HSBC citizen science
      • GeelongPort citizen science
    • Microplastics
    • Marine Biosecurity
    • Decommissioning Infrastructure
  • Services
    • Wetland Carbon Assessments
    • Environmental Assessments
    • Environmental Restoration
    • Citizen Science
    • System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA)
    • Feasibility Assessments
    • Remote Sensing
    • Microbial Analysis
    • Marine Biosecurity
  • Publications
  • Vacancies
  • News
  • Donate
  • Contact
CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAMS

The #BlueCarbonArmy is a citizen science program and immersive experience aimed at educating community members into the value of coastal wetlands, while contributing to Blue Carbon research.

The Mission

This citizen science program aims to educate and empower community members into the value of coastal wetlands, while contributing to coastal blue carbon research. While participants receive an immersive experience into climate change science and the magic of coastal wetlands, scientists increase their sampling effort and advance blue carbon research.

The citizen science days start with educational talks where participants are introduced to topics of coastal wetlands, ecosystem services and climate change. Then, citizen scientists travel to local wetlands and support scientists with data collections activities in the field (eg. collection of soil cores, survey of coastal vegetation, etc..). Data is used by national and international researchers to better understand Blue Carbon dynamics and coastal systems.

Carbon Coring

Cores of wetland soil are collected and used to quantify carbon stocks and accumulation rates across sites

Plant surveys

Biomass surveys of mangrove and saltmarsh species are used to quantify aboveground carbon stocks

TeaComposition H2O

Litter / tea decomposition is used to determine the ability of different wetlands to sequester carbon

Microbial Soil Sampling

Analysis of soil samples indicates which microbes are associated to high and low carbon preservation

Survey research

Multiple surveys test if education & immersive experiences can change attitudes towards wetlands

Our Citizen Science programs

Corporate

The HSBC program engaged over 300 corporate staff into coastal wetland research in Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. This 2-year program (2018-2020) fueled 7 research projects and was funded by HSBC in partnership with Earthwatch Australia.

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Community & schools

Across a range of locations nationally and internationally, our citizen science programs aim to empower local communities with new knowledge about the environment and climate change while protecting and restoring native ecosystems and cultural heritage.

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Industry

The GeelongPort Citizen Science program is a 2-year initiative started in 2022, which aims at connecting the GeelongPort community to coastal ecosystems and climate change research, whilst advancing Australia’s blue carbon science and saltmarsh restoration.

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Selected media

Updates from the field

  • Protecting and Restoring an Urban Wetland: Truganina Wetlands Citizen Science Workshops

    News,Citizen Science / January 30, 2023

  • Invasive Manoeuvres: Citizen scientists assist with ongoing monitoring of Point Lillias, a threatened coastal grassland ecosystem with significant cultural heritage

    News,Citizen Science,VicWetlandRehab / July 28, 2022

  • Citizen scientists explore the carbon gains from coastal rehabilitation

    Citizen Science,GeelongPort,News / May 12, 2022

  • The #BlueCarbonArmy welcomes GeelongPort staff

    Citizen Science,GeelongPort,News / April 14, 2022

  • Gippsland farmers join the #BlueCarbonArmy wave

    Citizen Science / February 17, 2022

  • Future generation #BlueCarbonArmy

    Citizen Science / February 17, 2022

  • Citizen Science Workshop: Gippsland Wetland Restoration

    Citizen Science,News / January 17, 2022

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Protecting cultural heritage and restoring a threatened ecosystem at Point Lillias

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 8, 2021

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Restoration of an urban coastal wetland (Truganina Wetland) informed through citizen science research

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 1, 2021

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Saltmarsh restoration and monitoring utilising citizen scientists in Swan Bay

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / July 14, 2021

  • Wetland citizen scientists rejoin and rejoice the final leg of the research project at Hobsons Bay

    News,Citizen Science / March 1, 2021

  • Citizen scientists from Hobsons Bay join research activities in local saltmarsh

    Citizen Science,Fieldwork / February 10, 2020

  • Field Recap Sydney #21

    Citizen Science,HSBC / November 11, 2019

  • Field Recap Sydney #20

    Citizen Science,Fieldwork,HSBC / October 28, 2019

  • 3CA funding for Wetland Restoration Citizen Science program

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / October 3, 2019

#BlueCarbonArmy

Follow the program on social media using #BlueCarbonArmy

Contact

Dr Maria Palacios

(m.palacios@deakin.edu.au)

Deakin University
  • Home
  • About
    • What we are about
    • Who we are
      • Professor Peter Macreadie
      • Dr Paul Carnell
      • Dr Stacey Trevathan-Tackett
      • Dr Maria M. Palacios
      • Dr Pawel Waryszak
      • Dr Melissa Wartman
      • Dr Micheli Duarte de Paula Costa
      • Dr Noyan Yilmaz
      • Dr Martino Malerba
      • Dr Lukas Schuster
      • Dr Tanveer Adyel
      • Dr Valentina Hurtado-McCormick
      • Dr Elodie Camprasse
      • Dr Sabiha Marine
      • Dr Vincent Raoult
      • Dr Jacqui Pocklington
      • Interns and Volunteers
      • Alumni
  • Research
    • Wetland Carbon
      • Blue Carbon
        • Seychelles Blue Carbon
        • Queensland Blue
        • Victoria’s Blue Carbon
        • Blue Carbon Management
      • Teal Carbon
        • Farm dams
        • Floating wetlands
        • Revitalising Australia’s Freshwater Wetlands
      • Tea Composition H2O
    • Ecosystem services
    • Ecosystem Restoration
      • Coastal Wetland Restoration
        • The Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program
        • Regenerating Our Coasts
        • Towards Blue Carbon Australian Carbon Credit Units
      • Kelp restoration
      • Freshwater Wetland Restoration
    • Citizen science
      • HSBC citizen science
      • GeelongPort citizen science
    • Microplastics
    • Marine Biosecurity
    • Decommissioning Infrastructure
  • Services
    • Wetland Carbon Assessments
    • Environmental Assessments
    • Environmental Restoration
    • Citizen Science
    • System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA)
    • Feasibility Assessments
    • Remote Sensing
    • Microbial Analysis
    • Marine Biosecurity
  • Publications
  • Vacancies
  • News
  • Donate
  • Contact
Blue Carbon Lab