The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a nonregulatory Federal science agency with national scope and responsibilities, is uniquely positioned to serve the Nation's needs in understanding and responding to global change, which includes changes in climate; sea level; land use and land cover; ecosystems; and the global water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles. Global change is among the most challenging and formidable issues confronting our Nation and society. Scientists agree that global environmental changes during this century will have far-reaching societal implications Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007; USGCRP, 2009]. In the face of these complex challenges, the Nation can benefit greatly by using natural science information in decisionmaking.

This report summarizes data of the Sonoran Desert Network's first three seasons of terrestrial vegetation and soils monitoring in upland areas of the Rincon Mountain District, Saguaro National Park, in southern Arizona. Thirty-nine permanent monitoring sites were sampled, The current report summarizes effort to date, evaluates the sampling design in the context of our monitoring objectives, and suggests modifications to the design.

In 2002, a fine-grained sediment (sand, silt, and clay) monitoring effort was initiated in the Colorado River ecosystem, the river corridor downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, to directly survey channel topography at scales previously unobtainable in this canyon setting. This report presents an overview of the equipment and the methods used to collect and process the high-resolution bathymetric data required for this monitoring effort.

This report summarizes the Sonoran Desert Network's first season of terrestrial vegetation and soils monitoring at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (NM), in south-central Arizona.

The purpose of this report is to inform the MOU agencies, stakeholders, and the public about the current status and trends of wet nitrogen deposition at RMNP. The MOU agencies will use the information provided in this annual report to make a determination of whether the interim milestones have been achieved in 2013, 2018, 2023, and 2028.

To better understand the native, non-native and restored plant community dynamics at WHMI the NPS Vegetation Inventory Program (NVIP) funded a vegetation inventory and mapping project in 2006 as part of the larger Upper Columbia Basin Inventory and Monitoring Network (UCBN) network-wide inventory program. The authors' detail the findings of the Vegetation Inventory Project at Whitman Mission National Historic Site

The National Park Service's Arctic Network (ARCN) seeks to understand the natural resources and to detect changes and trends in those resources in five NPS units, including Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, Noatak National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, and Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (Figure 1).

In 2009, the authors initiated a small pilot survey of six limber pine stands in CRMO following the Interagency Whitebark Pine Monitoring Protocol for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Greater Yellowstone Whitebark Pine Monitoring Working Group hereafter referred to as GYWPMWG] 2007). No blister rust was found during that survey, although mountain pine beetle galleries were found in several trees, and dwarf mistletoe was ubiquitous. In 2010 authors tested a draft version of the protocol currently being used by the Upper Columbia Basin Network (UCBN), as well as the Klamath Network (KLMN) and Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN; McKinney et al. in revision). The results reported in this report were generated in 2011 with data collected following an updated protocol by McKinney et al. (in revision). This is the first formal year of protocol implementation, and the permanent plots established in 2011 represent the first of 3 "panels" of plots that will be monitored into the future.

This report summarizes the results of the 2002-2003 inventory of birds, mammals, and herpetofauna, summarizes historic information, and contains brief accounts of each species present or expected to occur in the Whitman Mission National Historic Site (WHMI). Information on species that are possible but unlikely to occur in the mission is also included.

This document describes the concept, organization, and application of a hierarchical ecosystem classification that integrates saline and tidal freshwater reaches of estuaries in order to characterize the ecosystems of large flood plain rivers that are strongly influenced by riverine and estuarine hydrology. We illustrate the classification by applying it to the Columbia River estuary (Oregon-Washington, USA), a system that extends about 233 river kilometers (rkm) inland from the Pacific Ocean. More than three-quarters of this length is tidal freshwater.

Beaches serve as a natural barrier between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and natural resources. However, these dynamic environments move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. During extreme storms, such as powerful hurricanes, changes to beaches can be large, and the results are sometimes catastrophic. Lives may be lost, communities destroyed, and millions of dollars spent on rebuilding.

The purpose of this study was to collect baseline water quality information on the Sound and the freshwater brooks flowing into the Sound. A depauperate water quality data base and concern over the potential for increased residential development throughout the Somes Sound watershed were incentives for initiating this study.

