Long-term Monitoring
Water quality will be monitored quarterly at selected streams in eight SCPN parks. Core parameters, including temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and discharge, will be collected at all monitoring sites (see graph). Additionally, samples will be collected describing physical (turbidity, suspended and dissolved solids), biological (bacteria, macroinvertebrates), and chemical (nutrients, organic and inorganic compounds) characteristics of water. Pilot studies were initiated in 2007; monitoring will be implemented in 2008.
Management Applications
Water quality in streams is influenced by physical conditions, including geology and vegetation, and may be altered by natural disturbance events, such as catastrophic fire or flooding; by climatic drought; or degraded by a variety of anthropogenic
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| Water quality measurements made at 15-minute intervals, Rito de los Frijoles gaging station, Bandelier National Monument. |
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activities. Significant contamination of surface waters can be harmful to aquatic biota and may pose health risks to recreational visitors.
The first few years of data will be used to document current conditions in SCPN streams. Over the long term, water quality data will be used to meet objectives that include (1) protecting water bodies under provisions of the Clean Water Act, (2) documenting water quality parameters that are vulnerable to alteration from various sources of contamination or land-use practices, and (3) establishing which water quality parameters may be most useful for indicating ecosystem integrity of ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial streams. |
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