Monitoring wildlife habitat – A critique of approaches

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Schamberger, Mel¹

Note: [1] Dr. Schamberger currently is employed by the United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. He is the Chief of the Terrestrial Systems Branch, National Ecology Research Center, in Ft. Collins, Colorado. He received his Ph.D. in Natural History and Ecology at Oregon State University, taught at the college and university level for 8 years, was engaged as an environmental consultant in the siting of energy development projects, and has worked the past 10 years in the development of computer-based environmental impact assessment techniques. His background also includes 2 years with the Smithsonian Environmental Program in Santiago, Chile, where he worked with wildlife inventory and distribution and the development of management plans for proposed national parks.

Abstract: Naturalists have long recognized that wildlife cannot exist in a natural state without adequate habitat. Habitat monitoring is an effort to monitor the physical conditions that provide life support for the species, given the underlying assumption that if the habitat is available the species will respond and fill that habitat with viable populations. Techniques for habitat monitoring are varied and depend on the species involved, geographical area, and resources available. At a very gross level, habitat monitoring may be little more than the monitoring of major vegetative associations: time series analysis of aerial photography is an excellent mechanism to monitor the changes in hectares of specified vegetative associations, which are surrogate measures of habitat. One approach uses population monitoring to determine habitat availability. Unfortunately, many researchers fail to recognize that population levels may or may not reflect habitat quality or habitat availability. Another approach is to monitor species richness or species diversity. Finally, the habitat components that compose quality habitat for a species or species group can be used for monitoring. This approach results in the identification of important habitat attributes that can be measured independent of the presence of the species. A thorough understanding of the biological system being monitored is paramount to the development of sound monitoring study design.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1988-5310

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 303-313, 1988