Biodiversity Inventories and Collections: An Overview of Theoretical and Technical Issues

Biodiversity, the variety of life and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it, is rapidly being lost. In order to develop successful conservation management programs, it is necessary to find accurate and adaptable ways to measure biodiversity. This includes the identification of the species present, their distribution, and their status. A common way to do so is by conducting biodiversity surveys, which are recordings of the presence/absence data for populations at a given site based on direct or indirect counts. This module offers an overview and guide for designing, implementing and analyzing biodiversity surveys for research and management.