SPOTTERON Citizen Science Blog

Introducing the apps: The Tea Bag Index

Thursday, 17 October 2019 18:20
Introducing the apps: The Tea Bag Index

In the Tea Bag Index Citizen Science App, everything is about soil. Various observation categories are ready to participate in, from easy soil classification and testing to the well-known method of burying and weighting teabags to measure the decay rate of plants. Citizen Scientists are welcome to participate worldwide and contribute to improving climate models and soil research.

Drinking tea for the climate?

The Tea Bag Index (TBI) collects data on soil observations and in particular on the dynamics of soil decomposition. The degradation of organic matter in the soil is part of the global carbon cycle, which provides information about the biological activity of the soil and is therefore important for climate change. Changes in carbon content in soil can both exacerbate and mitigate climate change.

The idea is simple:

You bury a tea bag (Lipton green tea or rooibos) and dig it out again about three months later. During this time, the tea leaves inside the teabag decompose and, depending on the grade of decomposition, provide us with information on what happens to the plant material in the soil.

This method was developed and successfully tested by a group of scientists from the Utrecht Univeristy, the Umeå University, the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, and the AGES - Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, so that the experiment is now carried out in many different schools around the world.

With this tested and established method, the decay rate of the plant material in the soil can be measured and climate models can be improved by that data.

The first tea bags were already buried in 2010. Since then, the initiators have developed and improved the method. The project was well-received by the media, was awarded several prizes, and went global in 2016. 

In 2017, Lipton changed the material of its teabags from woven nylon to non-woven PET bags. Therefore a new version of the TeaBagIndex had to be started because the new material could affect the measurement data. Now it is possible to enter data from both types of bags, as long as you specify them exactly.

The Tea Bag Index is now part of several projects, including Teatime4schools, where students bury tea bags and examine the dynamics of soil degradation.
There are already 150 schools involved in this project throughout Austria, and with the SPOTTERON Tea Bag Index app, they have the perfect tool for this project.

Our partner AGES just released a great new video featuring the Tea Bag Index citizen science app:

 

Official project website: http://www.teatime4science.org

Download and try the app here:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotteron.teabagindex
IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tea-bag-index-spotteron/id1465181150
Web-App for the browser: https://www.spotteron.com/teabagindex

View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.spotteron.net/about/testimonials/introducing-the-apps-the-tea-bag-index#sigProId7c6d37439e
More in this category:
« Introducing the Citizen Science Apps: SpiderSpotter Introducing the Citizen Science Apps: Mushroom Finder »
  • ”
    Our collaboration with SPOTTERON has been essential for our citizen science project. The ideas of our research have been efficiently implemented into the app in a simple and didactic way, thanks to the good communication and professionalism of the team.
    Sara Blanco Ramirez, PhD student, Hydrology and Climate
  • ”
    Mammals Atlas Kenya (MAKENYA), an operational mobile application to submit mammal sightings by citizens was launched in January 2021. I found the SPOTTERON team very magnanimous, highly professional, meticulous and committed to their work; and definitely I recommend the team to anyone interested in citizen science applications worldwide.
    Simon Musila, Mammalogy Section, National Museums of Kenya
  • ”

    Working with SPOTTERON for our citizen science app was the best decision our team could have made! Philipp and his team led us through the design process and helped us translate our ideas into reality. As US clients, we were surprised that there was no lag in communication due to the time difference where the SPOTTERON team works. I am convinced they work around the clock! They always responded quickly to our emails and scheduled calls to meet our schedule. I highly recommend working with SPOTTERON if you are designing a citizen science app.

    Jules Bruck, University of Delaware
  • ”

    Choosing SPOTTERON for our CrowdWater project was the best decision we could have made for developing the app. Excellent implementation of our (sometimes not entirely thought through) ideas, competent advice, and a fair business model - working with SPOTTERON is a major factor why CrowdWater is working so well.

    Prof. Jan Seibert, Department of Geography Hydrology and Climate, University of Zurich
  • ”

    SPOTTERON has enabled Tea Bag Index to widen our citizen scientist engagement methods and helped us to come up with ideas on how to bring soils closer to the public. It is a pleasure to work with a company who wants to create a platform that is a communication possibility for everybody involved in the project!

    Dr. Taru Sandén, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety - AGES
  • ”

    Working together with Spotteron has been a smooth and fast way to get our Citizen Science project started! Their impressive experience in app building as well as in communication with citizens has proven to be invaluable and complements nicely with a team of scientists taking their first steps in citizen science!

    Bram Vanthournout, Ghent University
  • ”

    GLOBAL 2000 has been working closely with Spotteron for more than 3 years. Together we have started the DreckSpotz app and are constantly developing it. The SPOTTERON team is not only incredibly competent, but above all very flexible and uncomplicated. That's why we feel extremely well looked after as an environmental organization and NGO.

    Johannes Frauscher, GLOBAL 2000, Friends of Earth Austria
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    The decision to use the SPOTTERON Citizen Science platform for our participatory project can be summarized best in this way: it was possible in a short time to create a well-working and user-friendly Citizen Science app for our research. The positive feedback on our project "Landauf - LandApp" shows that involving citizens in a scientific project can be a lot of fun when using the right tool.

    Daniel Fähle, National Archive Baden-Württemberg, Germany
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    The app developed by SPOTTERON is an ideal extension to our established methods and strengthens the inclusion of Citizen Scientists. The design and intuitive usability relate also to a young audience. Especially the community features make a direct feedback possible and it is especially motivating that the SPOTTERON team themselves are actively contributing in the app - a win-win situation for everyone.

    Irmgard Greilhuber, Mycological Society Austria, University of Vienna
  • ”Working with SPOTTERON to design the app was an interesting experience for me. As an ecology PhD student, I knew how to catch Brush-turkeys and design experiments to learn about their behaviour. I knew next to nothing about how to engage with the broader community at large. SPOTTERONS’s expertise was invaluable here, they have experience in designing apps that people want to use, and balance detail with ease of function.
    Matthew Hall, University of Sydney
  • ”
    I've worked with loads of app developers over my career, but none so high quality as SPOTTERON. Their capabilities are astounding. They are incredibly innovative, creative and agile with a keen sense of humour and lightness. SPOTTERON apps are the benchmark of how to do citizen science well. They are elevating our ability to engage with the natural world in a meaningful way.
    Jen Sutfin, EarthWatch Australia
  • ”

    SPOTTERON brings a lot of passion and lots of expertise in the field of Citizen Science to the table, to present projects - not only in technical terms - in the right light. The websites for both schweiz-forscht.ch and ecsa-conference.eu are based on good and easy cooperation with our Austrian partners.

    Yasemin Tutav, Science et Cité
  • ”

    I’m amazed by SPOTTERON's passion for CitizenScience, impressed by their energy and initiatives and grateful for what I’ve learned by collaborating with them on the Fjällkalendern app.

    Kjell Bolmgren, University of Stockholm
  • ”

    As a scientist, collaborating with SPOTTERON to create our Citizen Science App ‘Fågelbär’ was the right choice. We could focus on what type of data we want to collect and the team at SPOTTERON designed, built and are now running the App!

    Matilda Arnell, University of Stockholm
  • ”

    With our SPOTTERON App Nature's Calendar ZAMG we are always technically up-to-date. As a result we are able to offer our Citizen Scientists a tool which is also appealing to today's generation without having to worry about any technical questions.

    Thomas Hübner, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik ZAMG
  • ”

    Working with SPOTTERON implies working with a professional partner on the topics of Apps & Citizen Science. I was always very pleased about the reliability, but also the openness to try new things and the possibility to exchange with competent partners. Thanks!

    Dr. Dott. Didone Frigerio, University of Vienna, KLF Grünau/Almtal
  • ”

    With our project Roadkill, we were on the SPOTTERON platform since its beginnings, this way we got to witness the great development of this tool first-hand and were able to contribute in the shaping process. SPOTTERON manages the fine balance between scientific research, community management and modern design. The personal collaboration on a professional level supports the comfortable atmosphere in the project.

    Florian Heigl PhD, University of Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna
  • ”

    If you are looking for a dedicated team for the development of a Citizen Science App - even if that has to happen quite fast- you are in good hands at SPOTTERON. Fast communication, straightforward coordination and running updates of the app, even after the release, characterize our successful collaboration.

    Magdalena Gärtner, Center for Human-Computer Interaction, University of Salzburg
  • ”

    Through the SPOTTERON App "Was geht ab?" we were able to create an appealing and useful possibility for kids, to spot problem- and feel-good areas in their home- and school surroundings. In the SPOTTERON team we found reliable and creative partners, that care about more than just the implementation. 

    Juliane Stark, University of Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna
  • ”

    Thanks to the experience and the knowhow as well as the basic structure of SPOTTERON, we were able to have the CrowdWater apps developed in no time. We consider the model that allows every project to use all newly developed tools very fair and transparent. This way our apps even got some new features, we didn't even know we needed before.

    Simon Etter, University of Zurich
  • ”

    Through SPOTTERON we share more than just an app infrastructure with other projects, we also share ideas. This way we get to develop and constantly improve user-friendly apps, which are easy to handle and work for many different kinds of projects.

    Barbara Strobl, University of Zurich
  • ”

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    Daniel Dörler, University of Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna
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    What I especially like about SPOTTERON, is that we get to use many ideas and new tools that were developed for other projects in the SPOTTERON family without having to pay for them..

    Klaus Wanninger, Lacon
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