Water quality and streamflow monitoring protocol: Version FQ–2022.1, Southeast Alaska Network

Water quality and streamflow are important indicators of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem health and hydrologic dynamics in Southeast Alaska. This protocol provides the information necessary to implement and sustain a long-term monitoring program, including the context and justification for water quality and streamflow sampling, description of the sampling methodologies, and listing of staff roles. Detailed instructions for all aspects of field set-up, maintenance, data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting are provided in the complementary suite of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Data and reports generated by this program are publicly available through the SEAN NPS website (https://www.nps.gov/im/sean/index.htm) and NPS Integrated Resource Management Applications (IRMA) Data Store (https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/). These deliverables inform park staff, managers, and outside parties of the status and trends of basic river conditions and describe the timing and magnitude of seasonal and annual variation of each parameter. Each year, from at least May 1 through October 31, water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, and streamflow data are collected hourly from one river in each SEAN park unit: the Salmon River (Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve), Taiya River (Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park), and Indian River (Sitka National Historical Park). To capture glacial influence on sediment loading, turbidity is also measured for the Taiya River. Annual updates and synthesis reports are defined to ensure that future products consistently connect to the program objectives outlined in this protocol. Data management procedures, including quality assurance, quality control, and data grading, are implemented to provide a properly archived, high-quality deliverables.