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Institution:University of Colorado
Email Address: gouldw@taimyr.colorado.edu
Research Area: Ecology
Views of Bill Gould about report of the Biodiversity Monitoring Workshop :
I think this is a great idea. It has the potential to help us reach new levels of understanding of the patterns, controls, and role of biodiversity at a variety of scales. It is an ambitious and exciting proposal.
I think the proposal of initiating 10 observatories per year over a five-year period is quite a fast pace, given the minimum criteria suggested. It would be great if a network observatories could be established on that time frame, but perhaps something more incremental would allow time to learn how best to accomplish the goals of the proposal while building towards a long-term goal of 50 sites.
I like the idea of a hierarchy of observatories, perhaps with major sites having a set of satellite observatories that might share personnel and facilities. I think a set of criteria could be developed for ranking potential observatory sites that includes consideration of 1) ecosystems accessible from a site, 2) ongoing long-term studies and existing data sets, as well as 3) access to the minimum criteria suggested in the proposal (as perhaps a major site or satellite observatory).