New technologies for long-term biodiversity monitoring: Data quality and real-time availability

Abstract

Information on biodiversity and ecosystems is essential for governments, and for the scientific and educational communities. Furthering access to this information is of vital importance in the face of the rapid decline of biological diversity. The object of this chapter to describe the solution developed to facilitate the process of data collection and the use of long-term monitoring information by the Natural Processes Monitoring Team (Equipo de Seguimiento de Procesos Naturales, ESPN) of the Doñana Natural Park. The basic design enabled the use of Personal Digital Assistants in a network, with all databases migrating to a single server. New technologies have the potential to revolutionise the process of data gathering. One of the most revolutionary of these new technologies is the free software CyberTracker. This program as an ideal tool for the normalisation and harmonisation of data acquisition protocols that guarantees the quality and quasi-real time availability of data for the final user. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.