Vital Sign Monitoring: Water Quality
Description & Rational
The quality of surface waters, marine waters, and groundwater is critical to the functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems across the PACN. National Park Service (NPS) management policies mandate that parks will determine the quality of their water resources, strive to avoid anthropogenic pollution occurring within and outside of park boundaries, and “perpetuate surface waters and groundwaters as integral components of park aquatic and terrestrial systems”. All PACN parks are concerned about effects of adjacent land uses and increasing development of watersheds outside park boundaries on park water resources. The PACN parks each contain or adjoin marine, freshwater, and groundwater resources where both point and non-point sources impact the waters at various locations.
The four core parameters chosen for monitoring by the NPS Water Resources Division (temperature, conductivity/salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen) to provide required minimum baseline data for water quality assessment throughout the NPS, in addition to turbidity, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), total nitrogen, total phosphorous, chlorophyll, and depth are monitored by the PACN for their ecological significance in the region and will be collected on a water-resource specific basis.
Brief Monitoring Questions & Objectives
Question: What are the ranges and variances of the network water quality parameters within selected water bodies?
Objective: Determine the range and spatial variance on an annual basis of temperature, pH, salinity/conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, total nitrate, and chlorophyll in coastal marine waters, streams, wetlands, and anchialine pools in the 10 PACN parks.
Question: What are the temporal and spatial trends of the network core water quality parameters for individual water bodies or water resource types in each park?
Objective: Determine the temporal (events, diurnal, seasonal, annual, decadal) and spatial trends, for temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen coastal marine waters, streams, wetlands, and anchialine pools in the 10 PACN parks.
Vital Sign Monitoring Status & Trends
TThe Water Quality monitoring protocol is in final peer review and is currently being implemented.
- Protocol Documents (in development)
- Water Quality Monitoring Resource Brief
- Water Quality Monitoring Photo Gallery - Coming Soon!
Contact Information
Project Manager
Tahzay Jones, Aquatic Ecologist
Pacific Island Network, I&M Program
National Park Service
PO Box 52, Hawaii National Park, HI 96718
tahzay <at> nps.gov