Monitoring small biotopes and habitats with a history of cultural management

This chapter looks at two related areas of biodiversity monitoring: the monitoring of small biotopes in the terrestrial landscape and the monitoring of protected habitats with a history of cultural management. Monitoring results from Denmark suggest a small but definite shift in favour of open, uncultivated biotopes – for example, periodically wet biotopes (bogs and wet meadow) – particularly after 1996. This increase has been at the expense of land in agricultural rotation. The approach described here for monitoring the success of habitat management on protected sites recommends a decision-making process that incorporates existing knowledge of the site, the key habitat(s), and management practices. It applies a selective sampling approach that enables the land managers to infer the state of habitat stands outside the monitoring plots. A worked example is included.