Measuring and monitoring wildlife communities : the problem of bias

Abstract

The sustainable use of any natural resource ideally requires a baseline measurement of the biodiversity of the system, followed by consistent monitoring of the resource and other elements of the ecosystem which might possibly be affected by the utilisation of the resource. If it is necessary to monitor a faunal community (or biodiversity) rather than a single species, the number of biases involved in measuring or monitoring community parameters are greatly increased. Monitoring the relative abundance of the different species in a faunal assemblage necessitates an understanding of the associated sampling biases. These biases vary greatly between species, habitats, seasons, weather conditions, sampling technique and observers. Methods of adjusting for these types of biases are discussed using as an example the mammal assemblages of tropical rainforest in north Queensland.