San GabrielRiver Watershed Monitoring Manual

Freshwater and Marine Team Field Guide

Produced for “Friends of the San GabrielRiver”

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 LandscapeArchitectureCaliforniaStatePolytechnicUniversity, Pomona

The Design Team Studio Principals

Mark Abramson Jeffrey Olson,ASLA

Chris Padick Joan Safford, ASLA

Eileen Takata-Schueman Kristina Starman, ASLA

Gerald Taylor 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 CaliforniaStateUniversity, 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 GabrielRiver 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