Github repository for paper entitled, "Analyzing and comparing long-term water quality of la... more Github repository for paper entitled, "Analyzing and comparing long-term water quality of lakes and reservoirs in Rhode Island and the Northeastern United States using an anomaly approach" Includes the paper itself, data and code for analysis.
Understanding the factors that affect water quality and the ecological services provided by fresh... more Understanding the factors that affect water quality and the ecological services provided by freshwater ecosystems is an urgent global environmental issue. Predicting how water quality will respond to global changes not only requires water quality data, but also information about the ecological context of individual water bodies across broad spatial extents. Because lake water quality is usually sampled in limited geographic regions, often for limited time periods, assessing the environmental controls of water quality requires compilation of many datasets across broad regions and across time into an integrated database. LAGOS-NE accomplishes this goal for lakes in the northeastern-most 17 U.S. states. LAGOS-NE contains data for 51,101 lakes and reservoirs larger than 4 ha in 17 lake-rich U.S. states. The database includes three data modules for: lake location and physical characteristics for all lakes; ecological context (i.e., the land use, geologic, climatic, and hydrologic setting...
Github repository for paper entitled, "Increasing Chlorophyll *a* Amid Stable Nutrient Conce... more Github repository for paper entitled, "Increasing Chlorophyll *a* Amid Stable Nutrient Concentrations in Rhode Island Lakes and Reservoirs." Includes the paper itself, data and code for analysis.
The New England Regional Water Quality Program emerges from the combined research, education, and... more The New England Regional Water Quality Program emerges from the combined research, education, and Extension strengths of New England’s six Land Grant Universities and has incorporated key partners into a framework to advance the protection and improvement of water quality in our rural and agricultural watersheds. To address the water quality challenges of rural New England, we create locally relevant programs focused on land and community management. We work at both local and regional scales to develop, test and refine programs with case studies at the local level that leverage other sources of support. At the regional scale, in cooperation with stakeholders and partner agencies, we identify needs and build upon successful local programs to create and disseminate new materials, tools and curricula for use throughout New England. We work with federal, state, university and local partners to create the mix of resources required to solve real - life water quality problems. The heart of...
to the public helps people make informed choices about where to swim and where not to. It can als... more to the public helps people make informed choices about where to swim and where not to. It can also be invaluable for helping decision makers better understand the impacts of activities in the watershed, or to target restoration efforts. However, there are some unique challenges involved in presenting bacteria data effectively. This factsheet, the third in a series about monitoring bacteria, provides guidance to help display your bacteria data effectively, allowing you to share your results with diverse audiences. Determining how best to display your data should be based on your target audience, your data objectives and data users as well as on the story that your data tells. If you have sufficient resources, inclusion of tables, charts and maps highlighting various features of your data strengthens the utility of the information, and appeals to a wide range of data users and types of learners. (Our module "From the Trenches – Tips and Tools for Better Presentations" (http:...
We evaluated microbiological water quality in the Pettaquamscutt River (Rhode Island, USA), an es... more We evaluated microbiological water quality in the Pettaquamscutt River (Rhode Island, USA), an estuarine river. Fecal coliform (FC) and enterococci (FE) bacteria, presence of Bifidobacterium adolescentis DNA (indicating human fecal contamination), and optical brightener (OB) fluorescence (associated with laundry detergents) were determined for 14 stations from May to September 2010. Six stations had high counts of FE and FC, and the presence of B. adolescentis DNA and high OB fluorescence indicated human fecal contamination - four had septic systems as likely sources of contamination; the others were in sewered areas. The ability of FC and FE to indicate human fecal contamination was assessed against a positive B. adolescentis test. FC and FE had false positive rates of 25% and 17%, respectively, and false negatives of 44% for FC and 63% for FE. Inclusion of molecular and chemical indicators should improve tracking of human fecal contamination sources in the river.
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
This publication briefly explains why you should evaluate your volunteer monitoring program. It p... more This publication briefly explains why you should evaluate your volunteer monitoring program. It provides examples of what to evaluate, and discusses five essential steps for doing evaluation by means of a case study. Additionally, resources noted throughout the document and at the end provide considerably more information about conducting a program evaluation than can be covered here. November 2012 Factsheet XVI
Text: Well designed monitoring programs have clear goals for their data - whether it's buildi... more Text: Well designed monitoring programs have clear goals for their data - whether it's building a solid water quality database for future trend analysis or documenting a pollution source in the watershed. And while state agencies' monitoring goals are typically to assess and report on a water body's health, volunteer monitors tend to be more interested in 'protecting' or 'improving', or just 'making a difference' in their favorite waterbody - in other words - they are action oriented. Therefore, many volunteer monitoring programs spend a significant amount of time and effort trying to get decision makers, stakeholders and the general public aware of the condition of those waterbodies and to take action. Presenting complex water quality information in an effective, relevant way that stimulates interest and action will be the focus of this interactive workshop. We will share examples of reports, websites and other data presentation tools and strateg...
