Status and Trends

Inventory and Monitoring

Biological inventory is the obtaining and compiling of data regarding plant and animal species to gain knowledge of what species exist, where they are located, how many there are, and the state of their health. For effective management of plant and animal populations to occur, these factors need to be monitored both in the Òhere and nowÓ and over the long-term in order to detect trends in the status of these populations. As species population trends are identified, management protocols can be adjusted.

Biological Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) is an essential tool to understand the status and trends of plant and animal populations, as well as, to help us to see large-scale patterns of ecosystem health, so vital to the survival of humans and all species.

Why Inventory and Monitoring?

I&M saves money, time, redundancy: Provides a national framework for the archiving of critical, high-quality biological data.

I&M fosters cooperation between partners: Cooperative data-gathering and cooperative/integrated management.

I&M allows for adaptive management by land and resource managers.

I&M provides information for policy-makers.

I&M identifies gaps in knowledge and understanding.

I&M allows for the recognition of trends. This includes trends leading to optimum ecosystem health as well as detriments to ecosystem health.

I&M allows for the archiving of genetic, behavioral, and other data in the case of endangered or threatened species.

How do we carry out I&M?

Critical, high-quality monitoring and inventory data is collected, archived, and shared in cooperation with our partners.

We seek to provide an integrated monitoring approach that describes and tracks the abundance, distribution, productivity, and health of the NationÕs plants, animals, and ecosystems.

We sponsor monitoring and inventory activities on the landscape, community, and genetic levels.

While the Program focuses on Dept. of Interior (DOI) resources, the data collected is useful to other public and private organizations. In fact, the work involves extensive cooperation with Federal, State, and private entities.

A Monitoring Framework:

We strive to provide a framework that compiles and integrates information and data from a variety of sources.

Through this framework, we promote best practices for managing data and metadata, database design, data storage, and exchange; and promoting data access and interoperability of databases.

We emphasize the development and evaluation of inventory and monitoring methods, protocols, experimental designs, analytic tools, models, and technologies to measure biological status and trends.

Analyses and Reporting:

The Program provides analyses and reports synthesizing the status and trends of our NationsÕ flora, fauna, and ecosystems.

These analyses and reports are responsive to the needs of the scientific community, land and resource managers, policy makers, and the public.