Monitoring biodiversity: quantification and interpretation.

Monitoring is necessary for an adaptive management approach and the successful implementation of ecosystem management. In this document, we present an approach to monitoring biological diversity at different levels of ecological organization: landscape, community or ecosystem, population or species, and genetic. Our approach involves identifying monitoring questions derived from regional, provincial, or watershed assessments; identifying monitoring methods; and analyzing and interpreting data to integrate into management strategies. Examples of monitoring methods, data analysis, and interpretation are provided for each level of ecological organization, beginning with the most inclusive level, the landscape. Our objective is to provide land managers with an approach and examples to develop biodiversity monitoring strategies.