Integrated monitoring: "Nobody wants to fund it but everybody wants to use the long-term data"

Mike Starr is the guest editor of a special issue of the journal Ambio on integrated monitoring (IM) in Sweden*. He has a background in soil science and was one of the scientists who started the international ICP IM programme** in the beginning of the 1990’s.

"Using the data collected in IM has made it possible for us to follow the recovery of the forest landscape from acidification, which was one of its original purposes. But on top of that, we have also been able to show unexpected trends indicating effects of climate change on forest ecosystems" says Mike Starr.

One example of unexpected results from the IM programme has been the detection of increasing trends in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in stream waters, which affects our water quality in many ways.

Freak weather events increase the value of IM
“Especially during years with freak weather events, as heavy storms and extreme flooding, the value for science of having reference areas becomes obvious. How else can we sort out the impacts of natural variation from those caused by man? Besides, who knows what will be the problem of tomorrow?” asks Mike Starr rhetorically.

Bringing people with different scientific backgrounds together the IM-programme gives a holistic and multidisciplinary view of forested watersheds. Since the same methods are used by different researchers and over time, the data collected becomes comparable, contrary to the case in the average research project.

“Sweden is and has been the lead country for the international IM-programme. Sweden and SLU can be proud that you have been able to run this program for almost 25 years, despite the challenges of getting long term funding” says Mike Starr.