Disentangling monitoring programs: design, analysis, and application considerations

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Wildlife Management

Background:

• Monitoring programs are vital for conservation but data interpretation challenges exist.
• Methods used in data collection significantly impact results and ecological inference.
• Conservation professionals face difficulties when selecting existing data for specific questions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare avian population trends from two large-scale monitoring programs.
• To highlight challenges in using existing monitoring data for conservation decisions.
• To assess the consistency of trend data between different monitoring programs.

Main Methods:

• Compared population trend trajectories from 2008-2015 for 148 species.
• Utilized publicly available data from the Breeding Bird Survey and Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions programs.
• Focused analysis on data from Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming in the western United States.

Main Results:

• Inconsistent trends were found for 62% of species comparisons.
• Opposite population trends were observed for 21 species.
• Inconsistencies are attributed to differences in program sampling design and analytical approaches.

Conclusions:

• Awareness of monitoring program sampling design and ecological inference is essential for management and policy.
• Regular evaluation of monitoring methodologies is necessary to advance conservation science.
• Lessons from established programs inform the development of newer monitoring efforts.