The material for April focuses on the topic of Water Quality Monitoring. In previous material we have looked at the nature of rivers and streams and at how humans use and abuse them. Now we shall read about how we can determine the health of a body of water and keep track of its improvement or degradation.
The material from the Fish and Wildlife Service discusses both how and why you monitor a water body and many of the characteristics most commonly measured by a monitoring program.
In addition to the physical, chemical and biological measurements discussed in the portion of the material derived from the Adopt-A-Salmon-Family manual, there are some additional habitat characteristics that can be measured and used in monitoring. These are included in the background materials below (suspended solids, velocity and discharge, sediment transport, bank erosion, embeddedness, riffle-pool sequences, tracking, and biodiversity). The potential use of some of these measurements is illustrated by considering the Boquet River. This river is afflicted with water quality problems which differ from the traditional sewage or toxic chemical types of pollution.
Several field studies which allow students to measure these parameters in their own streams are described and three newsletter articles dealing with monitoring are included.
Background: Water Quality Monitoring
Background: Suspended Solids
Background: Velocity and Discharge
Background: Sediment Transport
Background: Bank Erosion
Background: Embeddedness
Background: Riffle-Pool Sequences
Background: Tracking
Background: Biodiversity Indices
Background: The Boquet River: An Example
Field Study: Water Quality Monitoring
Field Study: Determining Velocity
Field Study: Discharge Volume
Field Study: Sediment Transport
Field Study: Streambank Erosion
Field Study: Embeddedness
Equipment: Making A "Water Scope"
Article For Newsletter: Embeddedness
Article For Newsletter: Little Critters Delivering Big Messages