Monitoring
Vital Signs Monitoring Plan
The San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) was formed to foster collaboration and create efficiencies of scale in designing and implementing a natural resource focused Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program. SFAN is one of 32 networks of National Park Service (NPS) sites across the United States that were formed and funded to “improve the ability of the NPS to provide state-of-the-art management, protection, and interpretation of and research on the resources on the NPS … and to assure the full and propre utilization of the results of scientific studies for park management decisions” (National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998). The SFAN implemented a modeling-based strategy to create a natural resources monitoring program in 2003. 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.
Vital Signs
Vital signs are defined 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. 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).” (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor/index.cfm)
Vital Sign indicators were selected through the analysis process of developing a conceptual model. Indicator selection is an iterative process; as our understanding of ecological processes, the nature of variation within and between indicators and linkages grows, indicators may change. Adjustments to the monitoring program also may occur as subsequent monitoring program and individual protocol reviews provide feedback on the efficacy of the monitoring program and value of the selected indicators toward the monitoring objectives.
The Vital Signs Indicator table includes more detail regarding the top 18 protocols the network prioritized for monitoring protocol development, and in some cases implementation, within the next 5 years. The table shows the suite of SFAN protocols, the parks in which they will be monitored, the monitoring objectives for each indicator. Additional information on each indicator is found within Appendix 4 of the monitoring plan, which contains the protocol development summary for each indicator. Six of the 18 indicators for long-term monitoring have established programs with protocols that have been or are currently under peer review. The indicators include pinnipeds, Northern Spotted Owls, raptors, stream fish assemblages including salmonids, landbirds and Western Snowy Plovers.