Ecogeographic Surveys

It is important that all data collected during an ecogeographic survey be relevant, accurate and reliable. Otherwise the subsequent predictions and conclusions drawn from the data could be misleading or wrong. Therefore, the survey should be undertaken or supervised by an appropriate specialist who is skilled in searching for, interpreting, recording and analysing data.

The specialist should have some background knowledge of the target species or group and be experienced in the use of identification aids since the taxonomy of wild species is sometimes problematic and the identification aids are sometimes of poor quality or even unavailable.

Familiarity with the geography of the target area is also desirable and can be useful when trying to interpret or decipher hand-written details, for instance when reading locality details on herbarium labels.