Vital Signs
A subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that are selected to represent the overall health or condition of park resources, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values. The elements and processes that are monitored are a subset of the total suite of natural resources that park managers are directed to preserve "unimpaired for future generations," including water, air, geological resources, plants and animals, and the various ecological, biological, and physical processes that act on those resources. Vital signs may occur at any level of organization including landscape, community, population, or genetic level, 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 Cumberland Piedmont Network (CUPN) Vital Signs Monitoring Plan was developed over a four year period following specific guidance from the National Park Service (NPS), Washington Office (WASO). Networks are required to document their monitoring planning in three distinct report phases (Phases I, II, and III) and to follow a standardized reporting outline.
The Phase I Report, completed on October 1, 2004, is the informational foundation for the Plan and includes the first two chapters of the Plan, an Executive Summary, and initial work on 14 Appendices. Chapter 1 (Introduction and Background) describes the NPS Vital Signs Monitoring Program, including strategy and goals, and outlines the CUPN organization. It also describes CUPN parks and the central and southern Cumberland Piedmont Region detailing important resources, issues and threats, and existing monitoring and research programs. Chapter 2 (Conceptual Ecological Models) presents conceptual ecological models for CUPN parks and the central and southern Cumberland Piedmont region as well as other models that focus on specific resources or processes to inform Vital Signs selection.
The Phase II Report, completed on October 1, 2005, adds Chapter 3 (Vital Signs) describing the collaborative Vital Signs (VS) selection process including developing “candidate” Vital Signs and objectives in two VS Objectives workshops, evaluating and prioritizing the VSs, and finally, determining among the Science Panel, Technical Committee, Board of Directors, and CUPN staff, the short list of VSs to include in the Phase III Report and full CUPN VS monitoring plan. Note – as CUPN implements VS monitoring and analyzes VS data and new information and issues emerge, including relative cost of monitoring different VSs, the VS will likely change over the long term.