Effective Ecological Monitoring

by David Lindenmayer, Gene Likens

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781486308941
Publisher:	CSIRO PUBLISHING
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

David B. Lindenmayer is a Research Professor at The Australian National University in Canberra. He has published more than 20 books and over 500 scientific articles in international journals.

Gene E. Likens is an ecologist best known for discovering acid rain in North America, for co-founding the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. He holds faculty positions at Yale, Cornell and Rutgers Universities, State University of New York at Albany, and University of Connecticut and was awarded the 2001 National Medal of Science. He is the author, co-author or editor of 29 books and over 580 scientific papers and articles.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface to Second Edition
1: Introduction
Some of the ecological values and uses of long-term datasets
Poor record of long-term ecological monitoring
Why we wrote this book
2: Why monitoring fails
Characteristics of ineffective monitoring programs
Other factors contributing to ineffective monitoring programs
3: What makes long-term monitoring effective?
Characteristics of effective monitoring programs
Little things matter a lot! Some 'tricks of the trade'
The adaptive monitoring framework
4: The problematic, the effective and the ugly – some case studies
The problematic
The effective
Need to wait and see
The ugly
5: The upshot – our general conclusions
Changes in culture needed to facilitate monitoring
Good things that can come from non-question based monitoring
The role of citizen science in long-term monitoring
The challenge of intellectual property and data sharing
The challenges in effective monitoring of rare, threatened and endangered species
The major challenge of keeping monitoring and long-term studies going
The big issue of integrating different kinds of monitoring
Approaches to integrate data from different kinds of monitoring
Index

Editorial Reviews

'What excuse can any ecologist have for not reading a book about long term ecological monitoring by Lidenmayer and Likens? This book should be read not only by all field ecologists but also policy makers who administer and fund monitoring programmes.' John Hopkins, Bulletin of the British Ecological Society

'The book provides an essential tool for understanding, protecting and preserving the earth's ecosystems.' Ecosystem Marketplace

'Effective Ecological Monitoring offers a well-written analysis of issues facing ecological monitoring programs. Its call to action for improving monitoring programs clearly outlines key issues yet to be resolved and can clearly serve as the foundation for future exploration. It is sure to resonate not only with scientists but also with policymakers, academics and ecosystem service professionals who can use its suggestions to improve existing monitoring programs and implement new ones.' Ecosystem Marketplace

'Throughout the text is clear, succint and thoroughly referenced, with many exemplars in addition to the case studies. This book should be read not only by all field ecologists but also policy makers who administer and fund monitoring programmes.' British Ecological Society Bulletin

'This book may be small in size, but it is very big on ideas.' Choice

'[…] this clearly written, practical book is a welcome resource […] [The authors’] recommendations should encourage all of us to rethink approaches to ecological research… [The book] deserves to be widely read.' Stephen F. Siebert, University of Montana, in Economic Botany

From the Publisher

Review of the first edition:
"Lindenmayer and Likens have distilled decades of experience into a book about how to study the long, large, and slow processes of ecological change....This volume illuminates the practical as well as the deep intellectual challenges of long-term science."

Quarterly Review of Biology