Monitoring freshwater systems in the Southwest Alaska Network: Standard operating procedures
Shearer J, Moore C, Bartz KK , Booher EC, Nelson J. 2025. Monitoring freshwater systems in the Southwest Alaska Network: Standard operating procedures. Natural Resource Report. NPS/SWAN/NRR—2015/925.1. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
These standard operating procedures (SOPs), and the associated protocol narrative (Shearer et al. 2015), provide in-depth information on monitoring water quantity (surface hydrology) and water quality (freshwater chemistry) in aquatic systems within the SWAN. The SOPs are meant to provide step-by-step instructions for all tasks associated with field preparation and safety, instrument programming and use, data collection, processing, and management, quality control, analyses, and reporting. This protocol outlines the background, objectives and methods for long-term monitoring of freshwater systems in National Park Service units of the Southwest Alaska Network. The protocol narrative describes the (1) field season preparation and safety, (2) GRTS point development, (3) Sonde calibration error checking and maintenance, (4) water quality measurement, (5) discharge measurement in wadeable waters, (6) discharge measurement in unwadeable waters, (7) water level measurement, (8) water temperature measurement: vertical temperature arrays, (9) decontamination of field equipment, (10) data download and export (11) data processing, (12) data management, (13) quality assurance/quality control, (14) data analysis and reporting, and (15) water temperature measurement: salmon spawning and incubation sites. The fifteen standard operating procedures (SOPs) that describe the details of the protocol (preparation, field methods, data management) are electronically available at the National Park Service’s Integrated Resource Management Applications portal.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Shearer, Jeff; Moore, Claudette; Bartz, Krista; Booher, Evan; Nelson, Jeff
- Date of Issue
- 2025-02-07
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- KATM , KEFJ , LACL , NRSS , SWAN
- Keywords
- Aquarius Tim-Series Software, freshwater monitoring, LAKE, Water Quality, Water Quantity
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Water | Hydrology | Surface Water Dynamics , Ecological Framework: Water | Water Quality | Water Chemistry