Wetlands ecological integrity monitoring protocol for Sierra Nevada Network: Standard Operating Procedures
Gage EA, Nesmith JC, Chow L, Chung-MacCoubrey A, Cooper DJ, Eddy AM, Haultain SA, Holmquist JG, Raines Jones J, Jones LR, McKinney ST, Moore PE, Mutch LS, Starcevich LH, Werner H, Sierra Nevada Inventory and Monitoring Network. 2019. Wetlands ecological integrity monitoring protocol for Sierra Nevada Network: Standard Operating Procedures. National Park Service
The National Park Service, through its Vital Signs monitoring program, has been charged with developing a series of monitoring protocols to evaluate the condition and trend of key ecological resources in national parks. The Sierra Nevada Network identified 13 vital signs for long-term monitoring. Three of these pertain to wet meadow and fen ecosystems and include macroinvertebrate assemblages, wetland plant communities, and surface/groundwater dynamics. In this document, we present a protocol for monitoring these vital signs in wet meadows and fens, which we will refer to hereafter in the document as “wetlands”. The Sierra Nevada Network parks where this protocol is implemented include Yosemite National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Devils Postpile National Monument. Following a standard format used by monitoring programs nationally, the protocol consists of two parts, a narrative section and a series of standard operating procedures (SOPs). The protocol narrative provides an overview of the vital signs monitoring program and detailed treatments of topics specific to the wetland monitoring protocol including specific monitoring objectives, statistical design, field data collection methods, crew safety, data management, and basic analysis and reporting. SOPs provide more specific guidance for protocol tasks, and are presented as a simplified series of steps intended to facilitate the task completion.
- Type
- Standard Operating Procedure
- Authors
- Gage, Edward; Nesmith, Jonathan; Chow, Leslie; Chung-MacCoubrey, Alice; Cooper, David; Eddy, Alex; Haultain, Sylvia; Holmquist, Jeff; Raines Jones, Jennifer; Jones, Laura; McKinney, Shawn; Moore, Peggy; Mutch, Linda; Starcevich, Leigh Ann; Werner, Harold; Sierra Nevada Inventory and Monitoring Network
- Date of Issue
- 2019
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DEPO , SEKI , SIEN , YOSE
- Keywords
- Devils Postpile National Monument, fens, groundwater hydrology, Kings Canyon National Park, macroinvertebrates, Monitoring, non-vascular plants, plant communities, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Sequoia National Park, Sierra Nevada, Standard Operating Procedure, vascular plants, wet meadows, Wetlands Protocol, Yosemite National Park