Searchable Park Access to Research Catchments (SPARC)

Nelson, S.J.; Vaux, P.; Diamond, A.; Hallsworth, R.; Kramar, D.

Introduction: 'SPARC, Searchable Park Access to Research Catchments, is an on-line forum designed to facilitate access to information about research in catchments of U.S. National Parks. Catchments integrate ecosystem responses to the environment, and to changes in the environment. Following up on the US Environmental Protection Agency/National Park Service PRIMENet initiative, our goal was to create a web-based information network for gauged catchments in national Parks. The purpose of this network include: 1) providing guidance for uniform methods and site design; 2) facilitating collaboration and increasing regional/national cooperation; 3) developing national assessments on status and trends; and 4) increasing awareness about related research on a national scale. This integration will make the results from separate projects more relevant to national-scale research issues and regulations.' Project Overviewà 'The Acadia Research Catchments pages in SPARC include a map of the catchments, project listing with linked electronic documents where applicable, searchable online reference database, searchable online projects database, and supporting information. The projects and references database was developed using information from the National Park ServiceÆs Investigator Annual Reports and information from project Principal Investigators known to have worked at Acadia. The database can eb expanded in the future as AcadiaÆs research catalog continues to be developed and as new projects are completed.' The rest of the document illustrates web pages with explanations of information associated with each page and the resulting underlying database.