Challenges to water quality monitoring in small urban parks

Transcription

1 Challenges to water quality monitoring in small urban parks Chesapeake Bay Seminar Series Annapolis, MD Sept 16, 2005 Shawn Carter Regional Coordinator, Inventory & Monitoring National Capital Region, National Park Service Center for Urban Ecology

2 Presentation Overview The NPS Inventory & Monitoring program (in a nutshell) Using conceptual diagrams to communicate ecological themes and facilitate coordination A watershed approach to monitoring a paradox for NPS?

3 NATIONAL PARKS OMNIBUS MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1998 The Secretary shall undertake a program of inventory and monitoring of National Park System resources to establish baseline information and to provide information on the long-term trends in the condition of National Park System resources. The monitoring program shall be developed in cooperation with other Federal monitoring and information collection efforts to ensure a cost-effective approach. The Secretary shall assure the full and proper utilization of the results of scientific studies for park management decisions.

4 MESSAGE FROM CONGRESS This involves a serious commitment from the leadership of the National Park Service to insist that the superintendents carry out a systematic, consistent, professional inventory and monitoring program, along with other scientific activities, that is regularly updated to ensure that the Service makes sound resource decisions based on sound scientific data. (FY2000 Appropriations Language)

5 NPS NATURAL RESOURCE CHALLENGE Science for Parks Parks for Science Provide funding and new positions for natural resource stewardship to add to NPS service capability Learn what is in parks (inventories), and monitor indicators of natural systems Engage the scientific community and the public, and facilitate their inquiries Share the information widely

6 THE NATURAL RESOURCE CHALLENGE Accelerate Inventories Design/Implement Vital Signs Monitoring Collaboration with scientists and others Improve Resource Planning Enhance Parks for Science Assure Fully Professional Staff Control Non-native Species Protect Native and Endangered Species Enhance Environmental Stewardship Expand Air Quality efforts Protect and restore Water Resources Establish Research Learning Centers

7 The intent of park vital signs monitoring is to track 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.

8 32 NETWORKS of 270 PARKS

9 National Scale Network Scale Park Scale National Indicators Network/Ecosystem Indicators Majority of data is at the local level Park buy-in and partnership opportunities are essential for success of the overall program Indicators and protocols are adaptable to varied systems (e.g., Northwest Forests vs. South Florida vs. Colorado Plateau)

10 Most Common Vital Signs (first 17 networks) COMMON VITAL SIGNS AMONG NETWORKS Vital Sign Example Measures (varies by network) Networks/ Parks Land Cover and Use Area in each land cover and use type; patch size and pattern (from satellite and aerial imagery) 17 / 137 Water Chemistry ph, temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity 17 / 136 Weather and Climate Temperature, precipitation, wind speed, ice on/off 17 / 125 Invasive/Exotic Plants Surface water dynamics Birds Species composition, distribution, abundance 14 / 82 Ozone Atmospheric ozone concentration, damage to sensitive vegetation 12 / 68 Soil Function and Dynamics Wet and Dry Deposition Biological soil crusts, aggregate stability, soil surface condition, nutrients, organic matter 8 / 59 Visitor Usage Number of visitors by location, activity, season 8 / 58 Stream Channel Characteristics Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Early detection (predictive search models); presence/absence, area covered by exotic species Discharge/flow rates (cfs), guage/stage height, lake elevation, spring/seep volume, sea level rise Wet deposition chemistry (ph, NO3-, SO4=), continuous sulfur (SO2) dioxide concentrations Erosion/sedimentation, channel change, rate of scouring, stream profiles, coarse woody debris Species richness, diversity, IBI of stream macroinvertebrates, relative abundance 12 / / / 58 6 / / 56

11

12

13

14

15 The NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION NETWORK Eleven National Parks having a variety of resources and threats

16 A project is underway to construct conceptual diagrams for I&M parks Purpose is to communicate the themes and results of vital signs monitoring Products include symbols, a newsletter, and a booklet

17 The booklet emphasizes park- based ecological stories relating to monitoring A second project will make the park diagrams interactive and create a poster series linking monitoring to adaptive management

18 One important theme of the NCRN is that of urban impacts to water quality Development pressures and impervious surfaces play an increasingly significant role in hydrologic processes

19 Rock Creek Park An island in a sea of pavement

20

21

22 Development pressure is continually increasing along NPS boundaries Yet, park management action and monitoring $$ are confined to legislated boundaries, many of which are political

23 The Monitoring Paradox

24 The Monitoring Paradox Water quality monitoring should allow ecologically meaningful inferences (i.e. sampling should take place at the watershed-level) Informs Research Monitoring efforts are confined to NPS boundaries. Thus, small parks cannot determine or mitigate farfield (upstream) impacts Informs Management

25

26 Watershed Priorities Priority = main stem, lower 1/3

27 Regional-scale monitoring requires spatiallybalanced random sampling A generalized tessellation procedure can be used to select a subset of nonclustered sample locations

28 The same spatiallybalanced concept can be applied to watersheds Streams segments are ordered into a list frame with known inclusion probabilities (=length) Samples can be proportionally allocated

29 ANTI 1 1st 2nd 3rd 4th CATO 7 2 GWMP HAFE 3 1 MANA MONO NACE 8 3 PRWI ROCR WOTR 1 Total

30 Stream segments are selected for entire watersheds Monitoring conducted outside the park (if using the same monitoring protocol) is statistically valid (probability is known) Priority = main stem, lower 1/3

31 Steps in Coordinated Monitoring Identify priority watersheds Those not completely under management control, but where coordinated monitoring can provide complete inference Standardize sampling via protocol exchange Actively share results and interpretation

32 The future Place-based assessments provide a basis for sharing data and broad-scale interpretation

33 In Summary NPS I&M is using a coordinated network approach to monitoring Meaningful interpretation of large-scale systems requires similar sampling approaches among agencies/partners Communicating results, facilitating data exchange, and re-evaluating research needs are essential to the adaptive management process

34

35 The future: Park-based or resource-based reporting of vital signs monitoring

36

37 integration application network Conceptual diagrams used in Maryland Coastal Bays public report

38 integration application network U.S. National Park Service project New symbols Base maps