Characterizing Swiss Alpine Lakes: from Wikipedia to Citizen Science

In Switzerland, there are more than 1500 lakes located above 2000 meters of altitude. In order to understand the ecological impacts of climate change on bacteria communities in these high mountain lakes, researchers in project 2000Lakes analyze their chemistry and biology. Within the scope of this citizen science project, an educational platform has been created using the data mainly collected from Wikipedia and from the research results. By presenting Swiss alpine lakes and the 2000Lakes project in an interactive way, the goal of this platform is to raise interest and promote awareness about Swiss alpine lakes to the public, and ultimately, to conserve these ecosystems by joining forces with local citizens. Volunteers are invited to answer a survey that contains a list of questions regarding Swiss alpine lakes, whose answer can be found on the platform, and a list of usability questions, to which volunteers answer based on their own interact experience with the platform. The results of this survey are used to evaluate the effectiveness of this platform. Even though the general feedback is positive, some possible improvements are identified and hoped to be implemented in the future.