Effective Ecological Monitoring

Ecologists and managers of natural resources readily acknowledge the importance of long-term studies and monitoring for improved understanding and management of complex environmental systems. Long-term data are crucially important for providing baselines for evaluating environmental change. They are also fundamental for detecting and evaluating changes in ecosystem structure and function, and for evaluating response to disturbances such as climate change or pollution. Countless scientific articles, books, management plans and other documents have been written about the need to conduct long-term studies and monitoring. However, although there have undoubtedly been some highly successful long-term ecological studies and monitoring programs, there is a history of poorly planned and unfocused efforts that are either ineffective or fail completely. In this book, the authors outline some of the key pitfalls and deficiencies in ecological monitoring programs and long-term studies. They then describe some the features of monitoring programs and long-term studies that are essential to make them viable, using case studies such as those of Rothamsted (UK) and the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (USA). Based upon their collective experience spanning 70 years in establishing long-term studies and natural resource monitoring programs, the authors propose a new approach, which they call Adaptive Monitoring, to resolve some of these problems underlying poorly planned and unfocused monitoring programs.

Professor David B. Lindenmayer is a Research Professor at The Australian National University. He has worked on biodiversity conservation issues for over 25 years and maintains large-scale, long-term projects throughout south-eastern Australia. He is a member of the Australian Academy of Science and has won numerous awards for his work, including the Eureka Prize for Environmental Research, the Whitley Award (three times), the Ecological Society Research Award, the Daimler Chrysler Award and the Australian Natural History Medal. He has published 25 books and over 550 scientific articles as part of his long-term research. Professor Gene E. Likens is Founding Director and President Emeritus of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, and now Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. His research focuses on the ecology and biogeochemistry of forest and aquatic ecosystems, primarily through long-term studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and is recipient of numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science, America's highest science honour. He has published 19 books and more than 500 scientific articles.