Tuesday, May 27, 2008
294

Establishing a long-term monitoring plan for aquatic resources of the national park service mojave desert network

Christopher Caudill, Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1136 and Alice Chung-MacCoubrey, National Park Service, Mojave Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, 601 Nevada Highway, Boulder City, NV 89005.

Long-term monitoring is widely recognized as necessary for sound ecological management.  We are developing and implementing a set of monitoring protocols for diverse aquatic habitats in the Mojave Desert Network of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program.  The network includes seven national park units encompassing 3,292,700 hectares in California, Nevada, and Arizona.  Habitats range from desert springs and seeps to the subalpine springs, streams and lakes in Great Basin National Park.  Many desert springs harbor rare, threatened, or endangered taxa.  The habitats are threatened by increased groundwater demand, land use, climate change and degradation of water quality.  We present results from the multi-year development stage of the program, which has identified aquatic resources, existing data sources, monitoring questions, and developed a general monitoring framework through a collaborative, multiagency process.  Protocol testing and implementation are currently underway.  Monitoring will focus on 1) groundwater dynamics and spring ecological condition, particularly at larger carbonate-rock springs potentially affected by distant groundwater pumping; and 2) lakes and streams of Great Basin National Park potentially affected by regional climate change and increased atmospheric deposition of pollutants.  Results from the program will provide critical information on the status and trend of these ecologically important, but understudied, habitats.


Web Page: springs, desert, monitoring

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