UNCOVERING SEASONAL PATTERNS IN HIGH-FREQUENCY DATA FOR KEY ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS IN A TEMPERATE ESTUARY

The health, quality, and ecological resilience of estuarine and riverine environments are impacted synergistically by a variety of environmental parameters. Changes in abiotic parameters can influence aquatic ecosystems from the bottom up. In this study, we assessed how eight abiotic environmental parameters (water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, salinity, turbidity, wind speed, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and precipitation) have changed over two decades at four sampling stations in the Great Bay Estuary (GBE). These sites are managed under the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). We evaluated long-term trends in daily means and upper 95th and lower 5th percentile data, with a focus on shoulder season dynamics. Our goal was to determine what, if any, significant changes have occurred in GBE that could impact the ecology of the system. We found similar patterns in the rates of change in daily means, upper 95th, and lower 5th percentile data; however, there were different rates of change throughout the year for all parameters. We observed significant increasing trends in water temperature, salinity, pH, and PAR. Conversely, DO, turbidity, and wind speed exhibited decreasing trends. These changes varied by month, highlighting the distinct rates of change among parameters and the importance of breaking down long-term analyses by season.  

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Primary Presenter: Wilton Burns, University of New Hampshire (wiltonburns@gmail.com)

Authors:

Wilton Burns, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire  (Wilton.Burns@unh.edu)

Barbara Spiecker, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire  (Barbara.Spiecker@unh.edu)

Elizabeth Harvey, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire  (Elizabeth.Harvey@unh.edu)

Kalle Matso, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), University of New Hampshire  (Kalle.Matso@unh.edu)

Easton White, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire  (Easton.White@unh.edu)