Welcome to the American Ornithological Society 2018 Annual Conference. We are pleased to have you join us at the lovely Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ.
In the previous talks in this symposium we discuss how a structured decision making (SDM) framework is used to prioritize various kinds of monitoring efforts and craft monitoring plans in the Gulf of Mexico. Here, we argue how the framework allows for effective large-scale inference and integration of multiple monitoring efforts. Scientists and decision-makers are interested in a range of outcomes at the regional scale, including estimates of population size and population trend to answering questions about how management actions or ecological questions influence bird populations. The SDM framework supports these inferences in several ways by: (1) monitoring projects with synergistic activities ranging from using approved standardized protocols, flexible data sharing policies, and leveraging multiple project partners; (2) rigorous data collection that make it possible to integrate multiple monitoring projects; and (3) monitoring efforts that cover multiple priorities such that projects designed for status assessment can also be useful for learning or describing responses to management activities. By prioritizing large-scale inference, we will be able to establish regional baseline population sizes for many bird species and better distinguish reasons for population change and what kinds of management actions are viable recovery options. Previous to this regional focus, we lacked the data and the partnerships to even consider answering questions at the scale of the Gulf of Mexico; by using a structured decision making framework with a focus on regional objectives we are able prioritize such outcomes and support the needs of conservation decision-makers.
