Monitoring and Assessment Teams
Developing a Comprehensive Monitoring Strategy
These Teams work towards development of ecosystem indicators and metrics that will allow the Partnership to monitor the overall health of the Albemarle-Pamlico region.
Two of the four phases of APNEP's adaptive management cycle, “Monitoring” and “Assessment,” help ensure that stakeholders have regular, reliable decision support as to whether CCMP outcomes and actions are being achieved. To leverage program capacity and promote partner collaboration when implementing these two crucial phases, in 2008-2009 APNEP established six Monitoring & Assessment Teams, each focused on a major sub-system of the Albemarle-Pamlico regional ecosystem. A seventh team that addresses submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) was added in 2011.
Each resource team is composed of volunteers from state agencies, current and former STAC members, plus other scientists and technologists from APNEP partner organizations.
The Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) compliments Monitoring and Assessment Team activities by addressing any additional cross-resource/team issues. Thus in practice, the seven teams and STAC collectively are developing and then refining an integrated monitoring and assessment framework and operations plan for the Albemarle-Pamlico regional ecosystem.
