What We Monitor

Intern Emily deploys an automated recording device at Cape Lookout National Seashore
Intern Emily deploys an automated recording device at Cape Lookout National Seashore, which will record landbirds and vocal anurans.

NPS Photo / Emily Milbauer

Vital signs are a collection of physical, biological, and chemical elements selected to represent the overall ecological health of a park's ecosystems or the effects of stressors to those ecosystems. Monitoring these vital signs can provide information about changes or trends in the park's natural resources.

The Southeast Coast Network currently conducts monitoring in eight natural resource focus areas. The monitoring protocols for estuarine water-quality monitoring, salt marsh elevation monitoring, wadeable stream habitat monitoring, shoreline change monitoring, terrestrial vegetation community monitoring, landbird community monitoring, and vocal anuran community monitoring have been approved and are published. A protocol for accessing changes to the extent of salt marsh habitats at our coastal parks is currently in development.

Click here for more information on the national monitoring program, here for more information on vital signs, and here for information on how we manage our monitoring data.

Water Resources

Terrestrial Communities

Shoreline and Climate

  • Monitoring shoreline change at Southeast Coast Network coastal parks

    Shoreline Change

    An SECN employee walks along the shoreline with a GPS unit to track shoreline change.

  • A platform in a salt marsh

    Salt Marsh Elevation

    A salt marsh elevation site at Fort Frederica National Monument

  • Clouds from a late afternoon July thunderstorm roll in over Georgia

    Climate

    Clouds from a late afternoon July thunderstorm roll in over Georgia, a common occurrence in the Southeast.

Last updated: December 14, 2022