Scottish Marine Protected Areas (MPA): monitoring strategy

9. How will the data be gathered and by what methods?

MPA monitoring activity design and the selection of appropriate sampling methodologies depends on the specific question(s) that the monitoring is seeking to address (the hypothesis to be tested) and the statistical approach required to analyse the data.

Annex 4 provides a brief summary of methods applied within existing monitoring programmes. Links are provided to existing guidance materials where available.

The frequency of MPA monitoring will depend on the ecology of the species and habitats, and management measures in place. The frequency of monitoring of different parameters should be appropriate to their sensitivity to change. The spatial intensity of monitoring will be determined by the feature extent and variation, and by issues that affect statistical power such as the likely effect size and the level of unexplained variation within the data.