Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
Introduction
As with other groups, the most important thing when censusing invertebrates is knowing why you are doing it and how you intend to analyse and use the results. The commonest reasons for censusing invertebrates are to
evaluate the importance of a particular area for them and, in doing so, identify how the invertebrate fauna can be best conserved;
monitor changes in the abundance and assemblages of species; and
investigate the abundance of invertebrates as prey for other species, often birds.
Different aims require different approaches. The main requirement for evaluation surveys is that most or all habitats and micro-habitats thought likely to be important to invertebrates at a site are sampled. Evaluation surveys usually concentrate on searching specific habitats and micro-habitats considered important for species of high conservation value. They often use a range of complementary techniques to maximise the range of species recorded. Ideally, such surveys should be standardised as far as possible, although this can be difficult in practice, particularly if a large proportion of the surveyor's time is spent actively searching various habitats and micro-habitats at a site. At least the date, time spent surveying the site and weather conditions should be recorded. Several visits at various times throughout the active periods of the respective groups will usually be needed in order to obtain a reasonable impression of the importance of the site.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.