Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program

Long Term Resource Monitoring

Water Quality

Methods for Fixed-site Sampling

Water quality sampling procedures are described in detail in the LTRMP Procedures Manual (Soballe and Fischer 2004). Additional documentation is contained within the annual status reports (e.g., Pool 8) produced by each field station for the period 1993-1996. The following is a brief overview of the methods deployed by the Water Quality component of the LTRM element.

Sampling with a fixed-site design began in 1989 in the six study reaches of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). Locations of these sampling sites include tributaries and the main stem of the UMRS. The tributary sites provide monitoring of inputs to the system, whereas the sites within the river offer a chance to determine conditions between the episodic seasonal sampling of the SRS design.

Design Changes

Changes in parameters measured, sample size, frequency of sampling and information on gaps in fixed-site data can be found in a Table 3 (Table 4 contains acronyms).