Baseline Drift and Frame Fatigue: Audit Workflow Levers That Still Move
If you've run biodiversity audits for more than a few seasons, you've felt it. The baseline you swore by last year suddenly doesn't match. Or your field crew starts, say, checking off plots with a little less care, a little faster, and nobody says anything. This isn't a data problem—not at first. It's a workflow problem, and it eats away at your trends quietly. I've been in the field when the reference point shifted because a botany intern left and the new one keyed out species differently. I've watched same-site audits produce wildly different numbers just because the survey frame felt 'done.' This piece is about the levers that still move the needle: recalibration triggers, frame rotation schedules, and cross-checks that don't require a statistician. Some are cheap. All need a human to implement.