2.3.2. Capacity to Adapt Goals and Activities to Changing Conditions 
Table 2-2 provides an assessment of the capacity of each state’s plan - as it is currently 
constituted - to adapt its goals and activities related to leadership and coordination, prevention, 
EDRR, restoration, research, information management, and education and public awareness to 
changing conditions. Fewer than half of state plans (48%) mention changing conditions, and this 
is generally implicit in the types of goals and strategies described that could be used to respond 
to any changes in the environment, including climate change. No state plan that was examined 
accounts for changing conditions in its restoration or information management goals and 
strategies—two critical aspects of a comprehensive AIS management plan—though many plans 
do express the need for research and data to inform management decisions under changing 
conditions in the states’ research goals and strategies. Of the plans that mention changing 
conditions under ‘Research,’ 20% explicitly mention research into changing conditions (scores 
of 2 or 3). Counting both implicit and explicit mention of changing conditions in these 
categories shows slightly higher capacities across states although the research category still 
dominates (Table 2-3). 
The goals and activities described by state plans in each of these sub-categories are likely 
to be affected by climate change. For example, prevention activities will be challenged as 
species move outside of known ranges. Modifications to how vectors and pathways are 
monitored may be necessary to capture these effects. One approach may be integrated vector 
management (Carlton and Ruiz, 2005). The integrated vector management framework 
distinguishes cause, route, and vector for an invasion, including the biological and anthropogenic 
dimensions. This breakdown into the components is useful for analyzing where climate change 
may interact with vectors in order to formulate appropriate management responses. 
2.3.3. Monitoring Strategies 
Although no plan includes a specific strategy for monitoring changing environmental 
conditions, Maine’s plan does note that climate change could be a cause for potential spread of 
AIS and that the state will monitor climate conditions to provide early warning of new 
populations (Dominie Consulting and Maine Interagency Task Force on Invasive Aquatic Plants 
and Nuisance Species Technical Subcommittee, 2002). Most plans, however, do have clear 
strategies for using, managing, and updating monitoring data (80%). These results show a high 
capacity to modify activities associated with monitoring to include information on climate 
change effects. 
While new information on more effective management methods can be incorporated into 
many of the plans, climate change may pose additional challenges with respect to the spatial and 
temporal scales of monitoring (Hellmann et al., 2008). Feedback from researchers to managers 
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