Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

Reviews

"Monitoring Threatened Biodiversity and Ecological Communities contains insights that make it a unique and productive piece of work. It goes a long way to achieving its aim of improving the standard of threatened biodiversity monitoring, and, though its focus rests in the Australian context, the work is relevant on a global scale."
Patrick Bonney, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 26(1), 2019.

"This is a well-conceived and organized book that both effectively summarizes current problems in biodiversity monitoring in Australia and provides constructive solutions to them."
Ron Moorhouse, Conservation Biology 33(2), 2019

Features

• The first assessment of the extent and adequacy of monitoring for threatened biodiversity in Australia
• Collates and synthesises the insights of some of the most experienced scientists and managers that monitor threatened biodiversity in Australia
• Identifies the common obstacles to carrying out effective monitoring and presents guiding principles to improve the effectiveness of monitoring threatened biodiversity

Contents

Acknowledgements
Editors
List of contributors
Contributing organisations

1. Introduction: Making it count | Sarah Legge, David B. Lindenmayer, Natasha M. Robinson, Benjamin C. Scheele, Darren M. Southwell, Brendan A. Wintle, John C.Z. Woinarski and Elisa Bayraktarov

Section 1: Monitoring extent and adequacy
2. A framework for evaluating the adequacy of monitoring programs for threatened species | John C.Z. Woinarski
3. The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened mammal species | John C. Z. Woinarski, Andrew A. Burbidge and Peter L. Harrison
4. The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened bird species | Stephen T. Garnett and Hayley Geyle
5. The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened frog species | Benjamin C. Scheele and Graeme R. Gillespie
6. The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened reptile species | John C.Z. Woinarski
7. The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened freshwater fish species | Mark Lintermans and Wayne Robinson
8. Monitoring threatened ecosystems and ecological communities | David A. Keith, Belinda J. Pellow and Matthew Appleby
9. Summary: Monitoring extent and adequacy for threatened biodiversity | Sarah Legge, Benjamin C. Scheele, John C.Z. Woinarski, Stephen T. Garnett, David A. Keith, Mark Lintermans, Natasha M. Robinson and David B. Lindenmayer

Section 2: The value of monitoring
10. The value of assessing species recovery: towards a national framework | Peter Latch
11. Shorebird monitoring in Australia: a successful long-term collaboration among citizen scientists, governments and researchers | Birgita D. Hansen, Robert S. Clemens, Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao, Micha V. Jackson, Richard T. Kingsford, Grainne S. Maguire, Golo Maurer, David Milton, Danny I. Rogers, Dan R. Weller, Michael A. Weston, Eric J. Woehler and Richard A. Fuller
12. A tale of threatened frogs: demonstrating the value of long-term monitoring | Graeme R. Gillespie, David Hunter, Greg Hollis, Benjamin C. Scheele and Matt West
13. Insights from multi-species mammal monitoring programs in the Upper Warren, Western Australia | Adrian Wayne
14. The multiple benefits of monitoring threatened species – Leadbeater’s possum as a case study | David B. Lindenmayer
15. Summary: The value of monitoring threatened biodiversity | David B. Lindenmayer, Natasha M. Robinson, Benjamin C. Scheele and Sarah Legge

Section 3: Monitoring frameworks
16. Why, what, how much, and is it worth it? Questions to answer before spending a penny on monitoring | Brendan A. Wintle
17. Saving our Species: cost-effective monitoring and evaluation for a large-scale threatened species program | James Brazill-Boast
18. Designing a monitoring framework for Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a national conservation organisation | John Kanowski, Liana Joseph, Rod Kavanagh and Atticus Fleming
19. Parks Australia monitoring for threatened species | Kerrie Bennison and Judy West

Section 4: Monitoring program design
20. Optimising broad-scale monitoring for trend detection: review and re-design of a long-term program in northern Australia | Luke D. Einoder, Darren M. Southwell, Graeme R. Gillespie, Alaric Fisher, José J. Lahoz-Monfort and Brendan A. Wintle
21. Determining trends in irruptive desert species | Chris R. Dickman, Aaron C. Greenville and Glenda M. Wardle
22. The challenge of monitoring coastal marine mammals | Helene Marsh, Lyndon Brooks and Rie Hagihara
23. The technology revolution: improving species detection and monitoring using new tools and statistical methods | José J. Lahoz-Monfort and Reid Tingley
24. Summary: Monitoring frameworks and monitoring program design for threatened biodiversity | Darren M. Southwell

