SUBJECT

Methods of the Biomonitoring

lecture

Master

Faculty of Science

2

Semesters 1-4

Autumn/Spring semester

1. The concept and speciality of biomonitoring The basics of the monitoring of  species and habitats biodiversity. Concepts, aims, and possibilities.

2. Methods I.: vascular plants. The lifetime of plants, the measure of age of clonal species. The special problems of the long-term investigations: finding again a site, changes of the land use, changes in concept of the monitoring. The standardization of individual number and cover estimation. Data management.

3. Methods II.: cryptigams. The importance and speciality of the monitoring of cryptogam taxons: similarities and differences with vascular plants.

4. Methods of the monitoring of invertebrate animals. Different quantitative and qualitative sampling methods of terrestrial and aquatic species; problems of standardization and automatization. The rules of  selection of indicator organisms.

5. Methods of the monitoring of vertebrate animals. Different quantitative and qualitative sampling methods of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates; problems of standardization and automatization. The rules of  selection of indicator organisms.

6. Monitoring of communities. Availabity of the characteristics of  animal communities for the biomonitoring; biomonitoring of diversity; species versus community monitoring; difficulties and advantages; possibilities food-web monitoring.  

7. The National Biodiversity Monitoring System (HBMS) I.: Monitoring of plant communities ad species in Hungary Plant community and species (vascular and cryptogam) monitoring programs in Hungary, plans and results since 1997.

8. HBMS II.: monitoring of invertebrate animals. Invertebrate (Crustacea, Odonata, Saltatoria, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera) community and species monitoring programs in Hungary since 1997.  

9. HBMS III.: monitoring of vertebrate animals. Vertebrate ("Pisces", Amphibia, "Reptile", Aves, Mammalia) community and species monitoring programs in Hungary since 1997.  

10. Monitoring of marine ecosystems. Monitoring the diversity of marine ecosystems; detecting stability, monitoring the changes, key factor analysis; case studies of community and species monitoring from Poles to Equator.

11. Monitoring of tropical terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiversity on the tropical area of the World; possibilities and challenges; case studies of community and species monitoring from deserts to rain forest.  

12. Spatial Information System (GIS) I.: ArcView The elements of GIS. Maps, aerial and space photographs. The basics of the use of ArcViewi. Object types: point, line and polygon, create and modify of features. The use of the graphics and the attribute tables. Create and modify a project.. Operations with the attribute table. Editing the graphical elements: create, save and print a layout.

13. Spatial Information System (GIS) II.: Arcpad and Erdas Imagine Field use os GIS equipments. Similarities as differences between ArcPad és ArcView. Create a theme with ArcPad and management with ArvView. The elements of georeferring. Aerial (space) photo, orthophoto, georeferred orthophoto. The basics of use of Az Erdas Imagine. Opening, georeferring and saving raster images.

14. Hungarian case studies I.: Biomonitoring in the Szigetköz The history of the Szigetköz, the diverting of the Danube in 1992. The monitoring before and after the divertion. The results of the botanical, zoological and forest monitoring. Comparison the Hungarian and the Slovakian monitoring. Methodical experiments, scientific results.

15. Hungarian case studies II.: Havarias, highway buildings The problems of defining the original conditions, detecting the changes. The importance of the time scale. Natural and anthropogenic catastrophes, juristic problems.     

• Forman, R. T. 2003. Road ecology. Island Press, Washington

• Boitani, L. 2000. Research techniques in animal ecology. Columbia University Press, New York

• Spellenberg, I. F. 1991. Monitorinf ecological change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge