The full form of bio is Biology Investigation Opportunities. Biological investigations (bio-investigations), such as the gathering and examination of field samples, as well as illustrations of research that you may carry out at home and in the surroundings of your neighborhood. Our immediate surroundings serve as a constant supply of knowledge as well as a book about the past and present. We occasionally need to attract attention to cues and evidence from our physical surroundings, which frequently complement maps or other data we may obtain online, whether it be a dangerous chemical spill, a change in biodiversity, an urban redevelopment project, or an improvement in water quality.
We refer to the processes of locating, collecting, and analyzing environmental samples and measurements as bio-investigation. These samples or phenomena may provide data that can be included in a larger research. By recording the processes and behaviors that take place, bio-investigation, like other types of investigation, creates knowledge that can be understood by others. You can share your experiences and findings through documentation up until the point where you are no longer the knowledge's primary keeper. Your bio-investigations might, for instance, concentrate on contaminated soils (soil, groundwater, soil gas), sludge and sediments (marine, estuarine, fluvial), air (ambient air, workplace air, air quality in a village or urban neighborhood), etc.
There are three steps in this guide:
Explaining the benefits of organizing yourself before performing research and collecting samples in the field,
providing the fundamentals of sampling techniques with many options for analyzing these samples,
Through providing input from the field, real-world examples, and connections between local concerns and research and awareness-raising efforts by local groups of people, we can demonstrate what you might find in various circumstances.
People all across the world, whether they live in the city or the country, near the sea or in the mountains, have one common objective: to grasp the information pertaining to their immediate surroundings and to take part in the ongoing development of this information. This is particularly true when it comes to climatic changes, accidents, and natural or man-made disasters.
We (local citizen investigators and activists) discovered that many people were overwhelmed and that others just wanted to meet over coffee to discuss these disasters, consider a new social configuration, and organise themselves to address these issues. These disasters occurred in June 2019 when an industrial abattoir spilled blood in one of the streams in Châteaubourg, France, or during the petrochemical industrial fire in Rouen in September of the same year.
Therefore, as a local group of citizen investigators, we placed equal weight on the setting of the meetings and our desire to collaborate as we did on the investigation techniques and sampling protocols we intended to use. There is a good chance that further calamities will strike, in various shapes and conditions. We have always been able to adjust and, more crucially, respond more successfully when we got together frequently prior to or following an occurrence.
There are components of culture, knowledge, and experience that are shared and passed when the recipes are created, used, and modified. The recipe for a Far Breton, a common cake from Brittany that speaks as much about the methods and ingredients used to make it as it does about the traditions and lifestyles of those who prepare it, serves as an example of this structure. No matter how informative a cooking recipe is, it can be modified when new (re)uses and adaptations are developed based on comments from a large number of individuals.
The same is true for environmental investigations, a field in which a straightforward analysis of the context itself can be quite helpful in understanding and applying research methods. As a result, be careful to meet the residents of the areas you intend to study and, if required, conduct written, audio, or video interviews with them after clarifying the questions (see "Interviews: the Human Element of Your Investigation"). Your worries and interest in this area are most definitely not unique to you. Establish connections with indigenous people. Together, you will engage in activities that form weaved relationships that will leave behind connections and memories, forming a historical framework.
Environmental difficulties can serve as a stage for intense political arguments and emotional outbursts, just like food crises do. These crisis scenarios are the hotbeds of social and political unrest that frequently result in the spread of altered or even purposefully false information. Test, watch out for, and evaluate these phenomena.
You need to know exactly where you can collect samples from and where doing so is illegal under the law for a variety of reasons in order to conduct bio-investigations. This information is provided through sampling authorizations. On the site you are aiming towards, biodiversity may be preserved, or a health alert (such as an illness risk) may be made public. This kind of information is frequently disseminated by the pertinent authorities, local associations, and concerned NGOs. Additionally, you may receive advice from those qualified to conduct fieldwork investigations (scientists, associations, NGOs, academics).
Situation - An explanation of the initial state of the area where you will intervene (e.g. a private agricultural field a few hundred metres from the factory, or within the perimeter of a surveilled building with demonstrations around it and police forces).
Task distribution and sectorization during implementation. Clarify who does what, how, and where.
Coordination includes how you communicate, who to call if there are issues, and both private and public security measures.
A bio-investigator’s mindset links the following actions:
Locating/discovering strategies and instruments,
Listing sampling sites,
Looking into a specific case,
Collecting field data and samples,
In this case, by analyzing samples or measurements on specified and indicated areas,
Analyses are interpreted,
Spreading the word outside of your effort to the team, the public, etc.
To choose intriguing and pertinent sites to gather samples for your bio-investigation, you can use a variety of techniques and instruments. Here, we'll introduce you to fresh approaches for pinpointing outdoor locations for environmental data collecting and physical sampling.
Infrastructures associated to energy (oil, gas, and electricity) and the facilities they support (production, storage, processing, and transportation) serve three purposes in your research:
They enable you to think about a landscape in terms of its energy network,
They help you during your investigations by letting you know where to go for information in particular cases.
They have a considerable impact on the topography and biological setting.
A plan for raising questions and putting potential solutions to the test is scientific research. Observations are frequently the first step in scientific research.
Several examples of scientific research are provided below:
Descriptive research, comparative research, experimental research, and so forth.
Create observations.
Pose a question.
Construct a hypothesis.
Test a hypothesis.
The descriptive investigation, comparative investigation, and experimental investigation are the three sorts of studies that scientists employ to explore and create answers for phenomena in nature.
The investigation's goal is to thoroughly evaluate the charges and the supporting documentation in order to establish whether and to what extent misbehavior has actually taken place.
An inquiry can: produce the data required to... pinpoint the fundamental factors that either directly or indirectly contributed to the undesirable incident.
Identify the manufacturing and management flaws that allowed the incident to happen.
provide the management system with specified alternative corrective measures.