Estuarine Water Quality

A hand holds a clear bottle filling with water
Collecting water quality samples at Gateway National Recreation Area. Erin Finicane / NPS Photo

A Brief Intro

Clean water is essential to life and good health everywhere. On top of needing to drink water, many of us also enjoy swimming in the oceans or fishing in rivers. The quality of water we surround ourselves with becomes essential to our health, as well as to that of estuarine ecosystems. Our northeastern coastline has twice the population density compared to any other region of the country. That population continues to grow. Excess nutrient loading enters coastal waters from our agricultural activities, residential developments, and urban expansions. This excess causes harmful algae blooms and loss of seagrass and oxygen, all of which impact human and wildlife communities.

In addition to monitoring seagrass, we also monitor water quality as a vital sign of estuarine health at the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network. Our work informs our parks of trends in species composition, habitat change, and declines of commercially important fish populations.


How We Monitor

  1. Identify sites in an estuary to collect water samples from

  1. Repeat for each monitored park every year during summer

  2. Measure oxygen concentration, turbidity, temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration, and organic carbon concentration


Researcher steers a boat through an estuary
Taking a boat to monitoring site at Cape Cod National Seashore. Colleen Keenan / NPS Photo



Where We Monitor

  • Assateague Island National Seashore
  • Cape Cod National Seashore
  • Colonial National Historical Park
  • Fire Island National Seashore
  • Gateway National Recreation Area
  • George Washington Birthplace National Monument



Publications

Last updated: March 22, 2022

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