Effective Ecological Monitoring

Author: Gene Likens
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486308945
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
Long-term monitoring programs are fundamental to understanding the natural environment and managing major environmental problems. Yet they are often done very poorly and ineffectively. This second edition of the highly acclaimed Effective Ecological Monitoring describes what makes monitoring programs successful and how to ensure that long-term monitoring studies persist. The book has been fully revised and updated but remains concise, illustrating key aspects of effective monitoring with case studies and examples. It includes new sections comparing surveillance-based and question-based monitoring, analysing environmental observation networks, and provides examples of adaptive monitoring. Based on the authors’ 80 years of collective experience in running long-term research and monitoring programs, Effective Ecological Monitoring is a valuable resource for the natural resource management, ecological and environmental science and policy communities.

Monitoring for Conservation and Ecology

Author: F.B. Goldsmith
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401130868
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Monitoring has become fashionable. Business now talks about monitoring its activities, efficiency, costs and profits. The National Health Service is monitoring general practices and hospitals; it is keen to have more information about efficiency and the duration of stay of patients in different hospitals undergoing different types of treatment. These activities are usually carried out in relation to specific objectives with the aim of making activities more cost effective and competitive. Does the same apply in biology, ecology and nature conservation? Or, are we still enjoying conducting field surveys for the fun of it, at best with rather vague objectives and saying to our colleagues that we do our work because we need to know what is there? This book is an opportunity to consider some of the reasons why monitoring is important, how it differs from survey, how it may be able to answer specific questions and help with site management or problem solving. It will explore some of the taxa that are suitable for recording and how you may actually set about doing it. It is not intended as a catalogue of techniques but we will in each chapter give you sources of material so that with the minimum of effort you will be able to proceed with an efficient, relevant and not too time consuming monitoring programme. Some of the points that you need to consider before starting are also set down in the synthesis at the end of the book.

Monitoring Ecological Change

Author: Ian F. Spellerberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139445474
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Book Description
The state of ecosystems, biological communities and species are continuously changing as a result of both natural processes and the activities of humans. In order to detect and understand these changes, effective ecological monitoring programmes are required. This book offers an introduction to the topic and provides both a rationale for monitoring and a practical guide to the techniques available. Written in a nontechnical style, the book covers the relevance and growth of ecological monitoring, the organizations and programmes involved, the science of ecological monitoring and an assessment of methods in practice, including many examples from monitoring programmes around the world. Building on the success of the first edition, this edition has been fully revised and updated with two additional chapters covering the relevance of monitoring to the reporting of the state of the environment, and the growth of community based ecological monitoring.

Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

Author: Sarah Legge
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486307728
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
Monitoring is integral to all aspects of policy and management for threatened biodiversity. It is fundamental to assessing the conservation status and trends of listed species and ecological communities. Monitoring data can be used to diagnose the causes of decline, to measure management effectiveness and to report on investment. It is also a valuable public engagement tool. Yet in Australia, monitoring threatened biodiversity is not always optimally managed. Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities aims to improve the standard of monitoring for Australia's threatened biodiversity. It gathers insights from some of the most experienced managers and scientists involved with monitoring programs for threatened species and ecological communities in Australia, and evaluates current monitoring programs, establishing a baseline against which the quality of future monitoring activity can be managed. Case studies provide examples of practical pathways to improve the quality of biodiversity monitoring, and guidelines to improve future programs are proposed. This book will benefit scientists, conservation managers, policy makers and those with an interest in threatened species monitoring and management.

Effective Ecological Monitoring

Author: Gene Likens
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486308937
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Biodiversity and Environmental Change

Author: Emma Burns
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643108580
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 841

Book Description
This data-rich book demonstrates the value of existing national long-term ecological research in Australia for monitoring environmental change and biodiversity. Long-term ecological data are critical for informing trends in biodiversity and environmental change. The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) is a major initiative of the Australian Government and one of its key areas of investment is to provide funding for a network of long-term ecological research plots around Australia (LTERN). LTERN researchers and other authors in this book have maintained monitoring sites, often for one or more decades, in an array of different ecosystems across the Australian continent – ranging from tropical rainforests, wet eucalypt forests and alpine regions through to rangelands and deserts. This book highlights some of the temporal changes in the environment that have occurred in the various systems in which dedicated field-based ecologists have worked. Many important trends and changes are documented and they often provide new insights that were previously poorly understood or unknown. These data are precisely the kinds of data so desperately needed to better quantify the temporal trajectories in the environment in Australia. By presenting trend patterns (and often also the associated data) the authors aim to catalyse governments and other organisations to better recognise the importance of long-term data collection and monitoring as a fundamental part of ecologically-effective and cost-effective management of the environment and biodiversity.

