2007). In part, this discrepancy may be explained by the fact that our questionnaire only asked about formal sources of information and did not evaluate their importance relative to other sources of information.
Among sources of information we asked about, peer-reviewed publications and synthetic reviews were perceived as the most important and available (Fig. 1). We suggest that ecologists should not underestimate GSK621 purchase the importance of publishing their results and contributing to conservation plans, white papers, and other printed materials that can guide habitat conservation and conservation. However, as the volume of this information grows, so does the need for well-organized clearinghouses that make this information available to a wide audience (Kondolf et al. 2007). Akt inhibitor Web-based tools are not yet important or widely available The relatively recent development of sophisticated, interactive web-based applications has introduced
an entirely new medium for providing information to managers and policy makers. However, despite the enormous potential of these tools, our survey results suggest that for riparian habitat conservation in California, they are not yet perceived as important or available. We do not suggest that web-based tools should not be BAY 11-7082 concentration developed. Indeed, we agree that making information available on the internet will have
many positive outcomes for conservation and restoration ecology (Jenkinson et al. 2005). However, our results suggest that simply making these tools available on the web will not be effective. To increase the utility of these tools, ecologists will need to engage with decision Sodium butyrate makers to provide the training they need to effectively use the tools. Ultimately, the utility of online applications may not be that they provide a single tool, but that they provide managers with access to a dynamic collection of tools. Such “decision support systems” could be designed to provide managers with access to a library of electronic versions of traditional printed documents and site-specific data dynamically displayed with custom visualizations. In North America, the Avian Knowledge Network (http://www.avianknowledge.net) fosters the development of such systems through its distributed nodes, such as PRBO’s California Avian Data Center (http://www.prbo.org/data) and Bird Study Canada’s Nature Counts (http://www.birdscanada.org/birdmon/default/) (G. Ballard, pers. comm.). One-on-one interactions are important, but not available Respondents from all professional affiliations agreed that one-on-one interactions with ecologists who develop information to support decisions are important, but not widely available (Fig. 1).