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.

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.

This report presents the conceptual ecological models describing the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems for park units in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network (ERMN, see Table 1). These models have been developed to support the National Park Service's (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M Program) in this region, and in particular, to complement the identification of "vital signs" that will be used in long-term monitoring of park resources.

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

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.

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 the 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. 2012). In 2011 the authors implemented the first full panel of 30 plots, plus two oversamples, following approval of the McKinney et al. (2012) protocol. Results from 2011 are reported in Stucki and Rodhouse (2012). This report presents the results for the second full panel of 30 plots established and surveyed in August 2012. Note that panel 2 includes the two oversample plots that were established in 2011. This is the second formal year of protocol implementation, and the permanent plots established in 2012 represent the second of 3 panels of plots that will be monitored into the future.

Few of us will ever get to Antarctica. The bitter cold and three months a year without sunlight makes the sixth continent virtually uninhabitable for humans. Yet marine biologist James B. McClintock has spent three decades studying the frozen land in order to understand better the world that lies beneath it. In this luminous and closely observed account, one of the world's leading experts on Antarctica introduces the reader to this fascinating world - the extraordinary wildlife that persists despite the harsh conditions and the way each of the pieces fit into the puzzle of the intricate environment: from single-celled organisms to baleen whales, with leopard seals, penguins, 50-foot algae, sea spiders, coral, and multicolored sea stars, in between. Now, as temperatures rise, the fragile ecosystem is under attack. Adelie penguins that have successfully nested on Antarctic islands for several hundred years have been nearly wiped out. King crabs that used to populate the deep seafloor are moving into shallower waters, disturbing the set order of life there. Lost Antarctica is an appeal to understand and appreciate the wondrous place at the bottom of the world that we are on the brink of losing.

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.

Clay Pond has a rich history that is shared by other residents of the pond. Ask anyone there about the friendly turtle, and the other wonderful friends, like Lacy the Dragonfly, who have made this place a home over the past several years. Each creature has their own unique tale to tell. Everyone in this place looks out for the well being of all the others. If it were possible to claim each other as family, they would do it in a heartbeat. It is, in a word, a safe haven for anyone living in or around the pond. Many of my stories in this whole collection are based on true incidents in my writer life. As the reader, I hope you fall in love with this nature world as I have drawn it. The purpose of compiling these tales is to entertain, stir, or bring to remembrance some of the readers' own experiences as they step out into their own nature world around them.

The main purpose of this report is to document how wetlands in the Meadowlands area changed from the 1950s to the 1990s. The emphasis is on quantitative changes (i.e., changes in extent; acreage) and not on qualitative changes in wetlands. The report also presents other information that provides a valuable perspective on these and prior changes.

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.

Global warming usually seems to happen far away, but one catastrophic effect of climate change is underway right now in the Rocky Mountains. In "The Melting World," Chris White travels to Montana to chronicle the work of Dan Fagre, a climate scientist and ecologist, whose work shows that alpine glaciers are vanishing rapidly close to home. For years, Fagre has monitored the ice sheets in Glacier National Park proving that they--and by extension all Rocky Mountain ice--will melt far faster than previously imagined. How long will the ice fields survive? What are the consequences on our environment? "The Melting World" chronicles the first extinction of a mountain ecosystem in what is expected to be a series of such global calamities as humanity faces the prospect of a world without alpine ice.

The U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service partnered to co-host a symposium on "Planning for Biodiversity: Bringing Research and Management Together," held February 29-March 2, 2000 at the Kellogg West Conference Center, California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. The goal of the 3-day conference was to identify the current status of our knowledge and gaps in our understanding of regional biodiversity and ecosystem processes, present and future threats to species and habitats, and effective monitoring strategies for southwestern and central coastal California resources. Through a program of 52 invited presentations, 18 contributed posters, and 10 focused discussion groups, the conference created an environment for formal and informal communication among the 300 attendees about the results of scientific studies and their application to resource conservation and management, as well as the information needs of managers responsible for determining and implementing management on the ground. Of the 45 technical papers presented at the conference, 14 are included in this volume. Authors were asked to synthesize the current state of knowledge regarding their topic and identify areas needing future research. Each paper was assigned to an editor for review and received one to three additional peer reviews. Expanded abstracts of nine posters also were reviewed by the editors and included. The topics addressed in the papers and poster abstracts reflect the breadth of the conference presentations and the issues facing the science and management communities, ranging from the threats of fire, air pollution, grazing, exotic species invasion, and habitat loss on native habitats and sensitive species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, to the role of mycorrhizal fungi as indicators of biological change.

