PRACTITIONER'S PERSPECTIVE Practical advice for implementing long-term ecosystem monitoring

Understanding the current status and long-term trends of nat-uralresources iswidely recognized as acornerstone ofecologi-cal research and management. As society wrestles withcomplex environmental issues involving multiple species anddynamichabitatconditions,the callforecosystem-basedman-agement becomes increasingly urgent (Francis et al. 2007;Levin et al. 2009). However, to effectively implement ecosys-tem-based management, managers need access to baselineenvironmental measurements f rom appropriate temporal andspatialscalesthataredirectlyrelatedtoprogrammeobjectives.Examples of long-term data contributing to policy exist (e.g.UK Environmental Change Network: http://www.ecn.ac.uk/what-we-do/evidence/), but in many places, there remains alack of credible and commonly shared baseline data that oftenresults in poor decision-making and environmental policy(Yaffee1997).Booksandarticlesinvokingthevalueoflong-termmonitor-ing have existed for decades (e.g. Holling 1978). The monitor-ing of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa and ozone in Antarctica,possibly the two most famous examples demonstrating theimportance of long-term studies, alerted scientists to drasticchanges in the earth’s atmosphere. Recent documentation ofnatural phenomena such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation(MantuaH watershed restoration: Roni 2005; NationalMarine Sanctuaries: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/