PWSK’s Citizen Environmental
Monitoring program (CEMP) strives to have social merit,
educational and scientific rigor and to promote environmental
stewardship. Using appropriate scientific protocols, community
participants are directly involved in data collection and production
of knowledge about environmental conditions. This information can be
shared across communities for a cohesive Sound-wide awareness
and understanding, and applied to decision making processes.
In
2008, PWSK, in partnership with the Prince William Sound Science
Center, launched a harbor monitoring pilot program with 5th grade
students. Participants were introduced to visual monitoring exercises
and collection of water quality data, such as pH, salinity and water
temperature; and visited the Cordova harbor monthly during the school
year to collect water quality data and make observations concerning
petroleum contamination, marine debris, and presence of biological
species in the harbor. This information is being used in conjunction
with PWSK’s Clean Harbors Clean Boating program to demonstrate the
impacts of commercial and recreational boating on the environment.
The goal is to expand this program across all five communities in the
Sound to link/leverage the data and build a Sound-wide awareness of
water quality issues.
Prince William Soundkeeper trains adult
CEMP participants to deploy stream temperature data loggers in order
to establish baseline data
regarding the possible impacts of climate
change on the ecosystem. Water temperature influences virtually every
biotic component of stream ecosystems and is crucial in maintaining
stream ecosystem health. For salmon specifically, temperature affects
survivorship of eggs and fry, rate of respiration and metabolism,
timing of migration, resistance to disease and pollution, and
availability of oxygen and nutrients. Despite the association between
warm water temperatures and reduced salmonid survivorship, there are
only inconsistent, long-term water temperature data sets for salmon
streams in Alaska. The Pacific Salmon Coast Salmon Recovery Fund
identified baseline water quality data in Prince William Sound as a
high priority information need. Without such basic information, it is
impossible to gauge the health of salmon habitats and resources, and
equally difficult to develop management responses to improve
watershed resiliency to change.
PWSK’s Eyak Lake
Community Monitoring Project (ELCMP), also in collaboration with the
Prince William Sound Science Center, is a three-year study of water
quality and seasonal variation in beginning in 2009. Eyak Lake was
selected as a monitoring site because it provides critical spawning
and rearing habitat for Pacific salmon, which are an important
natural resource and a keystone species in the ecosystem that may be
threatened by climate change and increased human activities. The Eyak
Lake Community Monitoring Project is designed to engage community
members and students in long-term ecosystem research to increase
their understanding of the ecosystem upon which the region’s
traditional subsistence lifestyle and commercial fishery depend; and
to involve them in a practical, place-based application of the
scientific method. ELCMP participants are trained to collect
hydrologic data such as water temperature, turbidity, total suspended
solids, pH, and dissolved oxygen measurements. Nitrogen and
phosphorus will also be monitored to detect changes in nutrient
levels in Eyak Lake. In addition to collecting water quality baseline
data, climate and weather data is also being monitored. Climate and
weather ultimately affects water quality. Daily weather observations
are recorded and student participants are engaged in a synthesis of
historical climate data and data analysis to possibly show climate
linkages with salmon escapement data.
ELCMP will produce
a model of community-based research and an educational curriculum
that can be applied in other communities, as well as provide quality
baseline data that will be use to future researchers to assess
seasonal variation and the effects of ecosystem changes as a result
of climate change on juvenile salmon rearing habitat.