Loralee Larios

1. Introduction Cost-effective, accurate methods for monitoring arid land riparian ecosystems in support of ecological management and conservation are urgently needed. Remotely sensed earth observations provide an opportunity for developing low-cost monitoring programs in both degraded and protected ecosystems that are targets for management efforts, significantly reducing the time and monetary costs associated with extensive field surveys.

1.2. Conceptual and Methodological Developments Thus Far 1.2.1. Conceptual Models of Ecological Systems Lindenmayer and Likens [10] and others consider conceptual models essential to successful adaptive management [8,20,25]. Conceptual models are typically graphical representations of concepts that describe a current understanding of the fundamental principles and processes of a system and the relationships among its parts [20].

RESEARCH ARTICLE Emma C. Underwood, Corresponding Author eunderwoodrussell@ucdavis.edu Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, California, 95616 USA Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK Address correspondence to: Emma Underwood email eunderwoodrussell@ucdavis.eduSearch for more papers by this author Allan D.