Abstract

TEAM Network: Selection and sampling design development using GIS
Track: Climate Change and Conservation
Authors: Melissa Rosa

The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network was originally created as an early warning system for detecting climate change with only a handful of sites. TEAM however has continued to expand and is now a global network of monitoring sites that collects and distributes near real-time data trends on climate, land cover change, biodiversity, ecosystems services and human livelihoods. Remotely sensed data and GIS play important roles in the achievements of the TEAM Network. They are used as a major tool in the site selection process; they provide assistance in the generation and implementation of the sampling designs at each site, and play an important role as research tool to scale-up monitoring. TEAM is designed to understand the effects of global drivers of change (climate, landuse change) on biodiversity and ecosystem function by collecting standardized data throughout a network of tropical forest sites at several spatial and temporal scales.