mean | McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER

Abstract:

As part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, a systematic sampling program has been undertaken to monitor the glacial meltwater streams in that region. This table contains data pertaining to means obtained from continuously monitored water quality and quantity parameters. Measurements were taken from automatic recording devices on streams in this region. This dataset contains daily means for the stream gage measurements during the period 1969-1997.

LTER Core Areas:

disturbance

Dataset ID:

10

Short name:

strmmean.dat

Locations:

Adams Stream at Weir

Aiken Creek at F5

Andersen Creek at H1

Bartley East at Weir

Bartley Stream at flume

Bartley West at Weir

Canada Stream at F1

Clark Stream at Lower Wright

Commonwealth Stream at C1

Crescent Stream at F8

Delta Stream at F10

Garwood Stream at Lake Colleen

Green Creek at F9

Harnish Creek Tributary at F11

House Stream at H2

Huey Creek at F2

Lawson Creek at B3

Lost Seal Stream at F3

Lyons Creek at B4

Lower Miers Stream at Weir

Upper Miers Stream at flume

Onyx River at Lower Wright Weir

Mat at Onyx River at Vanda

Priscu Stream at B1

Santa Fe Stream at B2

Von Guerard Stream at F6

Upper Victoria River at lake outlet

Data sources:

strmmean

Methods:

All mean daily flows were computed inside ADAPS on data developed for the 'discrete_stream_gage' table, as daily mean values for discharge, water temperature, and conductivity. If there is a significant amount of data missing in a day, ADAPS will not compute a mean daily estimate for that day. The data is retrieved from ADAPS. Estimates of daily values are made for periods of missing flows, in general. A quality code is assigned to each parameter for each day. A type code is assigned to each instance of discharge (estimated or measured). The data is converted to a format that can be uploaded into ORACLE. The resulting data is uploaded into ORACLE, as well as the McMurdo LTER database.

Maintenance:

The mean_daily_stream table was created by Harry House in early 1994. It was first stored in an INGRES database, but was converted to ORACLE format in early 1996. Modifications were generally made each year after the initial creation in the early part of the year. It was transferred to INSTAAR in late 1997.

Additional information:

Data collected prior to the 1993-1994 season, when the McMurdo Long-Term Ecological Research began, does not necessarily contain information for all of the sites or variables collected in subsequent years.