Status of Water Quality of Vicksburg National Military Park. Gulf Coast Network Water Quality Report. Natural Resource Technical Report. Vegetation Classification and Mapping at Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland. Natural Resource Technical Report

摘要

Water quality ranked among the top vital signs and was chosen to be monitored long-term in the eight parks composing the National Park Service's (NPS) Gulf Coast Network (GULN). Water quality monitoring program protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are located in the GULN Vital Signs Monitoring Plan. This report is a park-specific document that describes the status of water quality knowledge, including a description of the monitoring program, sampling sites, parameters tested, results in graphic form (when available), a brief interpretation of the results, and recommendations of parameters to be measured along with long-term sampling locations and frequency. Sampling sites were chosen following site visits by GULN hydrologist Joe Meiman in consultation with park staff. Some sites were chosen to coincide with past inventories and monitoring efforts. In most cases, sites were chosen at the downstream end of a watershed (or where a stream enters or leaves a park) to serve as an integrator of the basin, and should yield characteristics of, and contributions from, the entire watershed. Other near-shore and estuarine sites were chosen with respect to other key park resources such as seagrass beds. The NPS Water Resources Division requires each network water quality program to monitor four core field parameters: water temperature, pH, specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen. While these key parameters are essential, additional parameters that are tailored to specific parks were chosen to reflect particular water quality issues.