Why Monitoring Biodiversity?
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. And if you can’t predict it, you can’t protect it.”
Monitoring biodiversity is essential for understanding the health of our planet's ecosystems and the species that inhabit them. Biodiversity encompasses the variety of life forms on Earth, from genes and microscopic organisms to plants, animals, and ecosystems. By monitoring biodiversity, we can track changes in species populations, distributions, and habitats over time. This information is crucial for identifying trends, assessing the impact of human activities such as habitat destruction and climate change, and informing conservation efforts.
Ultimately, monitoring biodiversity allows us to make informed decisions to protect and sustainably manage our natural resources for future generations.
our vision for the future
GBiOS: a Global Biodiversity Observing System
The vision for an interconnected worldwide system of observation networks to coordinate monitoring worldwide and inform action to reach the international biodiversity targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Our Biodiversity Monitoring Projects:
GEO BON work with UN CBD on Indicators
Being part of science for action is a major commitment of the Gonzalez lab
Parks Canada project: Hudson & James Bay Lowlands
Establishing new protected and conserved areas to address the dual crises of biodiversity conservation and climate change requires active management and restoration efforts. To support these, there is a need to explore how to refine and apply tools, approaches, and models for assessing biodiversity and carbon-rich ecosystems at the landscape scale in Canada.
QCBS - Biodiversité Québec
our Biodiversity monitoring research
Featured
Lab members working on biodiversity monitoring:
Flavio Affinito
PhD Student
Dr. Juan Zuloaga
Research Associate
A. Gonzalez, M.C. Londoño (2022) Monitor biodiversity for action. Science 378,1147-1147
A. Gonzalez, J.M. Chase, M.I O'Connor (2023) A framework for the detection and attribution of biodiversity change. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B3782022018220220182
A. Gonzalez, P. Vihervaara, P. Balvanera et al. (2023) A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action. Nat Ecol Evol 7, 1947–1952
C. Song et al (2023) Rapid monitoring of ecological persistence Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(20)
B.Leung, A. Gonzalez (2024) Global monitoring for biodiversity: Uncertainty, risk, and power analyses to support trend change detection. Sci. Adv.10, eadj1448
Find more publications here.