Description: Monitoring water quality as it relates to potential visitor use impacts began in 2004 and focuses on the areas of heaviest visitation on the Tuolumne and Merced Wild and Scenic Rivers. Sample sites were located to capture changes to the respective river's water quality as it passed through an area and, as such, are generally upstream and downstream of use areas. Components of water quality evaluated at sites include the field parameters of water and air temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and specific conductivity as well as laboratory parameters such as total dissolved nitrogen, nitrate plus nitrite, total phosphorous, total dissolved phosphorous, E. coli, and total petroleum hydrocarbons.
Copyright Text: NPS, Yosemite National Park, Resources Management and Science, Physical Sciences and Landscape Ecology