Outer Island Pier Water Quality (2019)
Water quality parameters were monitored by the CSU interns during the summer 2019 from June 9th to August 12th. Water quality monitoring was also conducted by the island keeper Nick Varvel from August 22nd to September 21st. Water quality monitoring occurred each day at 2:00 pm from the end of the floating dock. Water quality parameters monitored included: water temperature, salinity, conductivity, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, Secchi disk depth, turbidity, and pH. All measurements were made on water samples collected from at a depth of one meter.
Water temperature gradually increased from the spring to the end of the summer. Water temperature ranged from 16.8°C (6/13) to a high of 24.8°C (8/3). Variations in water temperature over the summer correlated well with changes in measured air temperature (Figure 3). Dissolved oxygen concentrations were highest initially (7.84 mg/L) on 6/9 and showed a decrease over the summer months correlating with increasing temperatures reaching a low of 5.86 mg/L on 8/9 (Figure 1b). With one exception, salinity showed little variability, with a range of only 28.6 ppt (6/9) to 30.5 ppt (9/20), while conductivity showed a slightly larger range from 44.19 mS (6/11) to 46.80 mS (9/20) (Figure 1a). Both parameters showed less variability than in previous years.
Water clarity, as measured by a Secchi disk, varied from 0.7 m (6/10) to 1.6 m (7/17) during the monitoring period (Figure 2a). pH ranged from a low of 7.82 (7/13) to a high of 8.32 (9/20) (Figure 2b). Similar to other parameters this season, water clarity/turbidity and pH showed less variation than previous years.
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