Adaptive monitoring based on ecosystem services

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Conservation biology

Background:

• Scientific monitoring involves repetitive data collection to identify trends.
• Current monitoring practices are often "fishing expeditions" lacking a priori hypotheses.
• Regulatory monitoring may not always yield useful ecological insights.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the ideal characteristics of effective scientific monitoring.
• To emphasize the importance of testable hypotheses in data collection.
• To highlight the role of adaptive monitoring based on ecosystem services.

Main Methods:

• Review of current monitoring practices.
• Conceptual framework for adaptive monitoring.
• Integration of ecosystem services as assessment endpoints.

Main Results:

• Ineffective monitoring often lacks clear objectives and testable hypotheses.
• Adaptive monitoring, grounded in ecosystem services, is most productive.
• Monitoring should aim to determine status, trends, and inform management actions.

Conclusions:

• Scientific monitoring must be hypothesis-driven and adaptive.
• Incorporating ecosystem services enhances monitoring relevance and productivity.
• Effective monitoring provides critical data for environmental management and prediction.