Introduction to ecological monitoring
Ecological monitoring is the system of regular long observations in space and time, informing
about environmental conditions with the purpose to estimate the past, the present and the future
forecast of environmental parameters which are important for the human being. It can also be
defined as the long-term quantitative assessment of the structured dynamics of an ecosystem or
some portion of it. Within the Kenyan context, knowledge on the status and trends of
ecosystems and the species they contain is fundamental to KWS' ability to manage these
resources. The main goal of ecological monitoring is to provide information about changes to the
structure and function of ecosystems for use in impact assessment, education, environmental
protection, or management. Environmental monitoring involves repeated measurements of
inorganic, ecological, social, and/or economic variables in ecosystems in order to detect changes
over time and to predicting future change.
Specific goals of ecological monitoring are:
1. Observations, estimation and the forecast of the environmental conditions;
2. Defining the degree of the factors’ influence resulting in ecosystem changes;
3. Estimation of anthropogenic influence resulting in deterioration (improvement) of the
environment.
The primary purpose of a monitoring programme like that of KWS is to gather, organize and
make available to management data and information on species, ecosystems and their associated
processes. More specifically, the Ecological Monitoring Programme of KWS looks at the
following thematic areas. Large mammals, small mammals, plants, birds, herps, invertebrates,
ethno botany, mycology, water quality, hydrology, bio-prospecting, disease and vectors.
Human activities have the potential to impact both environmental and the ecological sensitive
areas. To effectively understand these impacts, it is important to understand their dimensions and
dynamics. The purpose of ecological monitoring includes the following:
• Identifying any damage an ecosystem may be experiencing.
• Assessing how affected ecosystems change over time.
• Determining what the best means of prevention or mitigation might be.
Ecological monitoring relies on long term programs of monitoring and research to provide
information about the causes and consequences of ecological changes. Humans and their
societies have always been sustained by environmental resources. For almost all of human
history the most important resources have been potentially renewable, ecological resources.
Especially important have been animals that could be hunted, edible plants that could be
gathered, and the productivity of managed, agricultural ecosystems. More recently, humans have
increasingly relied on the use of nonrenewable resources that are extracted from the
environment, especially fossil fuels and metals. However, the ability of ecosystems to sustain
humans is becoming increasingly degraded. This is largely because of the negative consequences
of two, interacting factors: (1) the increase in size of the human population, and (2) the increase
in the quantities of resources used by humans, especially people living in developed countries.
Ecological degradation is important for two reasons: (1) it represents a decrease in the ability of
Earth’s ecosystems to sustain humans and their activities, and (2) it represents damage to other
species and to natural ecosystems. The role of ecological monitoring is to detect ecological
degradation, to understand its causes and consequences, and to find ways to effectively deal with
the problems.
The success of ecological monitoring depends on:
• The choice of appropriate ecological indicators to measure and
• Successful data collection.
Choosing appropriate indicators can be difficult because in many situations there are diverse
arrays of potential characteristics that may be quantified. Successful data collection can be
expensive and difficult, and often requires measurements over long time periods in order to
correctly identify trends.
Monitoring programs are often integrated with scientific research. The ultimate goals of an
integrated program of ecological monitoring and research are to:
(1) To detect or forecast changes to the ecology of a region, and
(2) To determine the causes and implications of those changes.
Monitoring involves the repeated measurement of ecological indicators. Changes in indicators
are determined through comparison with their historical values, or with a reference or control
situation. Often, monitoring may detect changes in indicators, but the causes of those changes
may not be understood. To discover the causes of those changes, scientific research has to be
undertaken. For example, monitoring of forests might detect a widespread decline of a species of
tree. In many cases the cause of species decline are not known, but they may be related to an
environmental stress, such as air pollution, insect damage, climate change, or forestry. They may
also be related to ecological factors, such as changes in primary productivity, amounts of living
and dead biomass, age-class structure of trees and other species, nutrient cycling, soil erosion, or
overall biodiversity. In an ecological monitoring program designed to study the health of a tree
species, well-chosen indicators would be measured to determine the cause of species decline.
