Protocol for monitoring estuarine water and sediment quality in selected Southeast Coast Network parks

Gregory, M.; DeVivo, Joseph; DiDonato, Eva; Wright, Christina; Thompson, Emma

The NPS Inventory & Monitoring Program has initiated estuarine and near-shore water quality and sediment monitoring in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, Canaveral National Seashore, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Fort Pulaski National Monument (FOPU), and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. This monitoring was initiated programmatically by the Natural Resource Challenge and implemented in 2006 to focus specifically on providing data needed to assess the quality of near-park estuarine waters and benthic sediments. This protocol relies on data collection methods and standard operation procedures currently in use by U.S. Environmental Protection Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitoring programs with the intent of leveraging the usefulness of NPS data by ensuring its comparability with existing, contemporary, and future data sets collected under these and other state monitoring programs. The Southeast Coast Network’s monitoring effort is composed of collecting data from permanent, fixed-station continuous data loggers in combination with analysis of periodic discrete water samples and sediment samples to provide data to park resource managers on the status of, and trends in, water and sediment quality within and near parks. Fixed-station water quality monitoring is currently conducted at seven parks and consists of using continuously- recording data loggers (data sondes) that monitor select water quality parameters at 15- and 30-minute intervals. In addition, at these same permanent locations, monthly (or bimonthly) hand-collected water samples are analyzed for nitrogen, phosphorus, and chlorophyll a concentrations. Methods for the SECN fixed-station water quality and nutrient sampling are adapted from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Estuarine Reserve Research System Program. In addition to the above permanent sampling sites, multi-day sampling events will be conducted at 30 randomly selected sites in the vicinity of five parks at five-year intervals for the purpose of assessing water and sediment quality conditions. Methods used for collecting data on this longer time frame are adapted from the United States Environmental Protection Agency - National Coastal Assessment. The five-year sampling will assess temperature, turbidity, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and water clarity values at each sampling location. Nutrient samples collected in conjunction with the water quality parameters above include measuring chlorophyll a levels, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus. As part of this park-wide assessment, sediment quality will be sampled at 10-year intervals at 30 randomly selected sites in the vicinity of five parks using a Young-modified Van Veen grab sediment sampler. Sediment samples will be analyzed for total organic carbon, sediment grain size, metals, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, and pesticides. By combining these approaches to monitoring, the SECN will gain insight into the current status of near-park water quality as well as provide information to park managers on temporal dynamics of water quality at selected locations in each park. The overarching purposes of this protocol are to provide a monitoring framework for collecting scientifically sound data and to supply information to help evaluate the current status and trends in water and sediment quality conditions that may affect the composition, structure, and function of park ecosystems and visitor experiences. These data can then be evaluated to help determine if current management practices are sustaining those functions and uses.

Protocol for monitoring estuarine water and sediment quality in selected Southeast Coast Network parks

Series

Collections