Guidelines for long-term monitoring protocols

Monitoring protocols are detailed study plans that explain how data are to be collected, managed, analyzed, and reported, and are a key component of quality assurance for natural resource monitoring programs. Protocols are necessary to ensure that changes detected by monitoring actually are occurring in nature and not simply a result of measurements taken by different people or in slightly different ways. We developed and present here guidelines for the recommended content and format of monitoring protocols. The National Park Service and United States Geological Survey have adopted these guidelines to assist scientists developing protocols for more than 270 national park units.