Long-term ecological monitoring is a methodological framework involving repeated, standardized measurements of biotic and abiotic variables over extended timescales (typically decades) to quantify ecological dynamics, detect trends, and assess responses to natural variability and anthropogenic perturbations. It relies on consistent sampling designs, fixed plots or stations, calibrated instrumentation, and strict protocols to ensure temporal comparability and statistical robustness. Core components include selection of indicator species or ecosystem attributes, temporal replication sufficient to capture slow processes and rare events, and integration with metadata, quality control, and archiving systems. These methods enable inference about ecosystem resilience, regime shifts, and long-term trajectories, and often underpin validation of ecological models and environmental policy assessments.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) tests can identify genetic material left by organisms in the environment, such as cells and excrement, but surveys of ocean wildlife can be difficult and expensive, and standard eDNA tests are also ...
Ecology
Mar 9, 2026
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Payments that enable landowners to rewild ecologically degraded land—in the form of biodiversity credits bought by investors wishing to offset their impact on nature—could be an effective component of the emerging market ...
Environment
Mar 8, 2026
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27
Long-term ecosystem warming changes not only plants but the fungi in the soil below, according to a new study including researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. "Hidden mycorrhizal fungi below ground are ...
Ecology
Mar 8, 2026
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166
The Environment Agency and the University of Stirling have published a new report on the links between phosphorus concentrations and ecology in English rivers. Phosphorus remains one of the most significant pollutants in ...
Ecology
Mar 7, 2026
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26
Intact ecosystems have the capacity for self-regulation, which keeps their complex structure of species—such as animals, plants, fungi and bacteria—in balance. For example, when the population of a species increases, its ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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17
A new study shows how climate and light conditions interaction affect the early growth in abarco, a highly valued tropical timber species, offering critical guidance for reforestation and sustainable forest management in ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2026
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12
Natural history museums contain an astonishing snapshot of the planet's biodiversity. Using this information to better research and inform conservation projects could help lead the way in nature recovery and restoration.
Ecology
Mar 4, 2026
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14
Protected natural areas across Europe are changing. Climate change, with rising temperatures and heavy rainfall, is turbocharging the growth of shrubs and trees, choking the flowers and insects that need the light and heat ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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552
New research from the University of St Andrews published in Current Biology has shown that the role of age in male humpback whale reproduction has changed as populations recover from centuries of exploitation. Whaling drove ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 27, 2026
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124
A research team led by Dr. Chris Baumann and Dr. Dorothée Drucker from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen has found that the European wildcat is increasingly using ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 26, 2026
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