Project Description: Now and into the future parks need to use sound scientific data to identify best management practices of their resources to adapt to changes in the environment. This is especially so in an era where a variety of threats and stressors affect park vegetation resources that can result in increased operational costs for parks to ensure visitor safety and preserve park infrastructure. Knowing the condition and trends in vegetation resources allow parks to prioritize and allocate resources more effectively. The goals of this project are to collect data to assess the conditions and the factors affecting vegetation of 16 eastern parks within the Inventory and Monitoring Division (IMD) Northeast Temperate (NETN), Mid-Atlantic (MIDN), and Northeast Coastal Barrier (NCBN) network parks.
This is a two-part project collecting vegetation community data at 1) NETN’s long-term freshwater wetland monitoring plots located in Acadia National Park, and 2) long-term forest vegetation monitoring plots located within NPS parks from ME to VA. Both of these ecosystems are important to park operations, visitors’ experience, and are valuable resources that are constantly affected by environmental change and stressors. Monitoring data collected under this agreement will be used by NPS Inventory and Monitoring staff and Dr. Nicholas Fisichelli of Schoodic Institute to assess the overall condition of and factors affecting NPS vegetation communities and provide recommendations to park managers. For example, annual assessments of the condition of park vegetation can help park’s prioritize invasive species management, identify and adapt to newly emerging threats, and alter management practices as needed to promote healthy ecosystems. Schoodic Institute in cooperation with NPS IMD staff will perform analyses of the vegetation communities and environmental data to evaluate the roles of climate change, invasive exotic species, forest pests, and other stressors on vegetation health within eastern parks.
The resulting analyses will increase the public and scientific community’s knowledge of how a variety of local (e.g., deer browse, culverts) and regional (e.g. invasive species, climate change) stressors affect the condition of vegetation resources. This information is critical for evaluating current and future threats to regional vegetation structure, biodiversity, and other linked natural and cultural resources so that strategies can be developed to mitigate their impacts in the future. For example, scientific data is needed to understand and manage how the arrival of invasive forest pests, high deer browse, and invasive plant species are affecting the forests within our parks and local communities that not only provide refuge for species and are important to high water quality, but also contribute to the visitor experience as an integral component of many parks’ cultural landscape.
Lead Principal Investigator: Nick Fisichelli, Schoodic Institute
Partner Institution: Schoodic Institute
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Jim Comiskey
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Natural Resources
Project Sub-Discipline(s): Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E)
Start Year: 2018
End Year: 2023
Initial Funding Amount: $85,134.64
Federal Grant Number: P18AC01230
Amendments
- Amendment Number: 1, Year: 2019, Amount: $114,462.37
- Amendment Number: 2, Year: 2020, Amount: $203,374.13
- Amendment Number: 3, Year: 2020, Amount: $71,253.43
- Amendment Number: 5, Year: 2022, Amount: $61,752.18
Products Associated with this Project:
- No products found.