Environmental Monitoring

Author: G. Bruce Wiersma
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203495470
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 792

Book Description
The current rate and scale of environmental change around the world makes the detection and understanding of these changes increasingly urgent. Subsequently, government legislation is focusing on measurable results of environmental programs, requiring researchers to employ effective and efficient methods for acquiring high-quality data. Focusing on pollution issues and impacts resulting from human activities, Environmental Monitoring is the first to bring together the conceptual basis behind the complex and specific approaches to the monitoring of air, water, and land. Coverage includes integrated monitoring at the landscape level, as well as case studies of existing monitoring programs such as the Chesapeake Bay Program. The book also addresses the recent legislative focus on high-quality data results and conducting monitoring programs in different ecosystems and environmental media.

Sediment Dredging at Superfund Megasites

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309134102
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Some of the nation's estuaries, lakes and other water bodies contain contaminated sediments that can adversely affect fish and wildlife and may then find their way into people's diets. Dredging is one of the few options available for attempting to clean up contaminated sediments, but it can uncover and re-suspend buried contaminants, creating additional exposures for wildlife and people. At the request of Congress, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to evaluate dredging as a cleanup technique. The book finds that, based on a review of available evidence, dredging's ability to decrease environmental and health risks is still an open question. Analysis of pre-dredging and post-dredging at about 20 sites found a wide range of outcomes in terms of surface sediment concentrations of contaminants: some sites showed increases, some no change, and some decreases in concentrations. Evaluating the potential long-term benefits of dredging will require that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency step up monitoring activities before, during and after individual cleanups to determine whether it is working there and what combinations of techniques are most effective.

Drones for Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Monitoring

Author: Ricardo Díaz-Delgado
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3039219804
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have already become an affordable and cost-efficient tool to quickly map a targeted area for many emerging applications in the arena of ecological monitoring and biodiversity conservation. Managers, owners, companies, and scientists are using professional drones equipped with high-resolution visible, multispectral, or thermal cameras to assess the state of ecosystems, the effect of disturbances, or the dynamics and changes within biological communities inter alia. We are now at a tipping point on the use of drones for these type of applications over natural areas. UAV missions are increasing but most of them are testing applicability. It is time now to move to frequent revisiting missions, aiding in the retrieval of important biophysical parameters in ecosystems or mapping species distributions. This Special Issue shows UAV applications contributing to a better understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem status, threats, changes, and trends. It documents the enhancement of knowledge in ecological integrity parameters mapping, long-term ecological monitoring based on drones, mapping of alien species spread and distribution, upscaling ecological variables from drone to satellite images: methods and approaches, rapid risk and disturbance assessment using drones, mapping albedo with UAVs, wildlife tracking, bird colony and chimpanzee nest mapping, habitat mapping and monitoring, and a review on drones for conservation in protected areas.

Marine Protected Areas

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309072867
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Although the ocean-and the resources within-seem limitless, there is clear evidence that human impacts such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution disrupt marine ecosystems and threaten the long-term productivity of the seas. Declining yields in many fisheries and decay of treasured marine habitats, such as coral reefs, has heightened interest in establishing a comprehensive system of marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas designated for special protection to enhance the management of marine resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate how MPAs can be employed in the United States and internationally as tools to support specific conservation needs of marine and coastal waters. Marine Protected Areas compares conventional management of marine resources with proposals to augment these management strategies with a system of protected areas. The volume argues that implementation of MPAs should be incremental and adaptive, through the design of areas not only to conserve resources, but also to help us learn how to manage marine species more effectively.