![]() We also recommend that benchmark sites be included in all ground-based monitoring programmes to provide reference standards for those biotic indicators about which little is known. We recommend that the set be expanded to include two additional pressure indicators, one for grazing and another for fire, in recognition of their extent and potential influence on rangeland biodiversity. Only two (clearing and exotic plants) related to pressures. Most indicated responses of plants to pressures acting on them. These were trends in (i) the extent of clearing (ii) the cover of native perennial ground-layer vegetation (iii) the distribution and abundance of exotic plant species (iv) the distribution and abundance of fire-sensitive species (v) the distribution and abundance of grazing-sensitive species and (vi) the distribution and abundance of listed threatened entities. A recent report commissioned by the National Land and Water Resources Audit recommended a core set of 11 indicators, six of which relied on measurements of plants. Hence, measurements based on plants have considerable potential to be efficient indicators of the response of rangeland biodiversity to land use. The present paper is not a technical manual, but rather considers some of the design issues associated with designing and implementing large-scale monitoring systems.Ībstract As well as being important components of biodiversity in their own right, plants reflect the physical environment, are the primary target of many of the pressures acting on rangelands, and are relatively amenable to measurement. These attributes are a mix of biophysical, social and institutional attributes and highlight the view that monitoring systems of the type being suggested comprise an unusual mixture of attributes not found in typical scientific activity. We discuss a number of issues that need to be addressed before the system is at all sustainable. Monitoring sustainability will only be possible if the monitoring system is itself sustainable. Those involved in any biodiversity monitoring system will need to understand the implications of investing in a long-term monitoring programme. ![]() The experience with range monitoring shows that large-scale monitoring systems such as those being proposed will require considerable resources, recurrently expended into the distant future, but with only a limited ability to adapt to new demands. Current debate associated with the design of a biodiversity monitoring system has similarities to the debate within the range management profession in the early 1970s. We stress the need to invest resources in assessing whether a monitoring system is necessary before committing resources to the design and implementation of the system. However, the decision to embark on a monitoring system should only be made once it has been established that a monitoring system is the optimal way to inform management. Almost inevitably, this demand for information has led to demand for a broad-scale monitoring system. If any one of them fails, the system fails.Ībstract There is strong demand for information about the status of, and trends in, Australia's biodiversity. The monitoring system is dependent on all of these attributes to function. These attributes are a mix of biophysical, social and institutional and highlight the view that monitoring systems of the type being suggested constitute an unusual mixture of attributes not found in typical scientific activity. We suggest a number of attributes for the system that need to be in place before the system can be judged at all sustainable. Efficiencies can be made when developing the biodiversity monitoring system by learning from the experience of the range management profession. A need has emerged for a biodiversity monitoring system in the rangelands and the discussion is currently at the point where the range management discipline was in the early 1970s. ![]() Such a situation is not unique and the rangelands of the world are littered with monitoring sites that are no longer part of an operating system. Unfortunately, much of the system put in place is now inactive. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s much effort w as expended on a range monitoring program in Western Australia. ![]()
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