Monitoring biodiversity

• Why do we monitor biodiversity?

• How do we monitor something as complex as biodviersity?

• How can we identify useful indicator and indicator species? In what ways are birds and butterflies valuable indicator taxa?

• What kinds of activities can monitoring involve?

• Changes over time to stress (e.g., climate change, landuse change)

• Responses to specific interventions (e.g. wildlife management)

• Recovery of a species (e.g., species reintroduction)

• Determine extinction

• Changes in range

Biodiversity itself is “too broad and vague a concept to be applied to real-world…problems.”

• Number of genes, species, ecosystems

• But also processes: interspecific interactions, natural disturbances, nutrient cycles

• How can we monitor what we can’t define?

• practical ways to obtain comparable, quantifiable and meaningful metrics over space and time.

What are we measuring?

1. Climatic factors controlling vegetation ecotones and patterns of species richness across regions
(how climate is changing)

2. Habitat availability and landscape linkages (e.g., for upward/ elevational migration) - what habitat does this frog require to exist? what predators are there?

3. Climatic controls on regional and local disturbance regimes; - these frogs sensitive to moisture, temperature, what is the thermal optimum, physiological tolerance of this species? 

4. Physiological tolerances of individual species

5. Dispersal capacities of individual species

6. Genetic variation within and among different populations of a species - what d we know about the genes? inbreeding or diversity bettween sub-species?

look a NOS paper been recommended for this lecture- intergrates how to measure biodiversity

different dimensions of biodiversity

Structural Physical organisation or patterns (e.g., habitat complexity)

Compositional - Identity and richness (E.g. species diversity, genetic diversity?)
what we've been focusing on - what is relative abundance, composition

Functional Ecological and evolutionary processes (e.g. gene flow, nutrient cycling)
could be done as what is composition of genes

How do we monitor this???

biodiversity s multi-dimensional and we have to think about it across scales! this is the message to take home - counting frogs but not thinking of evolutionarily processes and significance 

targeted question of biodiversity - composition at a population level? eg

3 dimensions

 community is the scale 

table shows different dimensions 

One that's multidimensional and across scales

• Sensitive enough to detect changes

• Widely relevant/distributed

• Provides continuous assessment over a wide range of stress- sensitivity - how is it changing overtime 

• Results are independent of sample size

• Easy to measure- invertebrates easy to measure- indicator species

• Cost-effective to measure

• Differentiates between natural cycles and anthropogenically-induced changes

• Relevant to ecologically significant issues

Range of methods:

• Camera trapping

• Field measurements (e.g., DBH, species identification)

• Remote sensing (e.g., conventional aircraft, satellite, UAV photos, etc.)

• Indicator species

Time series

• Spatial statistics

• Indicies (e.g., heterogenetiy, connectivity, diversity)

connectivity analysis looks at different parts - analysis across spatially and over time 
diversity - diversity index

• Comparisons

Cost effectiveness of different species groups as indicators in the Brazilian Amazonia

1) Birds
2) Dung beetles
3) Moths 
4) Small Mammals 

small group of taxa we can rely on - 3/4 of ecology papers are about one of these four cost: measuring them tells us a great deal about the absence of other species other species sometimes bite, might be scared off feces in a bucket trap dung beetles- cheap identification just by bird sound- can tell you a lot about  a place 

Birds and dung beetles are:
• well‐studied
• perform important ecological functions

• Good “indicators” of environmental change

• Charismatic species - can get students to volunteer and catch them 

• Many species are rare - habitat generalists are not sensitive enough to changes in environment,, these birds and butterflies tell us a lot- vulnerable, represent knock-on effects 

• Vulnerable

• Important to ecosystem function

• Long-term UK datasets: distributions & abundances, phenology

• Distribution maps at 10 km resolution for all British birds
- this is exceptional , fine grained level of detail 

• British Bird Surveys

• Annually since 1994

• > 3000 random 1km squares

• 2 early morning visit during the breeding season (May- June)

• All birds seen within the square are recorded (2 transect of 1km each)

(www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/bbs)

• Records >200 years

• 1995: intensive recording of nationally (10km res)

• Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

• >1,400 sites of fixed routes (1-2 km) through several habitats

• April 1 till Sept 30, weekly, 10:45am -15:45pm, specific weather

• All butterflies counted within 2.5 m either side of the transect and 5m ahead

unique amount of data - to tell us how things have changed over time- agricultural - this monitoring allows us to say these things- statistics 

Birds
- No extinctions
- 55% of species have declined in distribution

Butterflies
- 2 species became extinct 
- 72% species declined in distribution

monitoring over time of abundance and disturbance has shwed us that across many taxa many species have moved North.
For example, the Comma butterfly's contemporary distributions has shown a dramatic change northward. 

uk long-term monitoring allows us to make these revelations, proved empirically. 

earlier arrivals of migratory birds and changes in laying date -for the bird its progressively getting earlier 

Nuthatch Sitta   and Orange-tip Anthocharis

Orange tip count  - change in when we're seeing peak/highest abundance for this species- dramatic shifts over time 76-2008 this is seasonal , most recent count 2008- there's a change in when we're seeing the hihest peak numbers. 

