Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Mid-Atlantic Network
Davey CA, Redmond KT, Simeral DB. 2006. Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Mid-Atlantic Network. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/MIDN/NRTR—2006/013. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Climate is a dominant factor driving the physical and ecologic processes affecting the Mid- Atlantic Inventory and Monitoring Network (MIDN). Climate variations are responsible for short- and long-term changes in ecosystem fluxes of energy and matter and have profound effects on underlying geomorphic and biogeochemical processes. Individual storm events do occasionally impact and alter the structure of plant and animal communities in the MIDN. Currently, reliable long-term climate records are lacking for several MIDN park units. Future climate changes will likely cause migrations of plant and animal communities both northward and to higher elevations. Superimposed on this is a long history of human use in the region, with accompanying land-use patterns that have fragmented the original MIDN landscape of wetlands and upland forests and will influence the ability of the plant and animal communities of the MIDN to adapt to climate changes. Because of its influence on the ecology of MIDN park units and the surrounding areas, climate was identified as a high-priority vital sign for MIDN and is one of the 12 basic inventories to be completed for all National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) networks.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Davey, C; Redmond, K; Simeral, D
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- APCO , BOWA , CLI , EISE , FRSP , GETT , HOFU , MIDN , NRSS , PETE , RICH , SHEN , VAFO
- Keywords
- Aesthetics, Climate change detection, Climate Monitoring, Parameter regression on independent slopes model (PRISM), Precipitation, Spatial variability, Temperature, Temportal variability, Weather, Weather Inventory, WRCC-Report