Water Quality & Weather

Weather 

Each reserve maintains at least one meteorological station to quantify atmospheric conditions. Our weather station is on Masonboro Island Reserve and is called NOCRCMET. Core elements currently measured at all reserves include air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, and photosynthetically active radiation.

Water Quality and Water Chemistry 

Each National Estuarine Research Reserve deploys at least four Xylem Yellow Springs Instrument Co. (YSI) EXO2 sondes for continuous monitoring of water quality parameters. Data are collected for four seconds at fifteen-minute intervals. Datasondes placement is designed to characterize gradients in environmental conditions. 

Core elements include water temperature, specific conductivity, in-situ chlorophyll a, percent saturation of dissolved oxygen, pressure, pH, and turbidity. Calculated values include salinity, concentration of dissolved oxygen, and pressure corrected water depth.

SWMP also includes monthly nutrient analyses to quantify nutrient and chlorophyll a concentration at the same water quality monitoring stations where datasondes are located, if possible. Discrete samples are collected once monthly at specified tidal conditions at the four designated long-term monitoring stations. More intensive diel (24-hour) sampling is conducted at one water quality monitoring station each month to better understand nutrient and productivity across the tidal cycle. Core elements currently measured at all reserves include nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, orthophosphate, and chlorophyll a. 

Data

North Carolina SWMP data is available from the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office.