Water Quality Monitoring

Pacific Island Network Inventory and Monitoring staff performing water quality monitoring in Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

Kimberly Weisenborn, NPS

Description and Rationale

The quality of surface waters, marine waters, and groundwater is fundamental to the ecosystems across the Pacific islands. Park must determine the quality of their water resources, strive to avoid human-caused pollution occurring within and outside of park boundaries, and maintain surface waters and groundwaters as essential components of park aquatic and terrestrial systems.

All Pacific island national parks are also concerned about effects of adjacent land uses and increasing development in watersheds connected to the parks' marine, freshwater, and groundwater resources.

The four core parameters chosen for monitoring by the NPS Water Resources Division (temperature, conductivity/salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen) provide baseline data for water quality assessment. In addition, turbidity, total nitrate, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, and chlorophyll are monitored by the Pacific Island Network for their ecological significance.

Monitoring Objectives

1. Determine the range and spatial variance on an annual basis of temperature, pH, salinity/conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, total nitrate, and chlorophyll in coastal marine waters, streams, wetlands, and anchialine pools.
2. Determine the temporal (events, diurnal, seasonal, annual, decadal) and spatial trends, for temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen in coastal marine waters, streams, wetlands, and anchialine pools.

Monitored at:

All PACN monitored parks, except Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

For more information on PACN I&M water quality monitoring contact: David Raikow