Biodiversity is now under threat all throughout the world, yet little is known about its distribution or rates of extinction. Since it may be characterised with the species, habitat, or gene levels – temporal changes can be studied at a variety of levels. These changes might be the result of natural disruptions, man-made alterations, or long-term environmental trends.
However, no standard analytic tools for assessing biodiversity have yet been created. Baseline data must be gathered, and analytic tools must be established in order to conserve or utilize it as an indication of environmental change.
What Are the Ways to Measure Biodiversity?
There is still a lot we don’t know about the Earth’s biodiversity. We quantify it in a variety of methods, with counting species being the most prevalent.
Depending on the species of interest, scientists employ a variety of sample methodologies, surveys, and counting methods to measure biodiversity. Technology spans from a simple hand-held magnifying lens to satellite photographs of whole landscapes, as well as DNA collection and sequencing in soil, water, and snow, and acoustic monitoring.
We know considerably less about how smaller organisms, such as invertebrates and bacteria, are evolving, or how many species there are, despite the fact that DNA collection is contributing to breakthroughs in our understanding of biodiversity at microscopic scales.
Why Is Monitoring Biodiversity Important?
Biodiversity is a metric that combines species’ evenness and richness. It is frequently assessed because great biodiversity is thought to be consistent with healthy ecosystems. Diverse societies are seen to have enhanced stability, production, and resistance to invasion and other disruptions in general.
Biodiversity Monitoring for Rural Development Programming
Member States can direct rural development subsidies to certain locations or farm types, such as places with high biodiversity value. This necessitates the development of a mechanism for mapping the relevant areas where initiatives to improve specific forms of biodiversity are projected to be most successful. Since either the target species or habitat currently exists and the action would secure or grow its range and population, or because the habitat may be generated under specific conditions and linked to existing habitat.
Targeting necessitates the creation of distribution maps of the target species and habitats at a fine enough scale to be relevant to individual farms. It also incorporates the target maps into the IT system that manages the selection, prioritisation, and allocation of rural development payments. Ideally, incorporation into the Land Parcel Identification System will also be actioned, which registers individual farm parcels and associated rural development contracts.
What Is Inventory and Monitoring of Biodiversity?
In broad terms, inventories are carried out to determine the distribution and composition of wildlife and wildlife habitats in areas where such data is lacking. Whereas, monitoring is typically used to comprehend change rates or the consequences of management strategies on animal habitats and populations.
Ecology Consultancy by Greenlight
A discussion of biodiversity monitoring would be incomplete, unless the challenges associated with assessment and management were addressed. It is sometimes difficult to combine the necessity for replication sampling within a habitat type with the need to survey a wide, diversified ecosystem. Using biodiversity as an environmental indicator is highly difficult unless the links between species and environmental changes are particular and well-understood.
Are you interested in understanding biodiversity in your area, or do you have an upcoming development project that you need to monitor biodiversity for?
Speak to Greenlight today and we will help guide you through the process and provide the most sustainable option for yourself and the wildlife around your development.
