Field measurement, major ion, and nutrient data for water from the Big Cypress National Preserve

The data catagories include site name, date, time, station ID, record #, agency analyzing sample, agency collecting sample, discharge (daily mean), gage height, lab spec condition, field spec condition, total dissolved solids, water temp, pH (lab and field), and amounts of oxygen, nitrogen and nitrogen compounds, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulfate, calcium, and silica.

Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY) and Everglades National Park (EVER) maintain separate networks of hydrologic monitoring stations (hydrostations) for measuring the stage and quality of surface water throughout their units. The data collected at these sites provides a historical baseline for assessing hydrologic conditions and making a wide range of management decisions (both internally and externally). Surface-water stage data is relatively straight-forward to analyze, both in real time and relative to historic conditions, and has typically been conducted by in-house hydrology staff at both units. Analysis of surface water-quality data is generally regarded as being more complex because of the subtleness of trends, absence of continuous data (bi-monthly for BICY and monthly for EVER), and dependence on surface water depth and season. Collection and analysis of water-quality samples at BICY and EVER are done under cooperative agreements with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). Under these agreements, the Park Service collects the samples in the field and the SFWMD provides sampling equipment and laboratory analyses. EVER has been sampling water quality on a monthly basis at 9 "internal marsh" stations since 1984 as part of this program. BICY has been sampling water quality on a monthly basis at 10 "internal" stations since 1995 as part of this agreement, with water quality data at these sites extending as far back to 1988 (but not as part of the agreement). Water-quality data collected at the BICY and EVER stations has been archived and reported for short-time intervals (yearly and bi-yearly), but an analysis that covers all sampled parameters, extends over the full period of record, and provides comparisons between the two units has yet to be performed. In 2000, a study was begun by the U.S. Geological Survey to gather, edit, and interpret selected water-quality data from a variety of sources to improve the understanding of changes in water-quality in areas impacted by human activities or in more remote and relatively unimpacted areas of the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. One purpose is to look for long-term trends and possibly relate the trends to human or natural influences on water quality such as agriculture, drought, hurricanes, changes in water management, etc. Another purpose is to interpret data from the most remote and unimpacted areas to discern, if possible, what the natural background concentrations are for water-quality constituents that have sufficient data. An attempt will be made to find correlations between available water-quality, physical, and meteorological parameters. Such analyses of water-quality and ancillary data may assist in establishing water-quality standards appropriate for the designation as Outstanding Florida Waters in both the Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress National Preserve. Ancillary data such as precipitation, water-level, water flow, dates of major storms, and beginning and ending dates of water-control effects will be studied to relate their timing to any noticeable changes in water quality.

CURRENTNESS REFERENCE: ground condition

SPATIAL DATA ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
Indirect Spatial Reference: Big Cypress National Preserve
Direct Spatial Reference: Point
SDTS Point and Vector Object Type: Point
Point and Vector Object Count: 5

SPATIAL REFERENCE INFORMATION - GEODETIC MODEL
Horizontal Datum Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid Name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major Axis: 6378137
Denominator of Flattening Ratio: 298.257

NATIVE: Data are provided as Excel spreadsheets.