Geo: biosphere observatoria: some remarks on monitoring with special emphasis on wetlands

Global changes are affecting our ecosystems very drastically during the last decades and are likely to do it in the near future. In order to predict the evolution of the ecosystems it is necessary to understand the underlying abiotic and biotic processes. The creation. of geo-biosphere observatoria...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Meire, P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 1988
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/277428.pdf
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Summary:Global changes are affecting our ecosystems very drastically during the last decades and are likely to do it in the near future. In order to predict the evolution of the ecosystems it is necessary to understand the underlying abiotic and biotic processes. The creation. of geo-biosphere observatoria in different ecosystems could greatly improve this knowledge. It is argued that both the influencing factors (global changes) and the effects should be monitored .In this paper we are concerned with the latter. When monitoring the effects are has to realize that global changes will affect ecosystems in many different ways depending on local conditions so global changes are split up in regional changes. Many different ecosystems should be included in the programme and studies should be on two levels. First as many different parameters as possible must be measured in a few sites and secondly a few parameters should be measured over a wide area. This approach is briefly illustrated with our studies in wetlands, especially the “Delta area” of SW-Netherland and "The Blankaart” a nature reserve in Belgium and the studies of waterfowl over the whole Western Pale arctic region.