Ecological Monitoring

In the past years, the use of different monitoring approaches has become very popular in development projects and international cooperation. Monitoring can be described as a repetitive observation of phenomena within a certain framework of time and place. Monitoring often relates to changes in a certain area due to activities carried out by the community, governmental or nongovernmental institutions and is meant to support decisions on future steps.

The idea behind ecological monitoring is very closely linked to this notion. Ecological monitoring can be understood as the collection, analysis and interpretation of data on the natural environment, above all of changes that occur in a certain ecosystem. It attempts to observe living and non-living aspects of the biosphere, the response of the environment to human interventions and to predict the actual or likely impacts. Also, it helps to understand processes in the environment and can serve as an “early warning” system.

Ecological monitoring is very flexible and can be designed according to the specific needs. It can focus on single factors, such as soil quality, plants or animals, or it can look at the environment as a complex system.

Exercise 4. Read the second part of the article Ecological Monitoring. Answer the questions (orally or in the written form).

Ecological Monitoring

Human activities have the potential to impact both environmental and the ecological sensitive areas. To understand these impacts well, it is important to understand their dimensions and dynamics. Ecological monitoring identifies any damage an ecosystem may be experiencing. It assesses how affected ecosystems change over time.

The success of ecological monitoring depends on: 1) the difficult choice of appropriate ecological indicators to measure, and 2) successful data collection. Choosing appropriate indicators can be difficult because in many situations there is a diverse array of potential characteristics that may be quantified. Successful data collection can be expensive and difficult too, and often requires measurements over long time periods in order to identify trends correctly.

Monitoring programs are often integrated with scientific research. The goals of an integrated program of ecological monitoring and research are to: 1) detect or forecast changes to the ecology of a region, and 2) determine the causes and implications of those changes.

Monitoring involves the repeated measurement of ecological indicators. Changes in indicators are determined through comparison with their historical values, or with a reference or control situation. Often, monitoring may detect changes in indicators, but the causes of those changes may not be understood. To discover the causes of those changes, scientific research has to be undertaken.

1) What does ecological monitoring evaluate?

2) What should ecological monitoring have to be a successful one?

3) Why is data collection complex and expensive?

4) Why is scientific research connected with eco monitoring?

5) What is the purpose of ecological indicators?

Exercise 5. Render the text Ecological Monitoring into Russian (Exercise 3 and Exercise 4). Write the rendering of 150 – 170 words.