Advice Indicator Species: helpful methodology

[William Djubin]

I am working on a project that includes establishing a methodology for monitoring my favorite on-shore reef in Florida. Establishing indicator species for habitat monitoring is an excellent way to study ecological health.

Wormrock as Indicator Species Wormrock is a personal trait of this reef.
Wormrock is an indicator species for Coral Cove Park on Jupiter Island.
This time of year wormrock blankets the baserock and reef tract of this snorkel destination.
If you are studying Wormrock habitat, I would like to suggest a snorkel at Jupiter Island, Florida in late November early December.

Other Indicator species for Jupiter Island include:
Snook, Sea Turtles, Wrasse, Gobies, Parrotfish, Conch, Crabs, Angelfish, Surgeonfish, Tangs, Sea Urchins and Sharks.

Indicator species as WIKI defined:
indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change. Indicator species can be among the most sensitive species in a region, & some times acting as an early warning to monitoring biologists

[William Djubin]

Butterflies,
So I planted a butterfly garden, Milkweed for Monarchs.
No site of a butterfly yet, only 4 days into the project. (need to be patient)

What indicator species are in your backyard, or not.?

[Karl]

Originally Posted by William Djubin

Butterflies,
So I planted a butterfly garden, Milkweed for Monarchs.
No site of a butterfly yet, only 4 days into the project. (need to be patient)

What indicator species are in your backyard, or not.?

Actually, butterflies are a very good terrestrial indicator, some of my colleagues have been using them for years, as an indicator of habitat quality for different land-use / land-cover classes, especially in determining the extent of habitat degradation in (or on the edges of) forested areas. Since the different butterfly species have varying requirements from the habitat to support the stages of their life-cycle -- the numbers of different species, as well as the proportion of those having specific habitat-preferences (e.g., forest-specialits vs. butterflies associated with open areas) can give an overall picture of the relative health of the ecosystem and the possible impacts of different land-uses or activities in the surroundings.

Birds are also useful as terrestrial indicators of habitat trends, though probably somewhat less reliable, since they have a greater ability than butterflies to move between different habitat types. Frogs have also recently been demonstrated as indicators of ecosystem health / habitat degradation (although they are not entirely "terrestrial").