Processing data streams from an instrumented small pond: visualizing processes and properties
Abstract
It is estimated that there are 0.5 million man-made ponds and 277 million natural ponds (order 100mx100m) worldwide. These ponds offer stock watering and irrigation opportunities, stormwater runoff mitigation, suspended sediment control and some degree of contaminant sequestration. Such ponds are also typically associated with first and second order streams and thus represent a primary biogeochemical and hydrologic control on uplands watersheds. We have developed an in situ instrument (BORIS) that profiles ponds (six levels) on the half-hour timescale using off the shelf components to investigate the fundamental variability and controls on pond biogeochemical processes. The instrument provides standard measures of temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and specific conduction, etc. and data are streamed directly to a website with as little as 0.5hr delay. Standard data stream presentation indicates that daily stratification/destratification, random rainfall events and variable weather contribute to significant changes in water quality measures and exert strong controls on the pond processing of terrestrial organic material and (primarily) recycled nutrients. However, the data stream can also be presented as gas-exchange-corrected total CO2 and total O2 that quantify net ecosystem productivity, minimum microbial carbon metabolism and process vectors that reflect in situ redox controls and microbial decomposition pathways. Because of their high temporal and spatial sampling capability, instrumented shallow aquatic systems, even at a simple level, can be used to fundamentally change the means by which we view process geochemistry of hydrologic systems and can provide near real time (<0.5hr) indicators to guide specific water column sampling and collection strategies.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.H51D0505B
- Keywords:
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- 0428 Carbon cycling (4806);
- 0438 Diel;
- seasonal;
- and annual cycles (4227);
- 0458 Limnology (1845;
- 4239;
- 4942);
- 1834 Human impacts;
- 1848 Monitoring networks