Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

15 – Summary: the value of monitoring threatened biodiversity^207

or ecological community, but also about the broader species group, habitats and
ecosystems (see the work on shorebird monitoring in Chapter 11). This is an
important additional value of monitoring because it provides greater context for
understanding appropriate management interventions and, for example, whether
there are broader systemic problems that need to be tackled (e.g. the Mountain Ash
ecosystem and associated Leadbeater’s possum, are both classified as Critically
Endangered; Chapter 14). This, in turn, suggests major underlying problems in the
integrity of the entire region and indicates a need for an array of strategies at
multiple spatial and temporal scales to deal with the wider threats jeopardising the
focal threatened species and its entire ecosystem (Chapter 14). Likewise, the array
of declining species in the forests of south-western Australia indicate that there is
likely to be a range of threats at a range of scales; actions aimed at tackling the
threats created by only one driver may not lead to the recovery of complete
assemblage of species (Chapter 13).
The case studies in this section of the book indicate that effective monitoring
programs for threatened biodiversity can have many ecological, social and political
benefits. These include: (1) diagnosing the drivers of decline; (2) identifying
effective kinds of management interventions that maximise the chances of species
recovery: (3) generating broader insights into the dynamics and status of other
species as well as assemblages of species and entire ecosystems; (4) engaging the
public in citizen science and related kinds of work to facilitate recovery of
threatened biodiversity; (5) instigating community and political interest and
support to better manage threatened species and ecological communities; and (6)
underpinning changes in the conservation status of a species or ecological
community. These (and many other) benefits of monitoring that feature
prominently in this section of the book underscore some important lessons to
improve existing monitoring programs and inform new programs that are planned
in the near future. These lessons also inform the general principles for good quality
monitoring of threatened species (Chapter 35).

Reference

Lindenmayer DB, Likens GE (2009) Adaptive monitoring: a new paradigm for long-
term research and monitoring. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24 , 482–486.
doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.005