The United States is a nation built on volunteerism. Across the country tens of thousands of peop... more The United States is a nation built on volunteerism. Across the country tens of thousands of people have joined scientist-led voluntary monitoring programs to assess lakes, streams, wetlands, bays and oceans. In New England alone, more than 1800 volunteers monitor 800 lake, stream and salt water sites through Extension-led programs. In 2009 their efforts were valued at over one million dollars. Multiplying that by similar Extension-led efforts in an additional 41 states gives an estimate of staggering value. Volunteer water quality monitoring has the unique capacity to allow citizens to improve their knowledge of the status of and factors affecting local water quality through hands-on participation. It enables local residents to understand changes needed at the farm, home, and community level to help restore degraded waters and ensure protection of high quality waters. Volunteer monitors are both community educators and citizen scientists. In one Wisconsin Extension program, farmers...
An inquiry of t Great Lakes (Region 5) Tribes water quality specialists and tribal college facult... more An inquiry of t Great Lakes (Region 5) Tribes water quality specialists and tribal college faculty was conducted to determine the tribes’ water resource needs and their receptiveness to volunteer monitoring programs. The priority water resource issues of the tribes are vast, unique to geographic location and complicated by jurisdictional issues. The desire of each tribe is to provide safe, plentiful and clean drinking water to its community. In addition, the ability to harvest healthy animals and vegetation from the lands allocated to them through treaties is of concern. Complicated jurisdictional issues and bombardment by paperwork needed to fund water monitoring, which requires time away from fieldwork, makes achieving those goals difficult. Each tribe indicated unique concerns involving their water quality, but what remained evident was the idea that collaboration between stakeholders and education for the communities - both tribal and non-tribal - was essential, as most of the i...
Github repository for paper entitled, "Analyzing and comparing long-term water quality of la... more Github repository for paper entitled, "Analyzing and comparing long-term water quality of lakes and reservoirs in Rhode Island and the Northeastern United States using an anomaly approach" Includes the paper itself, data and code for analysis.
Understanding the factors that affect water quality and the ecological services provided by fresh... more Understanding the factors that affect water quality and the ecological services provided by freshwater ecosystems is an urgent global environmental issue. Predicting how water quality will respond to global changes not only requires water quality data, but also information about the ecological context of individual water bodies across broad spatial extents. Because lake water quality is usually sampled in limited geographic regions, often for limited time periods, assessing the environmental controls of water quality requires compilation of many datasets across broad regions and across time into an integrated database. LAGOS-NE accomplishes this goal for lakes in the northeastern-most 17 U.S. states. LAGOS-NE contains data for 51,101 lakes and reservoirs larger than 4 ha in 17 lake-rich U.S. states. The database includes three data modules for: lake location and physical characteristics for all lakes; ecological context (i.e., the land use, geologic, climatic, and hydrologic setting...
Github repository for paper entitled, "Increasing Chlorophyll *a* Amid Stable Nutrient Conce... more Github repository for paper entitled, "Increasing Chlorophyll *a* Amid Stable Nutrient Concentrations in Rhode Island Lakes and Reservoirs." Includes the paper itself, data and code for analysis.
The New England Regional Water Quality Program emerges from the combined research, education, and... more The New England Regional Water Quality Program emerges from the combined research, education, and Extension strengths of New England’s six Land Grant Universities and has incorporated key partners into a framework to advance the protection and improvement of water quality in our rural and agricultural watersheds. To address the water quality challenges of rural New England, we create locally relevant programs focused on land and community management. We work at both local and regional scales to develop, test and refine programs with case studies at the local level that leverage other sources of support. At the regional scale, in cooperation with stakeholders and partner agencies, we identify needs and build upon successful local programs to create and disseminate new materials, tools and curricula for use throughout New England. We work with federal, state, university and local partners to create the mix of resources required to solve real - life water quality problems. The heart of...
to the public helps people make informed choices about where to swim and where not to. It can als... more to the public helps people make informed choices about where to swim and where not to. It can also be invaluable for helping decision makers better understand the impacts of activities in the watershed, or to target restoration efforts. However, there are some unique challenges involved in presenting bacteria data effectively. This factsheet, the third in a series about monitoring bacteria, provides guidance to help display your bacteria data effectively, allowing you to share your results with diverse audiences. Determining how best to display your data should be based on your target audience, your data objectives and data users as well as on the story that your data tells. If you have sufficient resources, inclusion of tables, charts and maps highlighting various features of your data strengthens the utility of the information, and appeals to a wide range of data users and types of learners. (Our module "From the Trenches – Tips and Tools for Better Presentations" (http:...
