Monitoring
Scroll down on this page to find information about the national System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) and for a description of how SWMP is being implemented at Padilla Bay Reserve. To learn about a monitoring program that is not part of the Research Program and that involves citizen volunteers, go to Skagit Stream Team.
National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP)The System-wide Monitoring Program was established to identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in representative estuarine ecosystems.
One aspect of the System-wide Monitoring Program is the measurement of basic physical water quality parameters. Each of the twenty-six reserves in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System has battery operated YSI datasondes with an array of sensors that record temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, and water depth every 30 minutes at four separate sites. Data is stored internally until the sonde is retrieved and the data downloaded to a computer, approximately every two weeks. The sensors are calibrated before each deployment and checked against standard solutions after retrieval.
Another aspect of the System-wide Monitoring Program is the recording of meteorological data at each of the reserves. The parameters recorded at all the reserves are temperature, humidity, wind (velocity and direction), light, and rainfall.
A third aspect, initiated in 2002, consists of analyzing water samples collected at the YSI monitoring sites each month for various nutrients and chlorophyll.
The System-wide Monitoring Program continues to evolve with ongoing planning to expand environmental monitoring.
SWMP monitoring sites at Padilla Bay NERR
The four water quality monitoring sites at Padilla Bay NERR are located as follows:
- One is located in a tributary of Bay View Channel in southern Padilla Bay. This site has been established to detect and monitor short-term variability and long-term changes in water quality in the south end of the bay.
- A second site is located in Ploeg Channel in the northern part of Padilla Bay to contrast and compare water quality with the south end.
- A third site is located on the fresh-water side of the tide gates near the mouth of Joe Leary Slough. This site was selected to measure the effects of closed tide gates on water in the slough and to detect long-term changes in water quality associated with implementation of a non point source pollution watershed action plan.
- A fourth site, Gong, is located in deep water (about 60 feet) between Samish and Guemes Islands where two sondes are deployed at different depths. Data from this site indicates the quality of water that flows into Padilla Bay with each flooding tide.
The Padilla Bay weather station is located on the Padilla Demonstration Farm near the southeast corner of the bay. A datalogger stores the continuously recorded data that is then downloaded once a month. This information is used in studies investigating correlations between meteorological data and water quality data, biological data, or other phenomenon in Padilla Bay and its watershed.
More information about the National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program can be found at the Centralized Data Management Office (CDMO). Data from Padilla Bay Research Reserve and all the other Reserve sites can also be accessed from the CDMO.