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Biodiversity Monitoring and the Role of Scientists in the Twenty-first Century

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Closing the Knowledge-Implementation Gap in Conservation Science

Part of the book series: Wildlife Research Monographs ((WIREMO,volume 4))

Abstract

Sustained monitoring of biological diversity is central to conservation biology as a discipline, allowing the evaluation of species and ecosystem conservation status, biological responses to environmental and policy changes, and conservation action. In this chapter, we look at the knowledge–implementation gap through the lens of biodiversity monitoring (hereafter, biomonitoring) to highlight the role of scientific inquiry as a stream of knowledge production in biodiversity conservation and the ways it can influence the width of the gap. Biomonitoring provides the perfect platform to discuss this. The knowledge it produces fundamentally underpins and informs all aspects of biodiversity conservation. Moreover, as a field of research, it is highly permeable to concurrently employ other sources of ecological knowledge, technological innovation, interdisciplinarity, and collaborative approaches. This means that the scientists leading these efforts likely embody the traits and skills most needed to successfully navigate and close the gap in the future, as scientists will continue to be major knowledge producers in this field. We outline the main features of traditional biomonitoring, with an emphasis on some of the challenges faced by the scientific community that may contribute to widening the knowledge–implementation gap in the discipline, as well as successful expert-driven initiatives that provide a good template to resolve said challenges.

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Acknowledgments

Catarina C. Ferreira was supported by Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship for Career Development no. PIOF-GA-2013-621571 within the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Catarina C. Ferreira

  2. IUCN SSC Species Monitoring Specialist Group, Laboratory for Conservation Biology, Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    P. J. Stephenson

  3. NatureServe, Virginia, USA

    Mike Gill

  4. Springer Nature, London, UK

    Eugenie C. Regan

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  1. Catarina C. Ferreira
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Correspondence to Catarina C. Ferreira .

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  1. Department of Conservation Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Catarina C. Ferreira

  2. Division of Environment and Natural Resources, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Svanvik, Norway

    Cornelya F. C. Klütsch

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Ferreira, C.C., Stephenson, P.J., Gill, M., Regan, E. (2021). Biodiversity Monitoring and the Role of Scientists in the Twenty-first Century. In: Ferreira, C.C., Klütsch, C.F.C. (eds) Closing the Knowledge-Implementation Gap in Conservation Science. Wildlife Research Monographs, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81085-6_2

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