Vital Signs

Vital signs are a subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that are selected to represent the overall health or condition of a park’s natural resources. These ecosystem indicators are particularly information rich in that their values are somehow indicative of quality, health, or integrity of the larger system to which they belong. It's the key features or attributes of these indicators that can be measured or estimated that provides insight into the state of an ecosystem. Vital signs may occur at any level of organization including landscape, community, population, or genetic levels and may be compositional (referring to the variety of elements in the system), structural (referring to the organization or pattern of the system), or functional (referring to ecological processes).

The core set of 22 Chihuahuan Desert Network vital signs presented within the context of the NPS Ecological Monitoring Framework
LEVEL 1	LEVEL 2	LEVEL 3	CHDN vital sign
Air and Climate	Air Quality	Ozone	Ozone
		Wet and Dry Deposition	Wet and Dry Deposition
		Visibility and Particulate Matter	Visibility and Particulate Matter
	Weather/ Climate	Weather/ Climate	Basic Meteorology
Geology and Soils	Geomorphology	Windblown Features and Processes	Dune Formation and Stability
		Windblown Features and Processes	Dune Morphology
		River Channel Characteristics	River Channel Characteristics
	Soil Quality	Soil Function and Dynamics	Soil Hydrologic Function
			Biological Soil Crusts
			Soil Erosion (Wind and Water)
			Bare Ground
Water	Hydrology	Groundwater Dynamics	Groundwater Quantity
		Surface Water Dynamics	Surface Water Dynamics
			Persistence of Springs
	Water Quality	Water Chemistry	Surface Water Quality
		Aquatic Invertebrates	Aquatic Invertebrates
	Invasive Species	Invasive/Exotic Plants	Invasive/Non-native Plants
Biological Integrity	Focal Species or Communities	Desert, Grassland and Shrubland Communities	Plant Community Composition
		Birds	Bird Communities
		Mammals	Heteromyid Rodent Communities
Landscapes (Ecosystem Pattern and Processes)	Landscape Dynamics	Land Cover and Land Use	Land Cover
			Land Use Changes

Conceptual Models

Ecosystem characterization models for each CHDN system are provided below to illustrate interactive controls (drivers, soil/water resources, functional groups). Stressors, and key degradational processes also are included in these models, and potential ecosystem measures to characterize degraded system conditions are listed at the end of each section. For all ecosystems, details of system dynamics were acquired from literature review and expert opinion.

Desert Ecosystem Conceptual Model
Foothill Ecosystem Conceptual Model
Mountain Ecosystem Conceptual Model
Reservoir Ecosystem Conceptual Model
River Ecosystem Conceptual Model
Dune Ecosystem Conceptual Model