18 – Designing a monitoring framework for Australian Wildlife Conservancy^247sampling strategy (e.g. systematic or stratified by environmental factors/
management treatments), efficient allocation of survey effort (including number of
sites, intensity of survey at each site, survey frequency) and use of methodologies
relevant to the attribute in question, accounting for detectability, the response of
species to environmental conditions, and so on (Fancy et al. 2009; Lindenmayer et
al. 2015).
In monitoring biodiversity, it is often cost-effective to employ ‘omnibus’ survey
techniques that sample a wide range of taxa. For example, standard live-trapping
surveys obtain data on the suite of small mammals and reptiles present at a site,
although only a proportion of these species may be captured at sufficiently high
rates to provide a reliable signal of change (e.g. Woinarski et al. 2004). Where
omnibus techniques do not sample key species well, additional targeted surveys
may be required. For example, quantifying the abundance of numbats requires
diurnal vehicle-based surveys. In some cases, it is efficient to conduct nested
surveys, with coarse surveys at the property scale, combined with more intensive
survey work at a smaller number of sites. For example, on AWC’s Mornington
sanctuary, camera-traps are used to monitor occupancy of sites by northern quolls
across the sanctuary, while intensive trapping surveys are used to monitor
population size at sample sites. For all survey methods, trade-offs need to be made
between the intensity of survey effort at each site and the number of sites that can
be monitored (see Chapter 20). Such trade-offs are evaluated in the context of the
priorities of conservation management on each sanctuary.
Establishing reporting procedures
AWC is developing an annual reporting framework in which Ecohealth attributes
are reported through scorecards and report summaries. For each scorecard, the
following will be reported for each attribute: information on baseline value (where
available); current status; trend; and a commentary to explain these elements.
These report summaries will cite more detailed reports that contain links or
references to the raw data, monitoring protocols, analytical methods or published
papers. Ecohealth outcomes will be published on AWC’s website, while specific
data will be used in AWC’s communication material and scientific journal articles.
Input to decision making
AWC land managers frequently need information about the status of species,
habitats and threats to make effective and timely ‘state-dependent decisions’ (i.e.
decisions that depend on the state of the system: Possingham 1997). For example,
AWC’s Karakamia sanctuary has for over two decades supported a population of
the endangered woylie Bettongia penicillata, as well as a thriving population of
the tammar wallaby Notamacropus eugenii thought to compete with the woylie
for food. When numbers of tammars become ‘too high’ (as determined by
population sizes of both woylies and tammars, the condition of individuals, and