Training - SI/MAB Biodiversity Plots

Begins: Friday, February 29, 2008 at 1500 hours;
Ends Sunday March 2, 2008 at 1800 hours.

Establishing Biodiversity Monitoring Plots in Forested Ecosystems Using Internationally Standard Methods Developed by the Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring and Assessing Biodiversity (SI/MAB) Program

The Smithsonian Institution's Measuring and Assessing Biodiversity (MAB) Program has developed an international network of research and monitoring plots to track the status of forests and changes over time. The tool for establishing these plots is the protocol officially titled MAB Digest 11: Long-Term Monitoring of Biological Diversity in Tropical Forest Areas: Methods for Establishment and Inventory of Permanent Plots designed to provide step-by-step directions to gather baseline information about forest structure, composition Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute - Photo of the Week and diversity within a vegetation plot; to assess changes in these forest components over time; and to use the information to link forest vegetation parameters with multi-taxa monitoring.

The SI/MAB methods establish a framework for the long-term monitoring of biodiversity in forested ecosystems. The basic layout is a one-hectare plot (100 meters by 100 meters) divided into 25 contiguous quadrats (20 meters by 20 meters) where each tree is tagged and located with its species identified, its diameter at breast height (dbh) measured, and its height measured. The data is recorded in common field note formats, and then entered into a common software, developed by the Smithsonian Institution, called BIOMON. From the data, maps are generated for each quadrat, and are used to validate the measurements in the field.

Training Program

  1. Introduction to Biodiversity and Biodiversity Monitoring.
  2. In-class presentation of survey techniques and protocol as well as use of BIOMON software for managing data and mapping trees.
  3. Field training on laying out an SI/MAB plot, measuring trees and identifying species.
  4. Linking climate change to biodiversity

Teachers:

Cliff Drysdale, former Park Ecologist at Kejimkujik National Park, Canada

Francisco Dallmeier, Director, Measuring and Assessing Biodiversity (MAB) Program, Smithsonian Institution

Adam Fenech, Associate Director, Impacts and Adaptation Research, Environment Canada

To register, click here