NABat: A top-down, bottom-up solution to collaborative continental-scale monitoring

• DOI: 10.1007/s13280-020-01411-y
• Publication Date: 2021-01-17T09:04:30Z
• Authors: Brian E. Reichert; Mylea Bayless; Tina L. Cheng; Jeremy T. H. Coleman; Charles M. Francis; Winifred F. Frick; Benjamin S. Gotthold; Kathryn M. Irvine; Cori Lausen; Han Li; Susan C. Loeb; Jonathan D. Reichard; Thomas J. Rodhouse; Jordi L. Segers; Jeremy L. Siemers; Wayne E. Thogmartin; Theodore J. Weller
• Keywords: Environmental Monitoring

Abstract Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge collaborative is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control, coordination. must reconcile this inherent tension between control bottom-up engagement. Highly mobile cryptic taxa, such as bats, present a particularly acute challenge. Given their scale movement, complex life histories, rapidly expanding threats, understanding population trends bats requires coordinated broad-scale monitoring. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) reconciles top-down, hierarchical master sample survey design, integrated data analysis, dynamic curation, regional hubs, knowledge delivery through web-based infrastructure. NABat supports across spatial organizational full annual lifecycle bats.