Environmental Intelligence Unit – serie

This book reviews the need for marine conservation, summarizes general measures for ocean and coastal conservation, and explains the rationale for establishing marine protected areas. The second half of the book is essentially a guideline for designing and implementing protected areas in order to make them viable and long-lasting in their effectiveness.

This book provides a detailed account of the methods used to establish the Barro Colorado Island plot - with records on 325,000 individual trees the largest original forest census in the world. It also reviews methodologies used at 11 other large plots that are part of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) network. It includes numerous distribution maps as well as maps of key environmental variables. The book is the perfect guide for establishing new plots, including both budgeting and scheduling, and offers details on the required methodology.

By way of a summary of all the data collected by the mapping teams, I will review what is entered on each of the data sheets. The map sheet was already de­ scribed in some detail (Fig. 2.2.1A), and includes a circle or a point for the location of each tree and the tree's tag number (the last three or four digits) written next to it. The range of tag numbers used in the quadrat should be written at the top of the sheet. The main data sheet is where most other information about each individual is recorded (Fig. 2.2.1B). As for all sheets, the quadrat number, the first date a quadrat is censused, and the mappers' names are recorded at the top. For each plant, there are blanks for the following information: subquadrat number, tag number, species name, dbh, codes, and problems. Subquadrat number and tag number are straight­ forward. Size in millimeters is entered in the dbh column, except for multiple­ stemmed plants or big trees, which get a blank dbh on the main data sheet. Species identification will be handled by separate taxonomy teams (chapter 2.3), but map­ pers should enter a species name if they know it.