Monitoring

The monitoring of key variables will occur according to:  

1) kind of the variable to monitor in relation to variability, oscilation frequency and environmental changes sensitivity and, 
2) technical complexity to monitoring in terms of infrastructure, human resources quality and monitoring costs.   

The four levels of variables to monitor:  

Basic level: descriptive information of the study variables that are determined in only one occasion because their temporal changes are very slow at ecological scales. Level one: monitoring variables linkage to ecosystem structure that do not change to much and are environmental disturbance resistent, like terrestrial and acuatic community structures. Include variables that mediate ecosystemprocess and  that the monitorig is not difficult as the measurement of basic meteorological variables (precipitation, temperature) or leaf fall production. 

Level two: monitoring variables that determine ecosystem processes that change at small temporal scales and a detail monitoring is needed. Variables that require more infrastructure, human and economic resources to be monitored such as net radiation, leaf area index and nutrient fluxes.

Level three: variables that need specialized infrastructure to be monitored and intense, extense and extend monitoring. Like processes such as evapotranspiration, deep leaching and root dynamics.

The variables to monitoring in the Mexican Network  are:

• Climate
• Soil and water characteristics
• Matter and energy fluxes
• Biodiversity and key populations abundance
• Primary productivity
• Landscape dynamics and land use