The IBP Survey of Conservation Sites: An Experimental Study

This 1980 volume explains the procedures of the IBP 'check-sheet' survey, which gathered information on how to protect sites and species for future scientific study.

A. R. Clapham (Author)

9780521274296, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 June 2011

366 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.54 kg

The IBP, as a worldwide programme seeking to expand and co-ordinate biological research, needed to provide for the protection of sites and species for future scientific study. The IBP 'check-sheet' survey was therefore devised as a tool for gathering information, allowing areas to be evaluated on a comparative basis. In this was it was possible to examine the extent to which scientifically adequate samples of the main types of natural biological systems were already protected, for example in national parks and nature reserves. The method chosen used a questionnaire approach but on an enormous scale, creating an extremely valuable report on the procedure of biological surveying, the successes and shortcomings of which are examined critically. This 1980 volume explains the procedures adopted in the check-list survey and the problems of securing adequate descriptions of types of vegetation and soil and suitable methods of information storage and retrieval.

Contributors
Foreword
Introduction E. M. Nicholson
Part I. The Choice of the Check-Sheet Approach G. L. Radford
Section 1. Definition of the Task
Section 2. Advantages of the Check-Sheet Approach
Section 3. Special Problems of the Check-Sheet Approach
Section 4. Design and Contents of the Check-Sheet
Part II. Problems of Description and Specification A. R. Clapham and G. L. Radford
Section 1. General Consideration of the Problems
Section 2. Vegetation-Types: 1. Historical background
2. Methods available for classification and their suitability for various purposes D. Mueller-Dombois and H. Ellenberg
3. The special problem of tropical forest classification L. J. Webb
4. Further consideration of the Fosberg system and its value for biological surveys G. L. Radford and A. R. Clapham
5. Concluding observations on vegetational recording A. R. Clapham
Section 3. Soil Types: 1. Historical background
2. Problems of soil classification R. F. Isbell
3. Further comments on soil recording for biological surveys A. R. Clapham
Section 4. Other Recording Problems A. R. Clapham
Part III. Data-Processing and the Storage and Retrieval of Information G. L. Ratford
Part IV. The Outcome of the Check-Sheet Survey R. J. de Boer and G. L. Radford
Part V. Conclusions and Recommendations A. R. Clapham and G. R. Radford
Appendixes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Cellular biology [cytology PSF]