Monitoring Ecosystems

Monitoring Ecosystems PDF Author: David E. Busch
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597262644
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
Often a commitment to large ecosystem initiatives is linked both conceptually and legally with requirements for ecological monitoring as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of management actions. Programs to determine ecosystem status and trends can contribute significantly to the resolution of difficult and contentious management questions, and can playa key role both in sharpening the focus of research questions and in developing adaptive approaches to resource management. Monitoring Ecosystems brings together leading scientists and researchers to offer a groundbreaking synthesis of lessons learned about ecological monitoring in major ecoregional initiatives around the United States. Contributors-Donald L. DeAngelis, Lance H. Gunderson, Barry R. Noon, John C. Ogden, Craig J. Palmer, Keith M. Reynolds, Paul L. Ringold, John R. Sauer, Lawrence E. Stevens, and many others-present insights and experiences gained from their work in designing, developing, and implementing comprehensive ecosystem monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest, the lower Colorado River Basin, and the Florida Everglades. The book: outlines the conceptual and scientific underpinnings for regional-scale ecosystem monitoring, examines the role and importance of data management, modeling, and integrative analyses, considers techniques for and experience with monitoring habitats, populations, and communities Chapters by the editors synthesize and expand on points made throughout the volume and present recommendations for establishing frameworks for monitoring across scales, from local to international. Monitoring Ecosystems presents a critical examination of the lessons learned from direct experience along with generalized conclusions that canbe applied to monitoring programs in the United States and around the world. It is a vital contribution to science-based monitoring efforts thatwill allow those responsible for developing and implementing ecoregional initiatives to make use of knowledge gained in previous efforts, enabling them to focus their energies on system-specific questions and problems.

Monitoring Ecosystems

Monitoring Ecosystems PDF Author: David E. Busch
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597262644
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
Often a commitment to large ecosystem initiatives is linked both conceptually and legally with requirements for ecological monitoring as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of management actions. Programs to determine ecosystem status and trends can contribute significantly to the resolution of difficult and contentious management questions, and can playa key role both in sharpening the focus of research questions and in developing adaptive approaches to resource management. Monitoring Ecosystems brings together leading scientists and researchers to offer a groundbreaking synthesis of lessons learned about ecological monitoring in major ecoregional initiatives around the United States. Contributors-Donald L. DeAngelis, Lance H. Gunderson, Barry R. Noon, John C. Ogden, Craig J. Palmer, Keith M. Reynolds, Paul L. Ringold, John R. Sauer, Lawrence E. Stevens, and many others-present insights and experiences gained from their work in designing, developing, and implementing comprehensive ecosystem monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest, the lower Colorado River Basin, and the Florida Everglades. The book: outlines the conceptual and scientific underpinnings for regional-scale ecosystem monitoring, examines the role and importance of data management, modeling, and integrative analyses, considers techniques for and experience with monitoring habitats, populations, and communities Chapters by the editors synthesize and expand on points made throughout the volume and present recommendations for establishing frameworks for monitoring across scales, from local to international. Monitoring Ecosystems presents a critical examination of the lessons learned from direct experience along with generalized conclusions that canbe applied to monitoring programs in the United States and around the world. It is a vital contribution to science-based monitoring efforts thatwill allow those responsible for developing and implementing ecoregional initiatives to make use of knowledge gained in previous efforts, enabling them to focus their energies on system-specific questions and problems.

Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities PDF Author: Sarah Legge
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486307728
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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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.

Monitoring Ecological Change

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

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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 Ecological Condition in the Western United States

Monitoring Ecological Condition in the Western United States PDF Author: Shabeg S. Sandhu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401143439
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
The monitoring of point sources by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the states, and the tribes has documented and helped reduce the levels of chemical stressors affecting our ecosystems. With the controls on point sources reducing chemical contamination, new environmental challenges associated with nonpoint sources have emerged. To adequately deal with these new problems, EPA's Office of Research and Development recognized the need to develop an overall under standing of the condition of our ecological resources, the trends in their condition, and the stressors affecting these systems on a broad scale. Toward this end, the En vironmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) was established by EPA and has been strategically developing the scientific tools and techniques to monitor and assess the status and trends of aquatic ecosystems. EMAP scientists have developed new indicators and probability-based de signs to fill data gaps in the development of regional-scale assessments of our aquatic resources, as required in the Clean Water Act. We have a scientifically de fensible approach that allows: 100 percent coverage of the aquatic resources within broad geographic areas and the formulation of reference 'conditions for es tablishing the health of these resources. The use of these indicators and designs were successfully demonstrated in the landscapes, streams, and estuaries of the mid-Atlantic states as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAlA).

