File:Elzinga et al 1998.pdf

This technical reference applies to monitoring situations involving a single plant species, such as an indicator species, key species, or weed. It was originally developed for monitoring special status plants, which have some recognized status at the Federal, State, or agency level because of their rarity or vulnerability. Most examples and discussions in this technical reference focus on these special status species, but the methods described are also applicable to any single-species monitoring and even some community monitoring situations.We thus hope wildlife biologists, range conservationists, botanists, and ecologists will all find this technical reference helpful.

• Chapter 1. Introduction—Describes the role of monitoring in adaptive management. Contrasts monitoring with other data-collection activities, such as inventory and long-term ecological studies.
• Chapter 2. Monitoring Overview—Provides a step-by-step overview of the entire monitoring process, and references chapters where information on each step can be found in more detail. Flow charts are included to illustrate feedback loops and interrelationships among the steps.
• Chapter 3. Setting Priorities and Selecting Scale—Presents criteria and techniques for setting priorities among species or populations and choosing the most appropriate scale and intensity for monitoring.
• Chapter 4. Management Objectives—Illustrates the foundational nature of management objectives and describes their components, types, and development.
• Chapter 5. Basic Principles of Sampling—Describes basic terms and concepts relevant to sampling using simple examples. This chapter provides background information critical to understanding material presented in Chapters 6, 7, and 11.
• Chapter 6. Sampling Objectives—Describes objectives that complement management objectives whenever the monitoring includes sampling procedures. A sampling objective sets a specific goal for the level of precision or acceptable error rates associated with the sampling process.
• Chapter 7. Sampling Design—Describes how to make the six basic decisions that must be made in designing a sample-based monitoring study: (1) What is the population of interest? (2) What is an appropriate sampling unit? (3) What is an appropriate sampling unit size and shape? (4) How should sampling units be positioned? (5) Should sampling units be permanent or temporary? (6) How many sampling units should be sampled?
• Chapter 8. Field Techniques for Measuring Vegetation—Discusses selecting an appropriate vegetation attribute to measure when monitoring (e.g., cover, density, frequency, biomass, etc.) in terms of the biology and morphology of the species, and the practical limitations involved in each type of measurement. Field techniques for measuring each vegetation attribute and advice on field techniques and tools are provided.
• Chapter 9. Data Management—Covers different ways of recording monitoring data in the field and describes means for entering and managing field monitoring data sets with computers.
• Chapter 10. Communication and Monitoring Plans—Encourages the use of monitoring plans to solicit involvement in the development of a monitoring project, and to document the accepted monitoring protocol. Describes parties whose support may be critical for a successful monitoring project.
• Chapter 11. Statistical Analysis—Describes the methods used to analyze monitoring data collected using sampling procedures, the use of graphs to examine data prior to analysis and to display the results of analysis, and the interpretation of monitoring data following analysis.
• Chapter 12. Demography—Describes techniques for demographic analysis of populations and provides cautions and suggestions for their use.
• Chapter 13. Completing Monitoring and Reporting Results—Summarizes the final stages of a monitoring project and describes methods for reporting results.