Quality Control and Management of Continuous, High-Frequency, Biogeochemical Sensors 

Duration: 9 am - 2:30 pm | Cost: $50 (includes boxed lunch)
Workshop Capacity: 30 participants
Lead Conveners:  Yoana Voynova, Corey Koch, Douglas Wilson

There is increasing availability and use of continuous, high-frequency, and automated instruments for monitoring and studying biogeochemical cycles in estuarine, coastal, and marine settings. Maintenance, calibration and establishment of precision of instruments and systems, as well as quality control, verification, validation, and management of data streams remain significant hurdles for the user community. This workshop, for current and future users of this type of instrumentation, will focus on instrumental operations, operating procedures, and will include site-specific procedures developed to improve data reliability, quality and utility in contrasting settings.

The workshop will examine subjects like data validation using discrete samples, turbidity interference for optical measurements, choices of antifouling and cleaning procedures used in different ecosystems. The workshop will also discuss automated procedures for the quality control of data. The goal is to generate community discussions and develop collaborations between the user community and instrument developers to address quality assessment questions that have been encountered in the community. Another goal is to transfer procedures and best practices developed by the current user community to existing and future users in order to standardize practices across various ecosystems and applications. 

Workshop Location (Approximate)

189 S 1st Street
Washougal, WA 98671

Workshop Agenda

 9 - 9:45 am | Agenda and Goals Introduction

• Slideshow and Coffee: different systems, environments, and fouling modes.
• Field site characteristics and differences: impacts of turbidity, fouling issues, frequency of servicing; what have we learned?
• Methods for instrument calibration and validation.

 9:45 - 12 pm | Field trip –25 min transit each way provided

• Saturn-08, a CMOP land-ocean biogeochemical observatory (LOBO) with a suite of biogeochemical parameters
• Eulerian vs. Lagrangian characteristics of the measurements.
• Utility and drawbacks of simultaneously measuring several parameters.
• Getting dirty: a practical discussion of fouling, cleaning, useful tools and techniques.
• If weather is inclement we have an indoor hands-on activity planned

12 - 1 pm Lunch –provided, please contact lead conveners (listed at top of page) and notify them if you require special dietary accommodations (vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.)

1 - 3 pm Topics and Panel discussion

• Discussion of the importance of measuring the carbonate system accurately and precisely parameters.
• Panel with experts to focus on what we can do to ensure best data quality.
• High precision pH/alkalinity sensors
• Optical sensors and potential issues identified
• Optical vs. laboratory/wet-chemical methods
• Fluorescence sensors, nitrate, phosphate sensors
• Large network users (ex. USGS) vs individual users (researchers) and how to handle instrument checks, calibration and data management.