Stream Temperature Data Collection Standards and Protocol for Alaska

Cook Inletkeeper and collaborators at the Alaska Natural Heritage Program, University of Alaska Anchorage have established minimum standards for stream temperature data collection to generate data useful for regional-scale analyses (see table below). By identifying minimum data standards, our objective is to encourage rapid, but structured, growth in comparable stream temperature monitoring efforts in Alaska that will be used to understand current and future trends in thermal regimes.

Stream Temperature Data Collection Standards and Protocol for Alaska was developed to help the reader understand our justification for selecting, and motivation for establishing, minimum standards for stream temperature data collection.  The protocol that follows provides detailed instructions on implementing these minimum standards. We hope that this project will encourage data collection efforts that will be useful for understanding current and future temperature trends in Alaska’s freshwater systems.

In 2015, Stream temperature data collection standards for Alaska: Minimum standards to generate data useful for regional-scale analyses was published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.

You can learn more about water temperature monitoring efforts in Alaska at the Alaska Online Aquatic Temperature Site (AKOATS), which is a comprehensive statewide inventory of current and historic continuous monitoring locations for stream and lake temperature.

Minimum data collection standards for regional analysis of stream thermal regimes.
Data Logger	Accuracy	±0.25oC
	Measurement range	-4o to 37oC (24o to 99oF)
Data Collection	Sampling frequency	1 hour interval
	<p">Sampling period/duration	1 calendar month
Quality Assurance and Quality Control	Accuracy checks	water bath at two temperatures: 0oC and 20oC before and after field deployment to verify logger accuracy (varies ≤ 0.25oC compared with a NIST-certified thermometer)
	Site selection	five measurements across the stream width to verify that the site is well-mixed (i.e. varies ≤ 0.25oC)
	Data evaluation	remove erroneous data from the dataset
Data Storage	File formats	CSV format in 2 locations
	Metadata	unique site identifier agency/organization name and contact datum, latitude and longitude sample frequency stored with temperature data
	Sharing	quality-controlled hourly data

Support for this effort was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative.