Monitoring for ER

Question 1

What is a monitoring plan? (4 points)

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Monitoring is often designed to assess whether restoration is improving a degraded site in terms of… (3 points)

Answer 2

Ecological value (ie. species composition, structure, or ecological function)

Increasing biodiversity

Human-based ecosystem services are an extra

Question 3

Why are monitoring and objectives dynamic? (4 points)

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is adaptive management? (2 points)

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is the relationship between ecosystem traits and indicators in monitoring? (2 points)

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What did Herrick et al. suggest when selecting indicators? (2 points)

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What general characteristics should indicators have for monitoring purposes? (3 points)

Answer 7

Indicators should be:

Easy to measure
Strongly linked to ecological health
Likely to be affected by restoration treatments

Question 8

How do we gauge success of our restoration project? (3 points)

Answer 8

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)

Question 9

What is the goal of restoring a site in terms of gauging success?

Answer 9

Goal is to move towards reference site conditions and away from control site conditions

Question 10

What is BACI design? (3 points)

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Why is choosing a good reference site important?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Why is selecting a good reference site challenging in practice? (3-points)

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What can we do to minimize biases of using a reference site that might be in a different successional state as our site?

Answer 13

We can use multiple reference sites with varying successional stages to take into account the variability

Question 14

What types of categories might we use to define our reference site if it has been impacted in some way? (5 points)

Answer 14

Reference condition for biological integrity (RCBI)

Historical conditions (HC)

Minimally disturbed condition (MDC)

Least disturbed condition (LDC)

Best attainable condition (BAC)

Question 15

How can we avoid issues associated with selecting a good reference site? (3 points)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is a reference condition? (2 points)

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

How do we actually conduct monitoring?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Why is sampling used in monitoring?

Answer 18

Sampling is used to make inferences about a population when it is impractical or impossible to measure the entire population directly

Question 19

“Population” in sampling can mean: (2 points)

Answer 19

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)

Question 20

Sampling units

Answer 20

The individual measurements in sampling

Question 21

Sample size (3 points)

Answer 21

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)

Question 22

Replicates (2 points)

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Representation

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Good representation is achieved by: (2 points)

Answer 24

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.)

Question 25

Sampling design

Answer 25

Manner in which sampling units are selected

Question 26

Simple random sampling (3 points)

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Systematic sampling (3 points)

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What do researchers do to limit the biases of sampling designs? (4 points)

Answer 28

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

Question 29

How do researchers identify appropriate sample sizes? (3 points)

Answer 29

First step is to estimate the:

Number of sampling units and
Number of sampling periods that you can afford

Avoid oversampling

Question 30

How might a researcher avoid oversampling in waterbodies? (3 points)

Answer 30

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

Question 31

What are the 4 measures of abundance?

Answer 31

Presence/not-detected
Relative abundance
Density
Total abundance

Question 32

Presence/not detected (3 points)

Answer 32

Abundance type that shows whether or not a species was detected in a given area

Often not accepted by professionals

Cheapest measure of abundance

Question 33

Relative abundance (2 points)

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Density (2 points)

Answer 34

Measure of abundance that takes into account the number of individuals per unit area or volume

Second most expensive

Question 35

Total abundance (2 points)

Answer 35

Measure of abundance that finds the total number of individuals in a specified area

Most expensive

Question 36

What are the 6 key components of a monitoring plan?

Answer 36

1. Which indicator values are we monitoring (few project monitor all objectives)
2. Clear descriptions of monitoring sites (include map that shows all monitoring sites)
3. Clear descriptions of baseline data from before disturbance (if available) but definitely after disturbance and before treatment, and control and reference site(s) conditions
4. Methods used to measure each indicator variable
5. Sampling design for each indicator variable
6. Sampling schedule for each indicator variable

Question 37

Qualitative vs quantitative indicator measurements

Answer 37

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)

Question 38

What are the 4 types of monitoring?

Answer 38

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