Long-term Monitoring Program
In order to protect and manage these parks, National Park Service (NPS) managers need to know how and why park ecosystems change over time, and what amount of change is "normal." Because Alaska parks are large and budgets are comparatively small, natural resource monitoring within them has traditionally been focused on relatively small areas and brief time periods. Long-term monitoring addresses these shortcomings by providing park managers with information on status and trends of key components of park ecosystems over broad spatial and temporal scales. It also provides understanding and insight into the functioning of complex park ecosystems. An important challenge of this approach is identifying components that both characterize park ecosystems and can be effectively and efficiently monitored.
Conceptual ecosystem models are visual or narrative summaries that describe the important biological and physical components of an ecosystem and the interactions among them. Through the development of conceptual models, SWAN scientists and park managers built a common understanding of how park ecosystems work and how key resources might be affected by natural events or the actions of humans. These models, along with park management issues and specific monitoring questions, formed the framework for selecting the biological, chemical, and physical attributes ("vital signs") to monitor. In practice, vital signs are measurable, early warning signals that indicate changes to the overall health or condition of a park.