During surveys in 2009, we documented seven invasive exotic plant taxa in the Big Spring Pines Natural Area, Chubb Hollow, Long Bay Field and Long Bay at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. All species were known to occur on the park. The most widespread and abundant of the exotic plant species observed included Johnsongrass, ground ivy and Nepalase browntop. Each of these species covered seven or more acres in the park. In general, several invasive exotic plants are a major problem in the study area at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, but successful control is possible for a large group of species. The acreage estimates presented in the report may be used to plan management activities leading to control of exotic plants and the accomplishment of GPRA goal IA1b.

This annual report details the status of key indicators of water quality obtained from monitoring that occurred in Whitman Mission National Historic Site (WHMI) in 2009, 2010, and 2011. WHMI natural resource staff monitored Mill Creek in 2009, Doan Creek in 2010, and Mill Creek again in 2011.

Habitat loss and degradation are perceived to be one of the main factors threatening biodiversity through detrimental effects on species and populations. These processes reduce habitat availability, increase isolation and generate patchy environments, which reduces species richness, population genetic diversity, and modifies community structure. The loss of biodiversity associated with habitat alteration is particularly problematic in forest habitats, because forests are one of the most species-rich habitat types. The conservation implications have become greater with evidence that climate change may exacerbate and speed up ongoing processes. This book focuses on topics that include niche restriction and conservatism in a neotropical psittacine; consequences for distribution patterns of specialist fauna; and paths to habitat loss in European Atlantic heathlands.

Aquatic invertebrates are an important biomonitoring tool for understanding and detecting changes in ecosystem integrity over time. Therefore, the monitoring objectives of this protocol as described by DeBacker et al. (2005) are: 1) Determine the status and trends of invertebrate species diversity, abundance, and community metrics. 2) Relate invertebrate community to overall water quality through quantification of metrics related to species richness, abundance, diversity, and region-specific multi-metric indices as indicators of water quality and habitat condition.

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS) vegetation mapping project is an initiative of the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Inventory Program (VIP), with cooperative support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP), to classify and map plant communities of APIS. The goals of the project are to adequately describe and map plant communities of APIS and immediate surroundings and provide the NPS Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program, resource managers, and biological researchers with useful baseline vegetation information.

The National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science office in Fort Collins, Colorado publishes a range of reports that address natural resource topics of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and others in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public.

The National Park Service initiated a restoration project at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site to restore the historic turning basin and wetland area adjacent to the Saugus River in 2007. To fulfill regulatory requirements and enhance understanding of freshwater wetland restoration practices, an intensive, pre- and post-restoration monitoring program was implemented. This report summarizes monitoring data collected prior to the restoration and the first year (2008) after restoration. Data summaries included in this report describe the status of biotic (e.g., vegetation, nekton, avian, benthic invertebrate, and vegetation communities) and abiotic parameters (e.g., tidal hydrology, river geomorphology, sediment, and water quality). This is first of several monitoring reports associated with the restoration of the turning basin and wetlands at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site.

This report summarizes results of the Sonoran Desert Network's first season of terrestrial vegetation and soils monitoring in upland areas of Fort Bowie National Historic Site (NHS), in southeastern Arizona. Ten permanent field-monitoring sites were established and sampled in 2008. Our objectives were to determine the status of and detect trends, over five-year intervals, in vegetation cover, frequency, soil cover, and surface soil stability.

This report to the Congress details the status and trends of our Nation's wetlands. It covers the period from 1986 to 1997, and provides the most recent and comprehensive estimates of the current status of wetland area throughout the conterminous United States and the losses or gains to various wetland types that have occurred during this time.

The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PIRO) vegetation mapping project is an initiative of the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Inventory Program (VIP), with cooperative support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) to classify and map plant communities of PIRO. The goals of the project are to adequately describe and map plant communities of PIRO and immediate surroundings and to provide the NPS Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program, resource managers, and biological researchers with useful baseline vegetation information.

This report covers the mid-1970'2 to the mid-1980's, a period in which Federal, State, and local government programs and policies began to affect wetland use and conversion. For this reason, there has been intense interest by the scientific and governmental communities in these updated wetlands statistics. Although the data contained in this report generally predates more recent wetlands legislation, they provide information that can help to assess the effectiveness of public policies and programs that have been intended to reduce the loss of the Nation's remaining wetlands.