Ecological condition of US National Parks: Enhancing decision support through monitoring, analysis, and forecasting

PALMS is a joint project between the NPS, Montana State University, Woods Hole Research Institute, Colorado State University, and NASA Ames Research Center. The project was launched by a grant from the NASA Applied Sciences Program and support from the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program.

This site provides access to project products and related and supporting publications. The project is now largely completed, and project collaborators are finishing up documents, data sets, methods, and are in the process of cataloging and posting materials on NPS servers for long-term storage and access. This site provides the easiest access to PALMS products. As products are finalized, they will be uploaded and be permanently available via IRMA.

PALMS Products

Indicator Briefs

(3 February 2011 versions)

• Aquatic macroinvertebrates (example from Delaware Water Gap and Upper Delaware watersheds)
• Impervious cover (example from Delaware Water Gap and Upper Delaware watersheds
• Surface water (example from Delaware Water Gap and Upper Delaware watersheds)
• Natural landscapes
• Ecosystem type (example from Yellowstone)
• Land use (example from Yellowstone)

Final Summary Reports

• Goetz, S.J. and others. 2011. Landscape conditions and trends in and around Delaware Water Gap and Upper Delaware National Recreation Areas: summary of findings. Report to National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Hansen, A.J., and others. 2010. Landscape conditions and trends in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks: summary results. Report to National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Theobald, D.M., and others. 2010. Landscape conditions and trends in and around Rocky Mountain National Park: summary results. Report to National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.

Indicator Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Technical Documents

Biotic Integrity - eastern watersheds

• Goetz, S.J. and G. Fiske. 2009. PALMS SOP – GIS Methodology for mapping Biotic Integrity and Indicator Taxa across watersheds in the eastern USA. National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Goetz, S.J. and G. Fiske. 2008. Linking the diversity and abundance of stream biota to landscapes in the Mid-Atlantic USA. Remote Sensing of Environment 112:4075-4085.

Impervious Cover

• Goetz, S.J. and G. Fiske. 2010. PALMS SOP – Estimating Impervious Cover Change. National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Theobald, D.M., S.J. Goetz, J.B. Norman, and P. Jantz. 2009. Watersheds at risk to increased impervious surface cover in the conterminous United States. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering 14:362-368.

Phenology and Climate

• Melton, F, S. Hiatt, G. Zhang, and R. Nemani. 2010. PALMS SOP – Estimating Landscape Indicators of Phenology from Satellite Observations: Start of Season. National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Sherrill, K., and B. Frakes. 2010. Climate grid analysis toolset - tools for sssessing regional climatological trends - standard operating procedure. Fort Collins. Unpublished Report-2166778
• White, M.A., K.M. De Beurs, K. Didan, and 18 others. 2009. Intercomparison, interpretation, and assessment of spring phenology in North America estimated from remote sensing for 1982-2006. Global Change Biology 15:2335-2359.

Ecosystem type and fragmentation

• Piekielek, N.B., C. Davis and A. Hansen 2011. PALMS SOP - Ecosystem type change and fragmentation: from pre Euro-American settlement to present day. Inventory and Monitoring Program, Natural Resource Program Center, National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO. Ver 1.4.
• Ecosystem type and change Arc tools

Protected Area Centered Ecosystems (PACE)

• Hansen, A.J. and R. DeFries. 2007. Ecological mechanisms linking protected areas to surrounding lands. Ecological Applications 17:974-988.
• Piekielek, N.B., C. Davis and A. Hansen 2010. PALMS SOP - Analyzing Protected-area Centered Ecosystems. Inventory and Monitoring Program, Natural Resource Program Center, National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO. Ver 1.2 (3.3 MB)
• Piekielek, N.B., C. Davis and A. Hansen 2011. PALMS SOP - Estimating Protected-area Centered Ecosystems. Inventory and Monitoring Program, Natural Resource Program Center, National Park ervice, Fort Collins, CO. Ver 1.6 (10 MB)
• Hansen, A.J., C. Davis, N.B. Piekielek, J.E. Gross, D.M. Theobald, S.J. Goetz, F.M. Melton, R. DeFries. 2011. Delineating the ecosystems containing protected areas for monitoring and management. BioScience 61: 363-373.
• Protected-area centered ecosystems (PACE) Arc tools
• PACE example results xls sheets
• The PACE data sets are too large to post here - contact Nate Piekielek or John Gross.

Natural Landscapes

• Theobald, D.M. 2009. PALMS SOP – Landscape dynamics, pattern of natural landscapes. Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program. National Park Service, Fort Collins, CO.
• Theobald, D.M. 2010. Estimating natural landscape changes from 1992 to 2030 in the conterminous US. Landscape Ecology 25: 999-1011.
• The natural landscape data set is too large to post here - contact John Gross at NPS, Ft Collins, or Dave Theobald.

SOPs shared with NPScape - population, housing

Population from census data; housing density

As of early 2011, many NPScape SOPs and scripts are undergoing revision. The current version of NPScape products, including SOPs, scripts, and data, can be obtained via the public NPScape web site: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor/npscape/index.cfm or IRMA.

Shared NPScape products include:

• Population Metrics
• Census 1990 data
• Census 2000
• Census 2000 for islands
• County-level population projections
• Housing density

Project documents

• PALMS Fact Sheet, 2008.
• NASA Project Proposal, 2005.
• PALMS Indicator Summary table March 2009
• PALMS Final Project Report, January 2011.

Presentations

• George Wright Society Poster, April 2009.
• Project summmary, May 2009.

Presentations from the Santa Fe project meeting 2007

• Goetz-Hansen. Study introduction and overview (655 KB).
• Goetz. Mid-Atlantic hydrology (6.8 MB).
• Theobald. Rocky Mountain land use (980 KB).
• Melton-Namani. TOPS overview (2.4 MB).
• Gross. Evaluation and Benchmarking reports (70 KB).
• Melton-Namani. TOPS - Yosemite (5.4 MB).

Other Relevant PALMS Publications

• Gross, J.E., A.J. Hansen, S.J. Goetz, D.M. Theobald, F.M. Melton, N.B. Piekielek, and R.R. Nemani. In press (2011). Remote sensing for inventory and monitoring of the U.S. National Parks. Pages 29-56 in Y.Q. Yang (ed.), Remote sensing of protected lands. Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
• Gude, P.H., A.J. Hansen, and D.A. Jones. 2007. Biodiversity consequences of alternative future land use scenarios in greater Yellowstone. Ecological Applications 17:1004-1018.
• Jantz, P., Goetz, S.J., and Jantz, C. A., 2005. Urbanization and loss of resource lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Environmental Management 36:808-825.
• Jones, D.A., A.J. Hansen, K. Bly, K. Doherty, J.P. Verschuyl, J.I. Paugh, R. Carle, and S.J. Story. 2009. Monitoring land use and cover around parks: a conceptual approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113:1346-1356.
• Nemani, R.R, et. al. 2009. Monitoring and forecasting ecosystem dynamics using the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS). Remote Sensing of Environment 113:1497-1509.
• Theobald, D.M. 2005. Landscape patterns of exurban growth in the USA from 1980 to 2020. Ecology and Society 10.
• Wade,A.A., D.M. Theobald, and M.J. Laituri. in press (2011). A multi-scale assessment of local and contextual threats to existing and potential U.S. protected areas. Landscape and Urban Planning, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.02.027

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