Ecosystem Monitoring

Overview

APNEP staff are currently facilitating a stakeholder-driven initiative to develop a strategy for monitoring the ecosystem health and status of the Albemarle-Pamlico region. This initiative is driven by the members of APNEP's Monitoring and Assessment Teams, who represent diverse governmental, academic, and nonprofit organizations in our region. These groups are working with APNEP to develop a set of ecosystem indicators that will be monitored and analyzed to produce an overall assessment of the health of the estuarine system. 

This ecosystem assessment process will allow APNEP and our partners to better understand how our efforts to protect and restore the system are impacting the estuary, and to adapt our priorities and focus accordingly. The last Ecosystem Assessment was published in 2012 and analyzed a range of biotic and abiotic components of the estuarine system. 

APNEP has published these Ecosystem Indicator and Metric Reports:

• Metric Report: Extent of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, High-Salinity Estuarine Waters (January 2021)

APNEP Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) actions addressed:

• E1.1: Facilitate the development and implementation of an integrated monitoring network through the guidance of regional monitoring and assessment teams
• E1.2: Assess the value of information for measuring ecosystem and CCMP implementation outcomes
• E1.3: Facilitate the expansion of volunteer monitoring into a core element of the integrated monitoring network