What We Monitor

Monitoring is the repeated observation and measurement of specific park natural resources in order to better understand their condition. In the Southerns Plains Network, we track a set of vital signs— physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes that can indicate the overall health or condition of park resources.

Methodical, careful measurements, year after year, of these vital signs are key to understanding if or how an ecosystem might be changing. Network vital signs are a subset of the total suite of natural resources that park managers need to preserve "unimpaired for future generations."

The Southern Plains Network Monitoring Plan provides a detailed description of our monitoring strategy and our selected vital signs.

Learn more about vital signs and how they've been established in 32 networks across the country. A complete list of natural resource monitoring reports produced by the Southern Plains Network can be found on the Reports and Publications page.

Network Vital Signs

  • Landscape viewed from Capulin Volcano, with a little haze visible on the horizon
    Air Quality

    Understanding changes in air quality can aid in interpreting changes in other monitored vital signs.

  • Two scientists in a grassland looking at plants next to stretched out measuring tapes.
    Climate

    Climate plays a crucial role in driving or regulating many biological and physical processes at the landscape scale.

  • Two people with backpacks walk through a patch of bright green, tall, nonnative grass.
    Exotic Plants

    In the Great Plains, grasslands are increasingly degraded and fragmented, resulting in increased chances of exotic plant species invasions.

  • Billows of smoke glow from a prairie fire burning in the evening at Washita Battlefield
    Grassland Vegetation & Fire Effects

    Grassland is the most widespread vegetation type in the Southern Plains, and fire is one of the most influential disturbance processes.

  • A scientist lowering a wire into a groundwater well.
    Groundwater

    Groundwater overdrafts are a leading anthropogenic stressor in Southern Plains Network parks.

  • Gray bird with an orange eye--an American dipper--perched on a rock
    Landbirds

    Grassland birds respond to management practices such as grazing and fire, as well as to landscape-level changes in the ecosystem.

  • Sun reflecting off of Lake Meredith
    Landscape Dynamics & Human Demographics

    Landscape ecology focuses on patterns and processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales of the landscape mosaic.

  • Arkansas River flowing through diverse vegetation
    Riparian Vegetation

    Riparian systems perform numerous ecosystem functions important to human populations.

  • Rocky outcrop exposing red rock and soil in Lake Meredith NRA dating back to the Permian
    Soil Structure & Chemistry

    Knowing the status and trends of soil conditions is critical for maintaining the integrity of the Southern Plains Network park ecosystems.

  • A narrow river flowing by shrubby banks, trees, and a rock escarpment.
    Surface Water Quantity

    Water availability is one of the key drivers of ecosystem function in the Southern Plains and provides many key insights.

  • View of a lake lined with trees
    Water Quality

    Surface water quality is important to maintain a healthy habitat for many aquatic organisms, wildlife, and humans.

Last updated: July 31, 2024

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