Fixed station water quality monitoring at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: 2010 Data Summary
Gregory MB, Dingle J, Wright C, Thompson E, Kalmbacher A. 2011. Fixed station water quality monitoring at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: 2010 Data Summary. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SECN/NRDS—2011/180. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
In 2003 the Northeast Florida Water Quality Preservation Group — a coalition composed of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA), the National Park Service, and the Nature Conservancy — was formed by official Memorandum of Understanding to ―collaborate to preserve, protect, and enhance water quality‖ of Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve (TIMU) in northern Florida. In 2006, the National Park Service Southeast Coast Network (SECN) in cooperation with the City of Jacksonville, Florida and CAMA established a jointly-operated water quality monitoring network within the Preserve’s boundaries to provide relevant water quality information to resource managers locally and at TIMU. This network is currently composed of 16 sites — 12 of which are monitored every other month by the City of Jacksonville for nutrients and chlorophyll a with four additional sites monitored continuously by the NPS for pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, conductivity, turbidity and water level. Continuous data records at four automated monitoring stations were relatively complete with only sporadic and brief periods of missing data. Reduced water clarity conditions were the most common cause of poor water-quality ratings during 2010. Discrete bi-monthly water quality sampling indicated elevated phosphorus (TP) and nitrogen (TN) levels across all sites sampled in TIMU and throughout most of the year. Despite the commonly-observed elevated nutrient levels, elevated levels of chlorophyll a were only measured at one site on the upper reaches of the Nassau River (TIM02), on a single date during the summer. Continuous data records highlight the relative influences of freshwater on station data with major differences between sites driven by landscape level differences due to the stations' location within the watershed.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Gregory, M.; Dingle, Julie; Wright, Christina; Thompson, Emma; Kalmbacher, Amy
- Date of Issue
- 2011-07
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , TIMU
- Keywords
- chlorophyll a, Conductivity, Depth, Dissolved Oxygen, Nitrogen, pH, Phosphorus, Salinity, Temperature, Turbidity, Water Quality