Fig. 1. Different ways that scientific inquiry can inform the adaptive management of natural resources, with the scale of management, as well as optimizing the dual goals of research and education, maximized in the Citizen Science and Adaptive Citizen Science models. Check marks indicate professionals; stick people represent public participants. Dashed arrows indicate the iterative aspect of the adaptive management process and solid arrows indicate the iterative aspect of the scientific process. Small arrows between professionals and public participants indicate points of intensive transfer of information, an important element to ensure “buy-in” of participants in taking action. The degree of collaboration between professionals and non-professionals increases from left to right. Expanding the Citizen Science Research model to Adaptive Citizen Science Research model as described in this paper integrates more levels of public participation without sacrificing scale, such that management can be coordinated and evaluated iteratively.