Sierra Nevada Network
Inventories
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Aquatic
Ecologist Lara Rachowicz conducting research on endangered Mountain
Yellow-legged Frogs in Yosemite. |
The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program began in 1992 with a goal of completing basic resource inventories for our nation's national parks. As a result, researchers throughout the park system have set up studies to identify the animals and plants which live in, or pass through, our parks. Using the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, they have also been mapping park geology, soils, and topography to create a detailed and accurate picture of park landscapes. The process of gathering this information is ongoing. As information is collected, it is evaluated by scientists to reach a better understanding of the complex ecological relationships within a park. This information is then used to design long term monitoring of plant and animal communities, air, water, climate, and landscapes to detect change. Like taking a pulse, monitoring the "vital signs" of a park can tell us a lot about its condition.
Managers can use information from resource inventories and monitoring studies to develop ways to better protect not only individual plants and animals, but the relationships among them which form an ecosystem. The goal and responsibility of the National Park Service is to ensure that these natural processes, which have existed for thousands of years, continue for our children and grandchildren.
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| NPS Plant Ecologists: Species Inventory in the alpine zone. |
The core inventory information
required for all National Park Units has been defined in terms
of 12 data sets (both biotic
and abiotic ecosystem components), necessary to effectively address
park planning and management needs. Inventory data will be collected
and maintained in accordance with clearly defined protocols and
quality-assurance standards. Data will be compatible to allow for
synthesis at ecosystem and other broad levels. Data and results
of these inventories will be made available from the
pages of this web site.
Recently, a project was begun by the University
of California to resurvey an early inventory of Sierran species carried
out by zoologist Joseph Grinnell between 1914 and 1920.
Called The
Grinnell Resurvey Project, this is a multiyear effort to
look at the changes in Yosemite's animals over the past 100 years.
Grinnell's original (1924) report, Animal
Life in the Yosemite, is available online. The final report for the Yosemite Transect has been published: Final Report: A Re-survey of the Historic Grinnell-Storer Vertebrate Transect in Yosemite National Park, California (PDF).
In the following pages, the Sierra Nevada Network of parks tells some of the stories of discovery in our continuing effort to understand and protect our national parks. For further reading, we also link to more detailed reports of inventory and monitoring projects in Sierra Nevada parks.
Learn More About Inventory Projects in the Sierra Nevada Network:
National Inventory and Monitoring Program:
- NPSpecies: National
Park Service database to store, manage and disseminate scientific
information on the biodiversity of all organisms in all National
Park units throughout the United States and its territories.