(Press-News.org) Wetland restoration is expanding worldwide, but long-term success often remains uncertain. Most projects rely on short-term, expert monitoring that ends long before restored wetlands stabilize, leaving major gaps in understanding how restored wetlands actually evolve over time. One increasingly discussed way to close these gaps is to extend monitoring beyond professional teams by engaging local communities and citizens in long-term observation.
In a Perspective published (DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100656) in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology in January 2026, researchers from Aarhus University and Wetlands International examined how citizen science is currently used in wetland restoration worldwide. By reviewing 120 restoration sites, the team found that fewer than 20% formally integrate citizen science, even in regions with strong restoration policies. The authors argue that recent technological and institutional shifts now make it possible to move citizen science from the margins into the core of restoration monitoring, where it can directly inform adaptive management and long-term decision-making.
The study highlights a clear mismatch between the potential of citizen science and how it is currently used in wetland restoration. Most initiatives remain small, fragmented, and focused on education rather than long-term ecological monitoring. Citizen science projects are heavily concentrated in high-income regions, while wetlands in low- and middle-income countries—often under the greatest pressure—receive little participatory monitoring support.
The authors show that this situation is rapidly changing. Affordable satellites and drones now allow volunteers to track vegetation patterns and water dynamics across entire landscapes. Low-cost sensors enable citizens to monitor water quality, soil conditions, biodiversity, and even greenhouse gas fluxes. Smartphones and mobile platforms make it possible to collect large volumes of georeferenced data over long periods.
Crucially, the study emphasizes that data quality concerns, while still important, are increasingly manageable. Standardized protocols, automated checks, and expert-supported validation systems can substantially improve the reliability and transparency of citizen-generated data. The remain challenge lies largely in institutional practice. Restoration programs still treat citizen science as an add-on rather than a source of decision-relevant information. Integrating these data into formal monitoring systems would greatly improve spatial coverage, temporal continuity, and the ability to detect early signs of ecological success—or failure.
"Wetland restoration does not follow project timelines—it follows ecological ones," the authors note. They stress that relying solely on short-term expert assessments limits the ability to understand long-term outcomes. Citizen science offers a way to extend monitoring far beyond the lifespan of individual projects. When properly designed and validated, public observations can complement professional assessments rather than compete with them. The researchers argue that treating citizen science as monitoring infrastructure, instead of outreach activity, is essential for improving how restoration success is evaluated and managed over time.
Embedding citizen science into wetland restoration could reshape how restoration success is measured worldwide. It provides a scalable, cost-effective way to expand monitoring while strengthening public engagement with ecosystems. For practitioners, continuous local observations support adaptive management and faster responses to unexpected change. For policymakers, citizen-generated data can contribute to national reporting systems and global biodiversity and restoration targets. The authors suggest that future restoration guidelines should explicitly include citizen science, supported by clear protocols, training, and feedback. If widely adopted, this approach could help ensure that restored wetlands remain resilient, functional, and sustainable under increasing climate and land-use pressures.
###
References
DOI
10.1016/j.ese.2026.100656
Original Source URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100656
Funding information
This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon Europe programmes WET HORIZONS (Grant Agreement 101056848), NBS4Drought (Grant Agreement 101181351), and PATTERN (Grant Agreement 101094416).
About Environmental Science and Ecotechnology
Environmental Science and Ecotechnology (ISSN 2666-4984) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes significant views and research across the full spectrum of ecology and environmental sciences, such as climate change, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environment & health, green catalysis/processing for pollution control, and AI-driven environmental engineering. The latest impact factor of ESE is 14.3, according to the Journal Citation ReportsTM 2024.
END
Why wetland restoration needs citizens on the ground
2026-01-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Sharktober: Study links October shark bite spike to tiger shark reproduction
2026-01-23
New University of Hawaiʻi research confirms that “Sharktober” is real, revealing a statistically significant spike in shark bite incidents in Hawaiian waters every October. The study, which analyzed 30 years of data (1995–2024), found that about 20% of all recorded bites occurred in that single month, a frequency far exceeding any other time of the year. Researchers at UH Mānoa’s Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab published their findings in Frontiers in Marine Science.
The research, led by HIMB Professor Carl G. Meyer, determined ...
PPPL launches STELLAR-AI platform to accelerate fusion energy research
2026-01-23
A new computing platform that pairs artificial intelligence (AI) with high performance computing aims to end the bottleneck holding back fusion energy research by speeding the simulations needed to advance the field.