NatureServe contracted with the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau (NH Heritage) to conduct a survey and produce a map of the vegetation of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. NatureServe ecologists planned the sampling, oversaw the field effort, and integrated plot and accuracy assessment data and field information into the U.S. National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) to produce a standardized product for the National Park Service. The purpose of this project was to produce a standardized map and classification of the vegetation communities and land cover of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site and to provide thorough baseline data on the park's vegetation.

We are in the grip of global warming: sea levels are rising; glaciers are melting, Arctic sea ice is thinning, meteorological events are becoming more extreme. But how do these changes compare with the environmental changes that have occurred in the past? How can they be put into perspective? What can we learn from the past to help us better understand how natural and human factors may interact to change our climate and environment in the future? Global Environments through the Quaternary delves into the environmental changes that have taken place during the Quaternary: the last 2.6 million years of geological history and time during which humans have evolved and spread across the Earth. Taking the reader through the Pleistocene and the Holocene, the book describes the evidence that has helped us to characterize environmental changes during these two epochs; it then explores the changes captured by more recent meteorological records in the period up to the present day. Throughout, it aims to convey the relevance of palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic studies to current environmental and climatic concerns. Climate change research foretells of potentially catastrophic consequences in the future and, even now, early indicators of those changes are evident in the retreating Greenland ice sheet, melting permafrost, changes in fish distributions in northern waters, and more besides. The book examines changes to the physical environment throughout the Quaternary, putting current concerns into perspective, and closes with a discussion of the causes of climatic and environmental change over different timescales - and the complex interactions between human impacts and natural processes. With climate change - itself but part of the perpetual process of environmental change - as important a topic of debate now as at any other time, Global Environments through the Quaternary is essential reading for any student seeking a balanced, objective overview of this truly interdisciplinary subject. Online Resource Centre The Online Resource Centre to accompany Global Environments through the Quaternary features: For students: * Links to external sources of useful information For registered adopters of the book: * Figures from the book, available to download

Continuing Tom L. McKnight's well-known thematic focus on landscape appreciation, Darrel Hess offers a broad survey of all of the physical processes and spatial patterns that create Earth’s physical landscape. McKnight’s Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation provides a clear writing style, superior art program, and abundant pedagogy to appeal to a wide variety of students. This new edition offers a truly meaningful integration of visualization, technology, the latest applied science, and new pedagogy, providingessential tools and opportunities to teach and engage students in these processes and patterns.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SLBE) 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 SLBE. The goals of the project are to adequately describe and map plant communities of SLBE and its 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.

In this report the authors assess and evaluate openland habitats at the Lakeshore and field scales and, in doing so, build upon the prior research of Scharf (1997) and the multi-scale assessment work of Corace (2007). The authors focus their efforts on understanding the ecological contributions provided by these habitats for openland bird species of conservation concern. A top-down analysis provides the authors with a framework to assess the conservation status of individual ecosystems at the Lakeshore and prioritize efforts within the context of contemporary environmental issues, such as the decline in populations of openland bird species across the Upper Midwest (i.e., Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin).

This document presents the programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Final Plan Management. It is a useful tool to understand the environmental consequences of th broad range of activities in the management plan and provides the general analyses that informed the decision of approving the plan. It also establishes that as individual actions become ripe for decision, alternatives will be evaluated under the NEPA to meet the broader goals outlined in this final management plan.

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is located in central New Mexico near the town of Mountainair. Gran Quivira was established as a National Monument in 1909, with Abo and Quarai park units established in 1980 (NPS 1984). The three units were redesignated as Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in 1987. The Monument was established to "set apart and preserve for the benefit and enjoyment of the American People the ruins of prehistoric Indian pueblos and associated seventeenth century Franciscan Spanish mission ruins" (NPS 2006). The specific objectives of this project were to complete an exotic plant inventory, collect voucher specimens for new exotic species in the park, and write a report on exotic plant species occurring in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. This information may then be incorporated into future weed management projects to restore and preserve the vegetation and cultural landscape.

In spite of the UN Convention, riparian nations pitch their respective claims and counterclaims based on their interest and interpretation. Water as an instrument and tool of bargain and trade-off will assume predominance because the political stakes are high. The book attempts to analyse the water relations and the existing problems due to some of the ongoing projects.

This document describes the rationale and methods used by the National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuges (MCI) for long-term monitoring of rocky intertidal habitats. The monitoring effort will collect data for key metrics representing the ecological health of the intertidal zone, and over time it will provide an indication of the trend of these metrics.

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.

This document details the vegetation classification and mapping which was completed for Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, It includes a current digital geospatial vegetation database for the park. Six vegetation associations occurred within the park, and these were identified and described in detail. The associations were Northeastern Modified Successional Forest, Reed Canarygrass Eastern Marsh, Reed-grass Tidal Marsh, Cattail Brackish Tidal Marsh, Skunk-cabbage - Orange Jewelweed Seep, and Central Atlantic Freshwater Subtidal River Bed.