Design and Analysis of Long-term Ecological Monitoring Studies

Design and Analysis of Long-term Ecological Monitoring Studies PDF Author: Robert A. Gitzen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521139295
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
Comprehensive and multidisciplinary coverage of fundamental and advanced statistical tools and issues relevant to long-term ecological monitoring.

Biodiversity and Environmental Change

Biodiversity and Environmental Change PDF Author: Emma Burns
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643108580
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 841

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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.

Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico

Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309440408
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US history, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Notably, natural resources affected by this major spill include wetlands, coastal beaches and barrier islands, coastal and marine wildlife, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, commercial fisheries, deep benthos, and coral reefs, among other habitats and species. Losses include an estimated 20% reduction in commercial fishery landings across the Gulf of Mexico and damage to as much as 1,100 linear miles of coastal salt marsh wetlands. This historic spill is being followed by a restoration effort unparalleled in complexity and magnitude in U.S. history. Legal settlements in the wake of DWH led to the establishment of a set of programs tasked with administering and supporting DWH-related restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to ensure that restoration goals are met and money is well spent, restoration monitoring and evaluation should be an integral part of those programs. However, evaluations of past restoration efforts have shown that monitoring is often inadequate or even absent. Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico identifies best practices for monitoring and evaluating restoration activities to improve the performance of restoration programs and increase the effectiveness and longevity of restoration projects. This report provides general guidance for restoration monitoring, assessment, and synthesis that can be applied to most ecological restoration supported by these major programs given their similarities in restoration goals. It also offers specific guidance for a subset of habitats and taxa to be restored in the Gulf including oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and seagrass habitats, as well as a variety of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals.

Ecological Monitoring, Assessment, and Management in Freshwater Systems

Ecological Monitoring, Assessment, and Management in Freshwater Systems PDF Author: Young-Seuk Park
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038422665
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Ecological Monitoring, Assessment, and Management in Freshwater Systems" that was published in Water

Ecological Integrity and the Management of Ecosystems

Ecological Integrity and the Management of Ecosystems PDF Author: Steven Woodley
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000123537
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Today, efforts are being made to rehabilitate badly degraded ecosystems and protect areas which have important ecological value, such as national parks, critical fish and wildlife habitats, natural communities and endangered species. Since human values are an integral part of the decisions to protect or rehabilitate-the goals and objectives for such actions are often unclear. Concepts of "health," "integrity" and "diversity" express important values associated with management actions but they do not provide clear guidelines for these actions. The criteria developed and applied in this book provide guidelines and serve as a road map to anyone involved in ecosystem management-scientists, land managers and policy makers.

Remote Sensing for Landscape Ecology

Remote Sensing for Landscape Ecology PDF Author: Robert C. Frohn
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781566702751
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
Landscape ecology is a rapidly growing science of quantifying the ways in which ecosystems interact - of establishing a link between activities in one region and repercussions in another region. Remote sensing is a fast, inexpensive tool for conducting the landscape inventories that are essential to this branch of science. However, anyone who has conducted studies in the field has already found that traditional landscape ecology metrics are not always reliable with remote images. Landscape Ecology: New Metric Indicators for Monitoring, Modeling, and Assessment of Ecosystems with Remote Sensing presents a new set of metrics that allows remotely sensed data to be used effectively in landscape ecology. This groundbreaking new work is the first to present new metrics for remote sensing of landscapes and demonstrate how they can be used to yield more accurate analyses for GIS studies. The new metrics expand the capabilities of GIS, reduce interference and incorrect readings, help ecologists better understand ecosystem relationships, and reduce study costs. This set of metrics should be adopted by the EPA and will be the standard measure for future landscape analysis. This authoritative guide assesses the current state of the field and how remote sensing and landscape metrics have been used to date. It also explains how some of the traditional metrics were developed and how they can fail in landscape studies. Once this background has been established, the new metrics are introduced and their benefits and uses explained. The information in this book has previously been available only in scattered journal articles; this is the first single source for complete background information and instructions on using the new metrics.