Effective Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring

Measuring the natural world at the appropriate spatial and temporal scale to detect changes over time has challenged mankind for centuries. Yet we are entering an era defined by unprecedented global changes—an epoch we have defined as the Anthropocene due to the ubiquitous impact of mankind across every corner of the planet. To understand what impact global changes are having on species and ecosystems it is increasingly important to develop global networks across indicator species and ecosystems and to standardize efforts. Although new tools and techniques have developed to meet this challenge, keeping global networks going over the long term has proven difficult.