Missouri reservoir water quality data from the Statewide Lake Assessment Program (SLAP), the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program (LMVP), and the Reservoir Observer Student Scientists (ROSS) program

This dataset of limnological water quality data continues from Jones et al., 2024, starting in 2017 until 2021. It is from 195 reservoirs, the majority of which are in the state of Missouri (MO) in the USA collected by the University of Missouri Limnology Lab. Water quality parameters analyzed in the MU Limnology Lab during this time frame include: areal pigment absorption coefficient, alkalinity, alpha (light utilization efficiency P-E parameter), ammonium (NH4), ammonium-debt, anatoxin, chlorophyll a (corrected and uncorrected for pheophytins), chloride, cylindrospermopsin, seston d13C, seston d15N, dissolved turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, Ek (light saturation P-E parameter), FVFM (maximum quantum yield of PSII for photochemistry), gross primary production, microcystin, nitrate & nitrite (NO3), nitrate-debt, particulate nitrogen, particulate phosphorus, phosphorus-debt, pheophytin, particulate carbon, particulate inorganic matter, particulate organic matter, phycocyanin (PHYCO), saxitoxin, Secchi disk depth, silica, soluble reactive phosphorus, total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), and urea. Most of the samples were collected during the summer months (May-September) when the reservoirs were thermally stratified, but a few were taken during the rest of the year (October-April). The majority of samples were taken at the deepest point in the reservoir directly up-reservoir of the dam. Sampling was conducted from a boat most of the time, but a few samples were taken from shorelines and drinking water treatment intake pipes. Most of the data come from the Statewide Lake Assessment Project (SLAP) and the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program (LMVP) funded by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. This data represents duplicate or triplicate water samples collected from either the water surface, integrated over the depth of the epilimnion, or from discrete depths in the hypolimnion.