engleski

Ecological insights and surprises from long-term monitoring projects

Most long-term monitoring projects set out with clear objectives related to specific program goals. Over decadal time periods, data generated from such monitoring programs can provide novel ecological insights and surprises beyond the realm of initial goals. This talk highlights some insights and surprises from three different long-term monitoring programs having different initial goals. A 15-year monitoring of an experimental flow program gave insight on the importance of a long-term perspective in ecological management and surprises on ecological resilience following catastrophic disturbance. Second, a 14-year dataset on two reference alpine streams gave insight on climate change effects on river ecology in relation to glacial legacies. Surprises arose from the similar role of external drivers in temporal response patterns in each system. Lastly, a 15-year dataset from a high mountain lake/river network gave insight on how spatial landscape features affect temporal ecological response patterns in the system. Here, ecological surprises emerged in how the network functions in light of these spatial scale dynamics. A key determinant to gain insights and detect ecological surprises is through the careful design and long-term implementation of monitoring programs that set the foundation for concurrent research.

long-term monitoring; alpine streams; disturbance; lake-river network; glacial legacy

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