Plum Island Ecosystems LTER Database

Acceptance and utilization of LTER data requires that:

(1) The Principal Investigator be sent a notice stating reasons for acquiring any data and a description of the publication intentions.
(2) The Principal Investigator of the data set be sent a copy of the report or manuscript prior to submission and be adequately cited in any resultant publications.
(3) A copy of any resultant publications should be sent to:

Principal Investigator
Ecosystems Center
Marine Biological Laboratory
7 MBL St.
Woods Hole, MA 02543

Dataset URLs:METADATA: HTML, Rich Text, XML(EML compliant)
DATA: Comma Delimited, Excel file with Metadata and data
Dataset ID:MON-PR-MBYSI2008.01
Dataset Title:Year 2008, 15 minute interval, water quality measurements of water column temperature, salinity, oxygen, and depth in the upper Parker River Estuary at Middle Road Bridge, Newbury, MA.
Investigator 1: 
First Name:Chuck
Last Name:Hopkinson
Address line 1:Georgia Sea Grant
Address line 2:University of Georgia
Address line 3:229 Marine Sciences
City:Athens
State:GA
Zip Code:30602
Country:USA
Associate Investigators:Hap Garritt
Keywords:PIE LTER, primary production, disturbance, temperature, oxygen, conductivity, salinity, depth, saturation, gas, Parker River, monitoring
Abstract:Year 2008, water quality sonde data.15 minute readings of water column temperature, salinity, oxygen and depth in the upper Parker River Estuary at Middle Rd Bridge, Newbury, MA
Contact: Plum Island Ecosystems LTER Information Manager
The Ecosystems Center
Marine Biological Lab
7 MBL St
Woods Hole, MA 02543
Phone (508) 289 7485
Email: pie_im@mbl.edu
Online URL: http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/PIE/
DATA FILE INFORMATION:
Data File URL http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/PIE/data/MON/data/MON-PR-MBYSI2008.csv
Data File Name MON-PR-MBYSI2008
Beginning Date 4/1/2008
End Date 12/2/2008
Number of Data Records 16181
Other Files to Reference
Availability Status Type 1
Quality Control Information
Maintenance Description
Log of Changes: Version 01: February 28, 2012, updated data and metadata. Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007.xlsm 2/9/12 1:33 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0
 
RESEARCH LOCATION: MON-PR-Middle Bridge WQ Site 2
Geographic Description YSI water quality sonde at Middle Rd bridge on Parker River, Byfield, MA  
Location Bounding Box    
West Bounding Coordinate    
East Bounding Coordinate    
North Bounding Coordinate    
South Bounding Coordinate    
OR if single point location    
Latitude 42.7508904  
Longitude -70.900941  
Elevation    
     
     
 
TAXONOMIC COVERAGE:
Taxonomic Protocols
Organisms studied
 
Methods:Measurements are made using a YSI 6600 water quality sonde with internal datalogging capabilities. YSI Sonde sensors consist of 6562 dissolved oxygen probe (rapid pulse – Clark type,polarographic), 6560 conductivity/temperature probe (thermistor), vented level depth sensor (stainless steel strain gauge).

Missing data or blank values are caused by maintenance time periods or where sensor measurements are obviously wrong in the context of what would be expected. For example, the conductivity sensor has a relatively small opening and chamber for the conductivity electrodes, the estuary can have varying suspended sediment/detrital loads moving in the water column which enter the conductivity cell shorting out the electrodes making a faulty conductivity measurement (lower than expected). Oxygen measurements are dependent upon the conductivity measurements so the oxygen also becomes erroneous. Obvious measurements/data errors have been removed from the data set however the user of this data should also conduct their own data analysis to determine if the data are suitable for their particular situation.

Typical sensor/data problems are:
For oxygen: Fouling of Clark style DO probe where membrane gets a brownish bacterial? film affecting DO sensor readings/calibration checks.
For conductivity: Conductivity cell can have detrital material stuck in it, shorting out cell, resulting in lower than expected conductivity.
For depth: Depth strain gage pressure sensor may come out of the water at low tides resulting in many "zero" depth readings or sometimes negative values.

YSI Dissolved oxygen % saturation reporting can vary depending upon how the oxygen is calibrated.
For this data set two Oxygen percent saturation values are reported.
DO%YSI (or ODO) variable name represents a YSI calibration in air, from Standard Methods, refers to calibration at a particular ATM pressure which allows DO% for calibration to fluctuate above/below 100% when ATM is above/below reference 760 or 1 ATM
DO%Local (or ODO) variable name represents an oxygen calibration in air at a particular ATM pressure but it forces the DO% to be 100%, does not allow it to be under or above if ATM is above/below 760.
DO%Local (or ODO) data should be used for metabolism studies when correcting for diffusion based on gradient deviations from 100% which by definition is the % saturation of oxygen in air.
DO%YSI (or ODO) should not be used since it would require a known ATM pressure at each interval to calculate the ATM % saturation of oxygen to be use for that interval, probably a small correction anyway.
Concentration of DO remains the same for either calibration.

Depth values needed corrections factors applied due to changing of sonde types (6600 to 600XLM) due to cable sonde leakage. The 600 XLM did not have a vented cable so pressure/depth readings needed a post deployment correction to account for changes in ambient atmospheric pressure. Marshview Farm (MFM) weather station 15 minute barometric pressure data was used to compute correction factor at the same time intervals as the 600 XLM time intervals.
Ambient pressure changes correspond to the following water level chnages, 1 mb = 0.0102 meters of water.

Correction factor calculations for Middle Rd
Calib Depth=0 meters (Air)
Calib ATM (mB)

Date
0

1013

6/3/2008
0.051

1018

7/25/2008
0.0714

1020

8/28/2008
0.1938

1032

9/23/2008
-0.0102

1012

10/21/2008
0.0306

1016

11/18/2008

Using the table above and measured data for the corresponding time intervals
Corrected depth = (Measured depth + Calib Depth) - ((BAR-Calib ATM) x 0.0102)

Data Table

Variable Name Variable Description Units Measurement Scale Code Information Number Type DateTime Format Missing Value Code Missing Value Code Explanation
Date Date of sampling   datetime     dd-mmm-yyyy   blank cell
Time Time of sampling (eastern standard time EST), 24 hr   datetime     hh:mm:ss   blank cell
Station Name of sampling station   nominal         blank cell
Temp Temperature of water celsius interval   real     blank cell
SpCond Specific conductivity of water millisiemenPerCentimeter ratio   real     blank cell
Cond Conductivity of water millisiemenPerCentimeter ratio   real     blank cell
Salinity Salinity of water partPerThousand interval   real     blank cell
ODO%YSI Percent dissolved oxygen saturation of water percent ratio   real     blank cell
ODO%Local Percent dissolved oxygen saturation of water percent ratio   real     blank cell
DO%YSI Clark style percent dissolved oxygen saturation of water, YSI calibration varies with ATM pressure percent ratio   real     blank cell
DO%Local Clark style percent dissolved oxygen saturation of water, calibration fixed at 100% in air percent ratio   real     blank cell
DO Conc Dissolved oxygen concentration of water milligramPerLiter ratio   real     blank cell
DO Charge Dissolved oxygen sensor charge dimensionless ratio   real     blank cell
Measured Depth Water column depth above non vented sonde pressure transducer meter ratio   real     blank cell
Corrected Depth Water column depth above non vented sonde pressure transducer, correction factor applied for ambient atmospheric pressure changes meter ratio   real     blank cell
BAR barometer from Marshview Farm (MFM) weather station (mbar) millibar ratio   real     blank cell
Comments Comments about specific data   nominal         blank cell