Monitoring for ER Flashcards
What is a monitoring plan? (4 points)
A plan describing the methods aimed at assessing your restoration objectives to see if your treatments are working
Developing sound plans will increase the proportion of successful projects and allows for assessing restoration need
Monitoring is the reason objectives must be specific and measurable
Monitoring plans must be closely related to restoration plans
Monitoring is often designed to assess whether restoration is improving a degraded site in terms of… (3 points)
Ecological value (ie. species composition, structure, or ecological function)
Increasing biodiversity
Human-based ecosystem services are an extra
Why are monitoring and objectives dynamic? (4 points)
Each of monitoring and objectives indicates when changes in the other are needed
Monitoring measures whether we have reached our objectives
But goals and objectives may change with more data collected
This in turn would change how we monitor
What is adaptive management? (2 points)
The iterative process of monitoring in the face of uncertainty that has the purpose of decreasing uncertainty over time by changing objectives to suit project as more information becomes available (data etc.)
Helps managers learn from restoration efforts in structured ways to enhance the effectiveness of restoration efforts long-term
What is the relationship between ecosystem traits and indicators in monitoring? (2 points)
We monitor objectives focused on the 6 specific indicators of ecosystem health (since traits can’t be measured)
The most common indicator monitored is diversity of native species because it’s cheap and easy to measure
What did Herrick et al. suggest when selecting indicators? (2 points)
They stated that monitoring should include plant composition indicators (diversity of natives or abundance of natives/non-natives) and at least one other indicator important to either/all of:
Soil and site stability
Hydrologic function
Biotic integrity
What general characteristics should indicators have for monitoring purposes? (3 points)
Indicators should be:
Easy to measure
Strongly linked to ecological health
Likely to be affected by restoration treatments
How do we gauge success of our restoration project? (3 points)
By monitoring, we can compare current indicator values with:
Control sites (unrestored degraded sites) to make sure the improvement wasn’t by chance
Reference sites (non-degraded sites) to see if treatments are improving conditions - bringing them closer to conditions before disturbance
Baseline data (which could be either data gathered in the site before the disturbance (uncommon) or data gathered in site after degradation but before restoration)
What is the goal of restoring a site in terms of gauging success?
Goal is to move towards reference site conditions and away from control site conditions
What is BACI design? (3 points)
Before and after control intervention
A method used to measure the impacts and success of restoration projects in ecology
Before-after restoration graph with reference or control sites documented
Why is choosing a good reference site important?
It is used to evaluate our progress towards our goals, so if it is not similar to our site, we won’t know if our treatments are working, if they need to be tweaked, or if restoration was successful
Why is selecting a good reference site challenging in practice? (3-points)
Different successional stages - reference may be in a different stage than our site. Project must define stage if this is the case
Natural range of variability - restoration project should compare multiple values of an indicator rather than just one to make sure it takes into account the natural range of variability of the indicator (eg. DO levels might vary throughout reach)
Finding truly unimpacted sites is difficult - important to document biases with categorizations
What can we do to minimize biases of using a reference site that might be in a different successional state as our site?
We can use multiple reference sites with varying successional stages to take into account the variability
What types of categories might we use to define our reference site if it has been impacted in some way? (5 points)
Reference condition for biological integrity (RCBI)
Historical conditions (HC)
Minimally disturbed condition (MDC)
Least disturbed condition (LDC)
Best attainable condition (BAC)
How can we avoid issues associated with selecting a good reference site? (3 points)
Establish control and reference sites as close to your site as possible
Have multiple reference sites if have different conditions (eg. Successional stages)
Use a reference condition from the literature instead
What is a reference condition? (2 points)
Because of the challenges in selecting a reference site and having to conduct monitoring both the reference and restoration sites, scientists can also use reference conditions from the literature
A reference condition are threshold numbers that are publicly available that represent ecosystem quality (eg. DO requirement for salmon)
How do we actually conduct monitoring?
Through sampling of indicator values before treatment is implemented (to collect site data) and periodically after a treatment was implemented to assess success and develop objectives further if need be
Why is sampling used in monitoring?
Sampling is used to make inferences about a population when it is impractical or impossible to measure the entire population directly
“Population” in sampling can mean: (2 points)
Abundance of individuals in space or at any given time
Range of values that occur in space and time for certain variables (eg. DO levels of temp)
Sampling units
The individual measurements in sampling
Sample size (3 points)
A combination of sampling units
Sample size has to be suited to goals as increasing sample size unnecessarily can lead to unnecessary costs and time spent
Increasing sample size is more expensive but also increases the precision of estimates (smaller error bars)
Replicates (2 points)
A study sometimes has both sample units and replicates of those sampling units
For instance, you can have 5 transects (replicates) each with 3 quadrats (sampling units) sample size = n = 15
Representation
In order to ensure inferences about a population are accurate, the most critical element in sampling is that variables measured are representative of the range of values in the target population
Good representation is achieved by: (2 points)
Obtaining samples in an unbiased manner
Obtaining samples in a way that ensures reasonable coverage of the site AND time period (high/low flows, tides etc.)
Sampling design
Manner in which sampling units are selected
Simple random sampling (3 points)
Sampling design where every possible sample unit has an equal likelihood of being selected
It is unbiased
But it has bad coverage of site as some sampling units may be grouped together in some areas and not others
Systematic sampling (3 points)
Sampling design where sampling units are selected at regular intervals
Relatively biased because researcher might choose a pattern that takes into account certain areas of a plot (eg. Avoiding area without trees when doing tree studies) or a certain number they feel is representative of area (eg. Every 15m)
Great coverage
What do researchers do to limit the biases of sampling designs? (4 points)
Combine them by:
Using a random number generator to choose first sample spot on transects
Randomly select transects bearings using a compass
Use a random number generator to choose days that sampling takes place even though you are choosing to take samples the first week of each month to get full annual coverage
How do researchers identify appropriate sample sizes? (3 points)
First step is to estimate the:
Number of sampling units and
Number of sampling periods that you can afford
Avoid oversampling
How might a researcher avoid oversampling in waterbodies? (3 points)
Waterbodies are well mixed so you can choose appropriate sample areas
In a lake, one might choose the inflow and outflow points, and maybe a couple in the middle at different depths if there is enough time and money
In a river, one might choose to sample an area just before the reach in question and/or in a tributary (to make sure the indicator isn’t coming from another area), before and after the pollutant, and several around the pollutant
What are the 4 measures of abundance?
Presence/not-detected
Relative abundance
Density
Total abundance
Presence/not detected (3 points)
Abundance type that shows whether or not a species was detected in a given area
Often not accepted by professionals
Cheapest measure of abundance
Relative abundance (2 points)
Measure of abundance that is a proportion of a number of individuals without specifying the size of a sampling area (eg. % cover)
Second least expensive
Density (2 points)
Measure of abundance that takes into account the number of individuals per unit area or volume
Second most expensive
Total abundance (2 points)
Measure of abundance that finds the total number of individuals in a specified area
Most expensive
What are the 6 key components of a monitoring plan?
- Which indicator values are we monitoring (few project monitor all objectives)
- Clear descriptions of monitoring sites (include map that shows all monitoring sites)
- Clear descriptions of baseline data from before disturbance (if available) but definitely after disturbance and before treatment, and control and reference site(s) conditions
- Methods used to measure each indicator variable
- Sampling design for each indicator variable
- Sampling schedule for each indicator variable
Qualitative vs quantitative indicator measurements
Indicator variable measurements are general quantitative, but you can also have qualitative measurements in your monitoring plan (eg. Photo monitoring maybe showing time lapse conditions)
What are the 4 types of monitoring?
Baseline data gathering (monitoring before and after disturbance conditions or before and after treatment conditions)
Annual monitoring - short term monitoring allows for adjusting management
Project specific monitoring
Long term maintenance monitoring - interpret long-term changes (1-5 years) and refine restoration objectives and strategy
