DESIGN ELEMENTS OF MONITORING PROGRAMS - THE NECESSARY INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS

Natural resource managers must know the condition of resources entrust ed to their stewardship so that they can maintain unimpaired resources and know when to restore impaired ecosystems. Resource monitoring.pro grams should be designed to provide indications of ecosystem health, d efine limits of normal variation, identify abnormal conditions, and su ggest potential agents of abnormal changes. Development of a conceptua l model that identifies all ecosystem components and their relationshi ps is the first step in the design of such a diagnostic monitoring pro gram. Design studies, with field testing on each selected system compo nent, are required to determine the parameters to be measured and to e stablish monitoring protocols. The best approach to diagnostic monitor ing appears to be based on the population dynamics of selected species relative to physical and chemical environmental factors. Both managem ent and monitoring of natural ecosystems need to be recognized as expe rimental endeavors, and thus approached in an iterative fashion with t he scientific method to reduce uncertainty and cost.