We evaluated microbiological water quality in the Pettaquamscutt River (Rhode Island, USA), an es... more We evaluated microbiological water quality in the Pettaquamscutt River (Rhode Island, USA), an estuarine river. Fecal coliform (FC) and enterococci (FE) bacteria, presence of Bifidobacterium adolescentis DNA (indicating human fecal contamination), and optical brightener (OB) fluorescence (associated with laundry detergents) were determined for 14 stations from May to September 2010. Six stations had high counts of FE and FC, and the presence of B. adolescentis DNA and high OB fluorescence indicated human fecal contamination - four had septic systems as likely sources of contamination; the others were in sewered areas. The ability of FC and FE to indicate human fecal contamination was assessed against a positive B. adolescentis test. FC and FE had false positive rates of 25% and 17%, respectively, and false negatives of 44% for FC and 63% for FE. Inclusion of molecular and chemical indicators should improve tracking of human fecal contamination sources in the river.
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling... more Addressing anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems is a focus of lake management. Controlling phosphorus and nitrogen can mitigate these impacts, but determining management effectiveness requires long-term datasets. Recent analysis of the LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database for the Northeast (LAGOSNE) United States found stable water quality in the northeastern and midwestern United States, however, sub-regional trends may be obscured. We analyze a sub-regional (i.e., 3000 km2) trend with the University of Rhode Island’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program (URIWW) dataset. URIWW has collected water quality data on Rhode Island lakes and reservoirs for over 25 years. The LAGOSNE and URIWW datasets allow for comparison of water quality trends at regional and sub-regional extents, respectively. We assess regional (LAGOSNE) and state (URIWW) trends with yearly mean anomalies calculated on a per-station basis. Sub-regionally, temperature and chlorophyll a incr...
This publication briefly explains why you should evaluate your volunteer monitoring program. It p... more This publication briefly explains why you should evaluate your volunteer monitoring program. It provides examples of what to evaluate, and discusses five essential steps for doing evaluation by means of a case study. Additionally, resources noted throughout the document and at the end provide considerably more information about conducting a program evaluation than can be covered here. November 2012 Factsheet XVI
Text: Well designed monitoring programs have clear goals for their data - whether it's buildi... more Text: Well designed monitoring programs have clear goals for their data - whether it's building a solid water quality database for future trend analysis or documenting a pollution source in the watershed. And while state agencies' monitoring goals are typically to assess and report on a water body's health, volunteer monitors tend to be more interested in 'protecting' or 'improving', or just 'making a difference' in their favorite waterbody - in other words - they are action oriented. Therefore, many volunteer monitoring programs spend a significant amount of time and effort trying to get decision makers, stakeholders and the general public aware of the condition of those waterbodies and to take action. Presenting complex water quality information in an effective, relevant way that stimulates interest and action will be the focus of this interactive workshop. We will share examples of reports, websites and other data presentation tools and strateg...
The United States is a nation built on volunteerism. Across the country tens of thousands of peop... more The United States is a nation built on volunteerism. Across the country tens of thousands of people have joined scientist-led voluntary monitoring programs to assess lakes, streams, wetlands, bays and oceans. In New England alone, more than 1800 volunteers monitor 800 lake, stream and salt water sites through Extension-led programs. In 2009 their efforts were valued at over one million dollars. Multiplying that by similar Extension-led efforts in an additional 41 states gives an estimate of staggering value. Volunteer water quality monitoring has the unique capacity to allow citizens to improve their knowledge of the status of and factors affecting local water quality through hands-on participation. It enables local residents to understand changes needed at the farm, home, and community level to help restore degraded waters and ensure protection of high quality waters. Volunteer monitors are both community educators and citizen scientists. In one Wisconsin Extension program, farmers...
An inquiry of t Great Lakes (Region 5) Tribes water quality specialists and tribal college facult... more An inquiry of t Great Lakes (Region 5) Tribes water quality specialists and tribal college faculty was conducted to determine the tribes’ water resource needs and their receptiveness to volunteer monitoring programs. The priority water resource issues of the tribes are vast, unique to geographic location and complicated by jurisdictional issues. The desire of each tribe is to provide safe, plentiful and clean drinking water to its community. In addition, the ability to harvest healthy animals and vegetation from the lands allocated to them through treaties is of concern. Complicated jurisdictional issues and bombardment by paperwork needed to fund water monitoring, which requires time away from fieldwork, makes achieving those goals difficult. Each tribe indicated unique concerns involving their water quality, but what remained evident was the idea that collaboration between stakeholders and education for the communities - both tribal and non-tribal - was essential, as most of the i...
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