San Gabriel River Watershed Monitoring Manual
Freshwater and Marine Team Field Guide
Produced for “Friends of the San Gabriel River”
The following field guide was adapted from The Malibu Creek Watershed Stream Team
Field Guide, with permission from Heal the Bay. The original work was created and
produced by:
The 606 Studio, Department of Landscape Architecture California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona
The Design Team
Studio Principals
Mark Abramson
Chris Padick
Eileen Takata-Schueman
Gerald Taylor
Jeffrey Olson, ASLA
Joan Safford, ASLA
Kristina Starman, ASLA
Joan Woodward, ASLA
The work was then revised by The Southern California Marine Institute (Mark
Abramson, Shelley Luce, Beth Tanner, Kerry Flaherty, and Kathleen Snow). Further
revisions were completed by California State University, Fullerton – Department of
Geological Sciences (W. Richard Laton, Thomas McClain and Mark Zellmer). New
graphics were created by students Rene Perez, Dave Kendall and Nick Napoli. Editing
help was provided by students Mike Blazevic and Veva Ebbs.
Funding has been provided by CALFED and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The following guide was originally developed to help provide a consistent data gathering
protocol manual. For this reason many of the figures and procedures are identical to the
original work. This will help provide citizens, regulators and scientists with the
consistency needed in the data gathering procedures to develop better management
decisions. Please use this manual when ever possible and following the guidelines as
closely as you can. Good Luck and be safe!
San Gabriel River Watershed – Freshwater and Marine
Team Field Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1
Introduction to the Freshwater & Marine Team .............................................................. 1-1
Welcome to the Freshwater & Marine Team ................................................................... 1-1
Why Water Quality Monitoring is Important ................................................................. 1-2
Goal and Objectives of the Program ............................................................................... 1-2
The Inspiration behind the Program ............................................................................... 1-3
What Happens if your Waterbody is Impaired ............................................................... 1-5
How Does Volunteer Monitoring
Help Protect the Water .................................................................................................... 1-5
How You Can Benefit from the Program ....................................................................... 1-5
How to use the Field Guide ............................................................................................. 1-6
Section 2
Watershed, Estuarine, & Marine Processes ..................................................................... 2-1
Defining a Watershed ..................................................................................................... 2-1
The Hydrologic Cycle ..................................................................................................... 2-3
Vegetation ..................................................................................................................... 2-10
Riparian Zone................................................................................................................. 2-11
The Stream Continuum ................................................................................................ 2-13
Erosion and Sedimentation ............................................................................................ 2-16
Estuaries and Lagoon ................................................................................................... 2-18
Near Shore Marine Environments ............................................................................... 2-20
Plankton ......................................................................................................................... 2-21
Section 3
Water Quality Testing .................................................................................................... 3a-1
Purpose.......................................................................................................................... 3a-1
Why Water Chemistry Testing is Important .................................................................. 3a-1
What to Expect When Water Chemistry Testing ........................................................... 3a-2
What to Monitor............................................................................................................. 3a-2
How the Data Can Be Used ........................................................................................... 3a-9
Water Chemistry Testing Procedures ............................................................................ 3b-1
How to Conduct Water Chemistry Testing .................................................................... 3b-3
Site Conditions ............................................................................................................... 3b-3
Air Temperature ............................................................................................................. 3b-3
Turbidity ........................................................................................................................ 3b-4
Transparency (Secchi Disk) ........................................................................................... 3b-6
Color (Forel-Ule) ........................................................................................................... 3b-8
Water Temperature & Dissolved Oxygen Meters
LaMotte D.O. 4000 ........................................................................................................ 3c-1
YSI Model 55 D.O. Meter ............................................................................................. 3c-3
YSI Model 550 D.O. Meter ........................................................................................... 3c-5
YSI Model 85 D.O. Meter ............................................................................................. 3c-7
Measuring D.O. The Winkler Method ........................................................................... 3c-9
pH Testing ...................................................................................................................... 3d-1
Water Temperature & Conductivity Meters
Cole Parmer Con 400 ..................................................................................................... 3d-2
LaMotte Con 5 Meter..................................................................................................... 3d-4
Water Temperature, Conductivity & Salinity Meters
YSI Model 30 ................................................................................................................. 3d-6
YSI Model 85 ................................................................................................................. 3d-8
Salinity
Salt Refractometer ....................................................................................................... 3d-10
Nutrients ....................................................................................................................... 3d-12
Bacteria ........................................................................................................................ 3d-12
Collecting Water Samples
Collecting Water Samples in Shallow Water................................................................. 3e-3
Collecting Water Samples in Concrete Lined Channel ................................................. 3e-6
Collecting Water Samples in Deep Water ..................................................................... 3e-7
Stream Flow ................................................................................................................... 3e-9
Flow Observations in Marine and
Estuarine Environments ............................................................................................... 3e-15
Freshwater Algae Protocol .............................................................................................. 3f-1
Marine Algae .................................................................................................................. 3f-5
Summary ......................................................................................................................... 3f-6
Section 4
References ........................................................................................................................ 4-1
Appendix
1. Field Sheets
2. Equipment Manuals
3.Maps