Inventory & Monitoring

What is an Ecosystem Vital Sign?

The notion of ecosystem vital signs was derived from the medical model where established characteristics of functioning physiological processes in human patients can be easily measured which provides an indication of the overall health of the patient.  Using this analogy, the NPS Inventory & Monitoring Program defined vital signs as “… 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”.  They include a wide variety of ecosystem processes, such as water, air, geological resources, plants and animals, and the various ecological, biological, and physical processes that act on those resources.