April high peak 2009
May high peak period 1976- 2008

Birds

• Decrease abundance: 45% of species
-Increase: 55%

• Farmland & woodland birds have declined
 Sea birds have increased.

change in abundance over time and some positives (increases) forest and farmland birds decreased dramatically but sea birds experienced different trends generally- increased protection breeding grounds

Butterflies

now we need to figure out who is a habitat generalist and habitat specialist- losing rare specialist species 

Decrease: 54% of species   Increase: 46%

• Habitat specialists have declined   Habitat generalists have increased.

Range of methods:

• Camera trapping
• Field measurements (e.g., DBH, species identification)
• Remote sensing (e.g., conventional aircraft, satellite, UAV photos, etc.)
• Indicator species
• Traditional & local ecological knowledge (TEK/LEK)
• Collaborations with the public
• Facial recognition tools LemurFaceiD

Range of analyses:
• Time series
• Spatial statistics
• Indicies (e.g., heterogenetiy, connectivity, diversity)
• Comparisons

Low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles

– Survey wildlife

– Monitor and map terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

– Support enforcement of protected areas

/Uavs to identify biodiversity
/ drone patrol- poachers Africa - some have been shot down by poachers
/ if drones are flying over indigenous, intimate communities customs and practices then there is a question of privacy - how much can these drones see? people have a right to privacy 
/ ethical considerations with having these photos - sensitive 
/ good for monitoring because gives a full coverage - able to fly and  see animals that live in canopies 

• “Invisible” from ground

• Inaccessible terrain - very dense and orangutans in trees
- can cover ground we can't safer and cheaper than us being there

• Disturbance
- want to detect whether someones been logging in that area 

• Cover more ground

• Potential for automating analysis - population estimates  - algorithms

Camera traps to get better population estimates.

remotely activated camera equipped with a motion, infrared or light sensor as a trigger

Why use cameras?

• Detect elusive species:
• low density species
• Nocturnal
• Shy
• Remote or inhospitable sites
• Mark-recapture studies - is this same individual or a diffferent one?

Project to monitor:

• Population size and trends - establishing baselines 
• Home range and territoriality
• Feeding ecology
• Landscape connectivity - uav map- see if same individuals pop up in this forest- linked

describes aboriginal, indigenous, or other forms of traditional knowledges regarding sustainability of local resources

ask farmers which ones should  we monitor 

• Based in anthropology, but increasingly used by conservation scientists
• Long-term information
- may have info that can serve as a baseline 
• “Intimate” knowledge and different ways of knowing
- may be asking wrong questions- they can lead us to the right question
• Access to sites
- Indonesian scientists have no trouble getting in than an outsider 
• Day-to-day presence
• Vested interest in the resources

fishermen there everyday give fishermen cameras- can use computer algorithms to see shark markings and see what are individuals
Approx. locations of whale sharks sightings by fishermen in Timor, Roti and Timor Leste waters
• Distribution
• Behaviour
• Human interactions (harvest)
• Photographing of individuals

whale sharks are hugely migrant across huge areas- sometimes solitarity sometimes gather filter/feed together - specific aras come in different seasons- we could catch alot of these and put radio trackers on which is invasive, expensive and have to find them again. 
Fishermen can complement this, are out there everyday and happy to have a chat about where known species are.  map by fishermen- now we know what coastline to focus on and what months they will be there- given fishermen camera, now monitoring is done by lcoal fishermen, can do mark recapture using the freckles on the dolphins using computer algorithms rhat match up. there is a lot of shark harvest for shark fin soup as well as meat, so local communities can potentially tell us where this happen and doesnt. some limitation if we ask fishermen where they illegally fish these sharks- there is issues about the quality of this data problem but get better understanding

forests challenging terrain, plants are epiphytes grow on canopies, can run lines identify species but that'sa lot of effort- what you can do is stand on a market use local knowledge of traders tell me about llocal changes you've seen, traders- harvesters not bringing it can't get it, this tells us something about the population status o fsomething in the wild.

if 50 Burmese orchid collectors whose livelihood depends on selling these species can't find them then this means its not there- spending a lot of energy, tells us there isa  population change- tellls us somethig about a fundamental shift thats ahppened in the population and distirbution of this species.

price data - used to be cheap now it's expensvive- can use price data - price data function of demand and rarirty/scaricity of supply. 

limitations traders do not have full information not the ones who are harvesting. 

