The Use of Innovative Technologies to Monitor and Manage Chesapeake Bay Water and Habitat Quality

Christopher Heyer, Mark Trice, Bruce Michael,Ken Moore, Willy Reay, Dave Wilcox

Estuarine Research Federation – Chesapeake Research Colloquium Norfolk, VA 21 October 2005

The Use of Innovative Technologies to Monitor and Manage Chesapeake Bay Water and Habitat Quality

Monitoring Components

• Special Projects

• Operational• Fixed Station Monitoring• Real-Time Monitoring Network• Water Quality Mapping

• DataView• Sensor Testing• Vertical Profilers• Remote Sensing• CBOS• Event Triggered Sampling• Current Measurements• AUV

Continuous Monitoring

• 39 stations statewide

• Generally, deployed April - October

• Hourly telemetry from 18 stations to website

• Most meters set at 1-meter below surface

• Measures water quality parameters every 15 minutes

• Provides temporally intensive data during extreme events and other times it’s impractical to deploy field crews

Dissolved Oxygen, Turbidity, Chlorophyll, Water Temperature,Salinity, pH

System Status and Alerts

Dissolved Oxygen & ChlorophyllExceedances

Telemetry Status

Equipment Malfunction

Water Quality Mapping

• Data collected every 4 seconds

• Speeds up to 25 knots

• 3,500 - 15,000 data readings/day

• Spatially explicit data are useful for delineating habitat conditions

25ug/l Chl a ThresholdMagothy River

06/27/01

Pass

90% Confidence

Fail

Uncertain

Water Quality Mapping New Design

Eyes on the Bay – Web Portal

http://www.eyesonthebay.net

DATAFLOW Visualization SoftwareNew Real-Time Mapping (DATAVIEW)

Use existing GIS data (bathymetry, SAV coverage, past cruise tracks, past data, etc.)

Alert system for collecting samples or equipment malfunction

Delineate blooms, turbidity max zones, anoxia

Probability mapping which allows resampling to improve measurement certainty.

Ground-Truthing SAV distributionRemote sensing imagery

Benefits of DATAVIEW

95% ConfidenceA Threshold is not Violated

95% ConfidenceA Threshold is Violated

Uncertain

Sensor Testing

• OpticalDissolved OxygenSensors

• CyanobacteriaFluorescenceSensors

Vertical ProfilersElectronicsPackage

Battery

Computer Controlled Winch

Remote Sensing

mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/NASAimagery/EyesInTheSky.cfm

CBOS Data Plot, MB: YSI Dissolved Oxygen, mg/L2005-07-22 thru 2005-09-30

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CBOS Data Plot, MB: YSI Chlorophyll, µg/L2005-07-22 thru 2005-09-30

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2005-07-22 2005-08-01 2005-08-11 2005-08-21 2005-08-31 2005-09-10 2005-09-20

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)CBOS Data Plot, MB: YSI Turbidity, NTU

2005-07-22 thru 2005-09-30

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2005-07-22 2005-08-01 2005-08-11 2005-08-21 2005-08-31 2005-09-10 2005-09-20

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Chesapeake Bay Observing System (CBOS)

Event Triggered Sampling

CBOS/HPL Dock

N+N

PHOSPHATE

Urea /Ammonium

Power source

DataLogger

Water sampler

YSI 6600

DataTelemetry

Shore station PC

Shore station antenna

MD DNR

www.eyesonthebay.netNear-real time data display

HPLWork conducted by UMCES Horn Point Lab

Current Measurements

AUV

• Detecting Localized Changes in Water Quality Associated with Oyster and SAV Restoration Sites (Corsica River)

• Mapping Water Quality in Tidal Creeks and Other VERY Shallow Areas

• 3D Interpolation of Water Quality (AUV in Combination with DataFlow)

• 3D Structure Algal Blooms

AcknowledgementsPartners

A Super Team!• Maryland and Virginia

• Field Operations• Staff, Faculty and

Student Researchers• Data Managers