Section 5: Community participation
25. Threatened species monitoring on Aboriginal land: finding the common ground between Kuka, Jukurrpa, ranger work and science | Rachel Paltridge and Anja Skroblin
26. Involving volunteers in threatened plant monitoring in South Australia: the best laid plans of plants and men | Doug Bickerton
27. Community involvement in monitoring threatened species: a WWF perspective | Jessica Koleck
28. What makes a successful citizen science program? | Kerryn Herman
29. Summary: Community participation in monitoring for threatened biodiversity | Natasha M. Robinson, Sarah Legge and Ben C. Scheele

Section 6: Monitoring and adaptive management
30. Recovery of the red-finned blue-eye: informing action in the absence of controls and replication | Jim Radford, Rob Wager and Adam Kerezsy
31. The national malleefowl monitoring effort: citizen scientists, databases and adaptive management | Joe Benshemesh, Darren M. Southwell, Jose J. Lahoz-Monfort, Cindy Hauser, Libby Rumpff, Michael Bode, Tim Burnard and Brendan A. Wintle
32. Difficulties in fitting an adaptive management approach to threatened species monitoring | David B. Lindenmayer
33. Summary: Monitoring and adaptive management of threatened biodiversity | Ben C. Scheele and David B. Lindenmayer
34. Organisational perspectives on threatened species monitoring | Natasha M. Robinson, Rachel Morgain, Sarah Legge, Ben C. Scheele, David B. Lindenmayer, Darren M. Southwell, Kerrie Bennison, Joe Benshemesch, Doug Bickerton, Lyndon Brooks, Oberon Carter, Chris Dickman, Glen Ehmke, John Kanowski, Jessica Koleck, Mark Lintermans, Helene Marsh, Damon Oliver, Rachel Paltridge, Jim Radford, Anja Skroblin, Adrian Wayne and John C. Z. Woinarski
35. Essential principles to guide monitoring of threatened biodiversity | Natasha M. Robinson, Sarah Legge, Benjanim C. Scheele, David B. Lindenmayer, Darren M. Southwell, Brendan A. Wintle, Kerrie Bennison, Joe Benshemesch, Doug Bickerton, Lyndon Brooks, Oberon Carter, Chris Dickman, Luke Einoder, Graeme Gillespie, Kerryn Herman, John Kanowski, Jessica Koleck, Jose J. Lahoz-Monfort, Peter Latch, Mark Lintermans, Helene Marsh, Rachel Paltridge, Jim Radford, Anja Skroblin, Adrian Wayne and John C. Z. Woinarski

Index
View the full table of contents.

Authors

Sarah Legge is a wildlife ecologist with a background in applied research and management of fire and introduced species, focusing on actions for recovering threatened and declining fauna and restoring ecological integrity. She also has extensive experience in developing monitoring programs to measure the effectiveness of conservation management. Before joining the Threatened Species Recovery Hub she worked in the non-government conservation sector.

David Lindenmayer's expertise spans forest ecology and management, forest and woodland biodiversity, conservation in agricultural landscapes, the ecology and management of fire, conservation science and natural resource management. He has a prolific publication record, having published more than 1000 scientific articles and 40 books. David is a member of the Australian Academy of Science and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has won two Eureka Prizes, six Whitley Awards, the Australian Natural History Medal, the Serventy Medal for Ornithology and was awarded an Order of Australia in 2014.

Natasha Robinson's research focuses on threatened species monitoring and management, mammal reintroductions and fire ecology. She works closely with partner management agencies to ensure that her research improves on-ground management outcomes. Previously, she worked for the Victorian State Government in ecological fire management and biodiversity conservation, and in northern rural Vietnam developing sustainable livelihood projects that had cultural, conservation and socio-economic benefits. She completed her PhD on the importance of refuges for birds in severely burnt forest of central Victoria.

Ben Scheele is an ecologist with a particular interest in threatened species management and recovery. He has researched threatened species across diverse landscapes ranging from the Australian Alps to the ancient farming landscapes of Transylvania. Ben’s research has strong links to management and his work on threatened amphibians has informed the development of innovative applied management responses.

Darren Southwell is an ecologist with an interest in optimal monitoring, adaptive management and population viability analysis. His PhD developed population models for threatened and invasive species to inform cost-effective management decisions. Previously, he worked as a quantitative scientist at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and as a field biologist at the Australian Antarctic Division.

Brendan Wintle is a conservation ecologist who develops quantitative methods to support conservation decision-making and policy. He publishes in monitoring design, cost-efficient conservation spending, population viability analysis, species occupancy and distribution modelling, and Bayesian statistics with application to practical conservation problems.