Biodiversity observation systems are almost everywhere inadequate to meet local, national and international (treaty) obligations. As a result of alarmingly rapid declines in biodiversity in the modern era, there is a strong, worldwide desire to upgrade our monitoring systems, but little clarity on what is actually needed and how it can be assembled from the elements which are already present. This book intends to provide practical guidance to broadly-defined biodiversity observation networks at all scales, but predominantly the national scale and higher. This is a practical how-to book with substantial policy relevance. It will mostly be used by technical specialists with a responsibility for biodiversity monitoring to establish and refine their systems. It is written at a technical level, but one that is not discipline-bound: it should be intelligible to anyone in the broad field with a tertiary education.

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Working in Networks to Make Biodiversity Data More Available
• 2. Global Terrestrial Ecosystem Observations: Why, Where, What and How?
• 3. Ecosystem Services
• 4. Monitoring Essential Biodiversity Variables at the Species Level
• 5. Monitoring Changes in Genetic Diversity
• 6. Methods for the Study of Marine Biodiversity
• 7. Observations of Inland Water Biodiversity: Progress, Needs and Priorities
• 8. Remote Sensing for Biodiversity
• 9. Involving Citizen Scientists in Biodiversity Observation
• 10. Biodiversity Modelling as Part of an Observation System
• 11. Global Infrastructures for Biodiversity Data and Services
• 12. Using Data for Decision-Making: From Observations to Indicators and Other Policy Tools
• 13. Case Studies of Capacity Building for Biodiversity Monitoring