WATERSHED MONITORING IN ACADIA NATIONAL PARK: PRELIMINARY RESULTS BASED ON THREE YEARS OF DATA COLLECTED ACROSS MULTIPLE WATERSHEDS

Continuous stream discharge measurements enable us to explore the hydrologic processes within a watershed at a range of scales, from the entire drainage basin to a single stream reach or even an indirect location such as beach or near-shore environment. These data are important to support many resource management decisions. Previous and ongoing streamflow monitoring and water quality sampling has been conducted on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) by the national park service, USGS, and other local and regional researchers. These groups have monitored streams for various reasons including assessment of drinking water quality, watershed-scale studies, conservation projects, and also strictly for educational purposes. A single active USGS streamflow gage operates on the island on Otter Creek. During the past three years, stream discharge monitoring stations were installed along streams within some of the other major drainage basins of MDI: Duck Brook, Breakneck Brook, Stanley Brook, Jordan Stream, Cromwell Brook, and Kebo Brook in order to establish a baseline dataset of stream discharge. The monitoring stations are a collaborative effort with College of the Atlantic, Friends of Acadia, and Acadia National Park. Faculty, staff, and student interns have participated in the establishment, maintenance, and data collection at these monitoring stations and the equipment used has evolved throughout the monitoring period. Preliminary discharge data collected during ~May-Sept 2016-2018 from each watershed allows us to look with higher resolution at the seasonal and annual fluxes in discharge across the island. Further, when coupled with water chemistry data, the local precipitation record, and existing spatial datasets (e.g. permeability, lithology, soils, vegetation, land-use) we can isolate some watershed specific characteristics and temporal variations, often related to human activities within the watershed. We will present on data from multiple watersheds collected during a specific period in the summer months. During this period, we captured a precipitation event in which we targeted one watershed for water quality sampling throughout the storm event.