Monitoring Approach
Integrated Ecosystem-based Approach to Monitoring
The ecosystem-based approach to monitoring integrates information on land, water, and living resources and lends itself to monitoring many aspects of an ecosystem in a geographic region. Important elements of the ecosystem approach for monitoring Arctic biodiversity include the following:
- Recognition that monitoring all elements of ecosystems—including species, habitats, ecosystem structure (e.g., species assemblages, food webs), processes (e.g., predator-prey cycles, nutrient cycling), functions (e.g., net primary productivity), and stressors to the ecosystems — is necessary to gain a meaningful picture of what is happening to biodiversity;
- A focus on trends, including recognition of the dynamic nature of Arctic ecosystems and the importance of identifying change that is outside the realm of natural variability;
- Recognition of the interplay between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems and the way it shapes Arctic ecology and the goods and services that Arctic biodiversity provides; and
- Recognition of the dependence of Arctic biodiversity on conditions outside the Arctic (e.g., high proportion of migratory species, significant impacts of pollutants originating from outside the
Arctic). - Recognition of humans and their cultural diversity as an integral component of many ecosystems[1];
- Monitoring the interactions between people and biodiversity, such as sustainable use and the ability of biodiversity to provide essential goods.
The ecosystem-based approach to monitoring considers the integrity of entire ecosystems and their interaction with other ecosystems. It goes beyond the individual species approach by identifying important relationships. Although this may seem a highly complex and difficult way to study biodiversity that requires more extensive data gathering and analyses than the species approach, the rewards are significant. It provides a bridge between ecosystems, habitats, and species and the impacts of stressors on ecological functions. The resulting information contributes directly to adaptive management, thereby allowing for effective conservation, mitigation, and adaptation actions appropriate to the
The ecosystem-based approach is being implemented first of all through the establishment of five integrated, cross-disciplinary expert monitoring groups (EMGs): marine, freshwater, coastal, terrestrial fauna and terrestrial vegetation. These monitoring groups will be supported by the coordination of a network of networks, drawing on existing species, habitat and site-based monitoring networks.
The CBMP will act as coordinator for this network of networks, supporting standardization of networks across the circumpolar
The CBMP will work with partners to develop and promote measures for both biotic (e.g., species, humans, habitats) and abiotic (e.g. climate, contaminants, UV radiation) elements across the entire circumpolar
The network of networks recognizes the following:
- The importance of some species and species groups to the people and biodiversity of the
Arctic; - The importance of building on existing monitoring capacity, which is mostly organized by networks;
- Species-based monitoring is an established and effective method to be standardized across the circumpolar
Arctic; - The relative ease with which non-technical people understand species trends and their implications using this approach (compared to the ecosystem approach);
- The importance of building on the focused use of a multidisciplinary approach by some networks (e.g., Circumpolar Arctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment Network [CARMA]); and
- The importance of building on the strong links between scientific and community-based monitoring found in some networks (e.g., CARMA).
The
A number of research stations are currently active in the
Site-based monitoring (e.g., SCANNET), will assist in identifying important gaps, with the possibility of adding new sites to fill those gaps. Some existing research-station networks already employ consistent, repeatable, and standardized measures that span a large bio-geoclimatic gradient.
[1] Convention on Biological Diversity (
