Ecological Monitoring

Environmental monitoring programs commonly address issues related to changes in: (1) environmental stressors, for example, the chemical quality of water, air, and soil, and activities related to agriculture, forestry, and construction; (2) the abundance and productivity of economically important, ecological resources such as agricultural products, forests, and hunted fish, mammals, and birds; and (3) ecological values that are not economic resources but are nevertheless important, such as rare and endangered species and natural communities.

Monitoring programs must be capable of detecting changes in all of the above values, and of predicting future change. In North America, this function is carried out fairly well for categories (1) and (2), because these deal with economically important activities or resources. However, there are some important deficiencies in the monitoring of noneconomic ecological values. As a result, significant environmental issues involving ecological change cannot be effectively addressed by society, because there is insufficient monitoring, research, and understanding. A few examples are:

1. Is a widespread decline of populations of migratory songbirds occurring in North America? If so, is this damage being caused by stressors occurring in their wintering habitat in Central and South America? Or are changes in the breeding habitat in North America important? Or both? What are the causes of these changes, and how can society manage the stressors that are responsible?
2. What is the scope of the global biodiversity crisis that is now occurring? Which species are affected, where, and why? How are these species important to the integrity of the biosphere, and to the welfare of humans? Most of the extinctions are occurring because of losses of tropical forest, but how are people of richer countries connected to the biodiversity-depleting stressors in poorer countries?
3. What are the biological and ecological risks of increased exposures to ultraviolet radiation, possibly caused by the depletion of stratospheric ozone resulting from emissions of chlorofluorocarbons by humans?
4. What constitutes an acceptable exposure to potentially toxic chemicals? Some toxins, such as metals, occur naturally in the environment. Are there thresholds of exposure beyond which human emissions should not increase the concentrations of these chemicals? Is any increase acceptable for non-natural toxins, such as synthetic pesticides, TCDD, PCBs, and radionuclides?

These are just a small sample of the important ecological problems that have to be addressed by ecological monitoring, research, and understanding. To provide the information and knowledge needed to deal with environmental problems, many countries are now designing programs for longer-term monitoring and research in ecology and environmental science.

In the United States, for example, the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) of the Environmental Protection Agency is intended to provide information on ecological changes across large areas, by monitoring indicators at a large number of sites spread across the entire country. Another program has been established by the National Science Foundation and involves a network of Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites (21 in 1999), although these are mostly for fundamental ecological research and are not necessarily relevant to environmental problems. These are important programs in ecological monitoring and research, but they are still in their infancy and it is too soon to determine how well they will contribute to resolution of the environmental crisis.