Who needs environmental monitoring?

Abstract

Environmental monitoring is often criticized as being unscientific, too expensive, and wasteful. While some monitoring studies do suffer from these problems, there are also many highly successful long‐term monitoring programs that have provided important scientific advances and crucial information for environmental policy. Here, we discuss the characteristics of effective monitoring programs, and contend that monitoring should be considered a fundamental component of environmental science and policy. We urge scientists who develop monitoring programs to plan in advance to ensure high data quality, accessibility, and cost‐effectiveness, and we urge government agencies and other funding institutions to make greater commitments to increasing the amount and long‐term stability of funding for environmental monitoring programs.

Lakes and reservoirs as sentinels, integrators, and regulators of climate change

“…The Global Lake Ecosystem Network (GLEON) is a grass-roots organization that is creating a network of scientists and sensors that are focused on using lake metabolism as a key regulator of response to climate change (http://www.gleon.org/). A cogent case has been made for the value of such long-term monitoring to decipher signals and effects of environmental change in a variety of ecosystems from terrestrial to oceanic (Lovett et al 2007;Smetacek and Cloern 2008).…”

Exploring the long-term response of undisturbed Mediterranean catchments to changes in atmospheric inputs through time series analysis

“…According to 570 our results, this biome shift could result in a substantial decrease in nitrate concentration in stream 571 water, which would counterbalance, at least in part, the expected future increase in stream N 572 export in response to chronic N deposition. This study contributes to illustrate that Mediterranean 573 montane catchments are highly sensitive to environmental changes, and that their vulnerability to 574 anthropogenic pressure can only be assessed with well-designed long-term monitoring 575 programmes covering decades of hydrological and chemical data (Lovett et al, 2007). 576 Prec: precipitation, AM: arithmetic average, SD: standard deviation, VWA: volume weighted average, n: number of samples.…”

Community-Based Participatory Research Helps Farmers and Scientists to Manage Invasive Pests in the Ecuadorian Andes

“…Monitoring is a fundamental part of environmental science, and long-term data are particularly crucial for documenting and predicting the spread of exotic pest species (Lovett et al 2007). Community-based investigations in the context of invasive agricultural pest management can be a promising approach, especially in developing countries that often face limited funding and administrative capabilities.…”

“…Poverty, along with inequity, particularly in trade and access to technology make invasive pest monitoring programs particularly timely and challenging for developing countries. Monitoring programs are an important component of good environmental governance as they ensure that emergent threats are identified and addressed (Lovett et al 2007).…”