Monitoring 2 Flashcards
Why should both monitoring and objectives be dynamic?
Both objectives and monitoring inform one another. Both should inform when changes in the other are required. If monitoring indicates that an objective is not being met, then a new or modified objective must be considered.
What are the main categories of indicators for ecosystem health?
1) Diversity
2) Overabundance of species
3) Water Quality
4) Hydrology - hydrographs
5) Contaminants
6) Soil Characteristics
How many indicators should be used to test for restoration success?
Herrick et al 2006 argues that one or more ecological process indicators should be used to monitor success. They should fall into 3 categories:
1) Soil and site stability - Erosional features
2) Hydrologic function - connectivity, litter amount
3) Biotic integrity - Biomass
Some indicators fall into all three categories:
1) Soil surface loss or degradation
2) Compaction layer
With limited resources, what characteristics should your chosen indicators have?
1) Easy to measure
2) Strongly linked to ecosystem health
3) Likely to be affected by restoration treatments
What are BACI design studies used for?
BACI helps to separate the effects of development from natural variability.
What information (and from what sites) is used to compare restoration success against?
Reference Sites Control Sites Baseline Data i. Before degradation ii. Before restoration
What are some of the challenges that arise when choosing adequate reference sites? How do you work around these challenges?
1) Differing Stages of succession (State what stage of succession the reference site is in and choose multiple reference sites)
2) Natural Range of variability (choose a range of values, not a single value)
3) Finding truly un-impacted sites is difficult (define the type of reference site you’re using i.e. historical conditions, minimally disturbed conditions)
With difficulties in finding adequate reference sites and monitoring them, what is a better alternative?
Using historical conditions. Must sort through the literature but can be defensible.
What is the purpose of sampling?
Used to make inferences about a population
In sampling, what does population refer to?
Abundance (species or LWD) at a given place and time or a range of values at a given place or time (Stream temp, dissolved O)
What tradeoffs occur with changes in sample size?
Increased precisions but at an increase in cost
What two factors need to be addressed in order to get a representative picture of the site?
Need to collect samples in an unbiased manner (known and unknown)
In a way that ensures reasonable coverage of target (Space and time)
What are the two main sampling distributions and what are their pros and cons?
Systematic - more coverage, more bias
Simple Random - Less coverage, less bias
What are some measures of abundance?
1) Presence/not-detected - not very thorough
2) Relative abundance - number given without specifying size of sampling area ex 7% grass, 20% forbs.
3) Total abundance - Number of individuals in a specified area.
4) Density - number per unit area.
What are the important components of a monitoring plan?
1) Identification of what objectives will be monitored
2) Clear description of monitoring sites - use map
3) Baseline data, control or reference sites
4) Methods used to measure indicator variable, including the sampling unit and materials needed
5) Sampling design for each indicator variable
6) Monitoring schedule for each indicator variable