The project — known as the Simulation, Technology, and Experiment Leveraging Learning-Accelerated Research enabled by AI (STELLAR-AI ) — will be led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). STELLAR-AI will expand far beyond the Lab’s walls, however, bringing together national laboratories, universities, technology companies and industry partners to build the computational foundation ...
Breakthrough in development of reliable satellite-based positioning for dense urban areas
2026-01-23
Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are vital for positioning autonomous vehicles, buses, drones, and outdoor robots. Yet its accuracy often degrades in dense urban areas due to signal blockage and reflections. Now, researchers have developed a GNSS-only method that delivers stable, accurate positioning without relying on fragile carrier-phase ambiguity resolution. Tested across six challenging urban scenarios, the approach consistently outperformed existing methods, enabling safer and more reliable autonomous navigation.
Accurately determining position is critical for the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles and outdoor ...
DNA-templated method opens new frontiers in synthesizing amorphous silver nanostructures
2026-01-23
A research team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel DNA origami-based technique to synthesize stable, monolithic amorphous silver nanostructures under ambient conditions. By using DNA scaffold with fivefold rotational symmetry, the method introduces geometric frustration that effectively suppresses crystallization in metallic silver, a traditionally challenging feat due to the natural tendency of silver to form crystalline structures. Detailed characterization and molecular ...
Stress-testing AI vision systems: Rethinking how adversarial images are generated
2026-01-23
Deep neural networks (DNNs) have become a cornerstone of modern AI technology, driving a thriving field of research in image-related tasks. These systems have found applications in medical diagnosis, automated data processing, computer vision, and various forms of industrial automation, to name a few. As our reliance on AI models grows, so does our need to test them thoroughly using adversarial examples. Simply put, adversarial examples are images that have been strategically modified with noise to trick an AI into making a mistake. Understanding adversarial image generation techniques is essential for identifying vulnerabilities in DNNs and for developing more secure, reliable systems.
Despite ...
Why a crowded office can be the loneliest place on earth
2026-01-23
A comprehensive new review published in the Journal of Management synthesizes decades of research to understand the epidemic of workplace loneliness. By analyzing 233 empirical studies, researchers from Portland State University have identified how workplace conditions contribute to isolation and offer evidence-based paths to reconnection.
The research emphasizes that loneliness is distinct from social isolation. While isolation is about being alone, loneliness is the subjective feeling that one’s social relationships are deficient—meaning ...
Choosing the right biochar can lock toxic cadmium in soil, study finds
2026-01-23
Cadmium contamination in agricultural soils is a growing global concern, threatening food safety, crop productivity, and human health. New research shows that not all biochars work the same way and that choosing the right type of biochar can make the difference between trapping toxic metals in soil or unintentionally making them more mobile.
In a study published online on January 15, 2026, researchers report that biochar produced at high temperatures can work together with soil microbes to effectively immobilize cadmium, one of the most hazardous heavy metals found in farmland ...
Desperate race to resurrect newly-named zombie tree
2026-01-23
A recently identified tree species in Australia has been given the name ‘zombie’ by scientists who say ambitious assistance is needed to reverse its ‘living dead’ status.
University of Queensland botanist Professor Rod Fensham said it was a race against time to save Rhodamnia zombi from the fungal disease myrtle rust.
“This species did not have a name when it was first assessed in 2020, and since then 10 per cent of the trees have died and none of those remaining are producing flowers or fruit because of myrtle rust,” ...
New study links combination of hormone therapy and tirzepatide to greater weight loss after menopause
2026-01-23
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new study led by Mayo Clinic found that postmenopausal women receiving menopausal hormone therapy lost 35% more weight while taking tirzepatide, a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of overweight and obesity. The findings, published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health, could expand treatment possibilities for millions of women struggling with obesity and obesity-related diseases after menopause.
Menopause can accelerate age-related weight gain and increase the likelihood of developing overweight and obesity, which are major risk factors for cardiovascular ...
How molecules move in extreme water environments depends on their shape
2026-01-23
Water behaves in remarkable ways when heated and pressurized beyond its critical point. Under these extreme conditions, known as supercritical water, it no longer acts like an ordinary liquid. Instead, it takes on properties similar to organic solvents, dissolving hydrocarbons efficiently and transporting molecules rapidly. These unique features make supercritical water a promising green medium for energy conversion technologies such as biomass gasification, plastic recycling, and in situ fuel extraction.
Yet many of these reactions occur inside extremely ...