Ornamental plants illegal traded from Myanmar to Thailand
• Cannot access northern Myanmar
• Limited infrastructure and dense forest
• Widely distributed species

Local Ecological Knowledge of plant
traders on the Thai-Myanmar border:
• Species lists
• Changes in availability over time 
• Price data (=rarity and demand) - price list cheap- lotss

Limitations 
• Traders don’t have full information - second-hand info traders didnt harvest them 
• Misinformation & social desireability
- forests challenging plants that are epiphytes grow in canopies and thats a lot of effort to find them, so instead went to local markets
- if local market traders cant find a burmese orchid that they rely on- it's telling us a lot than if scientists cant find it 

Example: LEK monitoring of subsistence Hunting in the Piagaçu-Purus Reserve, Brazil

• Brazil’s Sustainable Development Reserves: legal subsistence hunting based on local data and planning
• Isolated sites and little baseline data
• One year of self-monitoring across 5 communities: 509 hunting events recorded by 37 families (35% population)  - important baseline species what species being harvest- sex:ratio 
• Evaluation of temporal and spatial fluctuations of hunting activities
• Sex ratios- how did this then inform proposals- how can we manage this together? 
• Illegal hunting
• Proposals for local rules to guide legal hunting
• Monitoring of illegal hunting by outsiders

ancestral right to hunt- but breedin seasons dont  - you can subsistence farm -reserves communities allows to harvest wildlife themselves but in order to do it they have to agree to monitor whhere they are monitoring, let's come up with rules- don't hunt this species in this season or in core zone of park or when breeding- participatory process 

the involvement of volunteers in research

• Free
• Large labour force
• “Everywhere” (e.g., longitudinal datasets)

• Various types of types of data :
– Environmental measurements
– Percentage cover
– Absence-presence
– Counts

• Help with data classification
• Requires training, management, verification
• Potential for error and bias is poorly understood

lots of people free, everywhere nice longitudinal studies- , require training - potential error & bias- not doing things standardised. Yet power of public is really powerful

interrested in monitoring ddt- eggs are getting thinner- bioaccumulation of predators need examples- calls to the public - send us a bag with your dead owl- the public monitors for them, study them. 

• Managed by Center for Ecology &Hydrology (CEH)

• Monitors concentrations of contaminants in the livers and eggs of selected predatory and fish-eating bird species

• Detects and quantifies current and emerging chemical threats, which vary spatially and temporally

• Relies on dead bird and failed egg samples collected by the public

• Habitat-based plant monitoring scheme
• Volunteers identify 25-30 indicator species in randomly allocated, local 1km square
• Often requires training

plant near your house - 25-30 indicator species go out test 

mnitoring scehem for plants go online volunteer- show you a patch near your house identify 20-30 indicator species- go out and test that.

225 camera traps Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

• Distribution of >30 species

• Questions: carnivore coexistence, herbivore coexistence, predatorprey relationships

• Online interface to classify millions of photographs

serengeti match- process data for them instead of candy crush - serengeti- lots of camera traps but not enough people to go over the  millions of photos - process data for them whilst matching key species.

(www.snapshotserengeti.org) 

do a little tutorial how to identify

Define what kind of biodiversity- composition, structural, functional need to be specific
Identify priority sites, species and issues
Set specific questions

Gather existing data
Select indicators
Set baselines

Recommend management actions
Identify control areas / treatments
Make sure your indicators are good (verify)
Develop a sampling scheme 

are indicators good telling you whats expected, validate, identifying indicators and monitoring is just one step- more issue to think about 

DIS, Gs RIMD 

• EU environmental regulations

• Biodiversity offset schemes

• Climate change policy

• Renewable energy policy

• Forest conservation

• Noss, R.F. 1990. Indicators for monitoring biodiversity: a hierarchical

approach. Conservation Biology 4:355-364. URL:

https://tinyurl.com/m4jgrbs.

• Sodhi, N.S., Erlich, P.R. (Eds.). 2008. Conservation Biology for All.

Oxford University Press, Oxford. Pages 314-315. URL:

https://conbio.org/images/content_publications/

ConservationBiologyforAll_reducedsize.pdf