Long-Term Ecological Monitoring

Knowing the condition of natural resources in national parks is fundamental to the National Park Service’s ability to manage park resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” The challenge of protecting and managing a park's natural resources requires a broad-based knowledge of the status and trends of park resources and takes an ecosystem approach. Most parks are open systems vulnerable to threats such as air and water pollution and invasive species, which originate outside of the park's boundaries. Understanding the dynamic nature of park ecosystems and the consequences of human activities is essential for management decision-making aimed to maintain, enhance, or restore the ecological integrity of park ecosystems and to avoid, minimize, or mitigate ecological threats to these systems.

Indian Paintbrush, Photo by: Dan Ng

PROGRAM GOALS

• Determine status and trends in indicators of the condition of park ecosystems to help managers make better-informed decisions and work more effectively with other agencies and individuals to benefit park resources.
• Provide early warning of abnormal conditions and impairment of selected resources to help develop effective mitigation measures and reduce costs of management.
• Provide data to better understand the dynamic nature and condition of park ecosystems and to provide reference points for comparisons with other altered environments.
• Provide data to meet certain legal and congressional mandates related to natural resource protection and visitor enjoyment.
• Provide a means of measuring progress towards performance goals.

VITAL SIGNS
Vital signs provide information about the health of our park ecosystems. They are (1) select physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems; (2) known or hypothesized effects of stressors; or (3) elements that have important human values. The vital signs selected for the San Francisco Bay Area Network (see table) are a subset of the total suite of natural resources that park managers are directed to preserve. In situations where natural areas have been so highly altered that physical and biological processes no longer operate (e.g., natural fire and flooding regimes), information obtained through monitoring can help managers understand how to implement the most effective approach to managing or restoring natural systems. Long-term vegetation data, for example, can support habitat restoration and trigger invasive plant eradication. Knowledge about the status of rare, threatened and endangered species will be critical for park planning efforts such as trail enhancements, or other projects.

 

Table I: High priority vital signs selected for monitoring in SFAN parks.

SFAN Vital Signs	SFAN Vital Signs
Weather and Climate*	Pinnipeds*
Invasive Plant Species (early detection)*	Plant Community Change*
Freshwater Quality*	Landscape Dynamics
Air Quality	Threatened and Endangered (T&E) Butterflies
Stream Fish Assemblages*	Freshwater Dynamics
Rare Plant Species*	Wetlands
Northern Spotted Owl*	Riparian Habitat
Amphibians and Reptiles	Landbird Population Dynamics*
Western Snowy Plover	Raptors and Condors*

* protocols currently being developed or adapted by the network.

Protocol Development

The network is currently developing long-term vital signs monitoring protocols according to guidelines established by Oakley et al (2003) for each high priority vital sign. The protocols establish specific monitoring objectives provide the overall justification and framework for implementing the monitoring. Sections on sampling design, field methods, data management (data entry, archiving, quality control), data analyses and reporting, personnel requirements, operational requirements and literature cited are included.

For more information, the Vital Signs Monitoring Plan describes the process, identifies the monitoring indicators or “vital signs” of the network and develops a strategy for long-term monitoring to detect trends in resource condition. The Monitoring Plan was finalized September 30, 2005 .