water table

Marsh water table height, logging data from the Shad Creek Spartina marsh site for May-October 2017, Rowley, MA, PIE LTER.

Abstract: 

Measurements of water table height in the Shad Creek marsh, Rowley, MA, located near the Shad Creek eddy flux tower. Measurements were taken every 5 minutes at each logger along a transect of water level loggers running perpendicular to the Shad creek stream bank, MAR-RO-Wtable-Shad for May - October 2017.

Data set ID: 

517

Keywords: 

Short name: 

MAR-RO-Wtable-Shad-2017

Data sources: 

MAR-RO-Wtable-Shad-2017_csv
MAR-RO-Wtable-Shad-2017_xls

Methods: 

A transect of wells is established on the marsh platform, perpendicular to the marsh edge.  A total of 4 wells are dug to the depth of the water table under the marsh platform.  Wells S101 to S104 are spaced approximately evenly within the first 2m of marsh edge .  A water level logger, referred to as the tide gauge, (Onset HOBO U20 series) is placed in the creek near the bottom slightly offset from the transect (~8m East and 0.5m from the creek edge).  This offset is needed to protect the logger from boat traffic. Individual water level loggers (Onset HOBO U20 series) are used in each well and they measure water height in terms of absolute pressure.  Barometric pressure is measured above ground with an additional Onset HOBO U20 series water level logger to tease out the atmospheric pressure from water column pressure.  Prior to deployment, each water level logger is sealed in protective plastic whirl-pak bags filled with freshwater, and calibrated to known water depths.  Once in the field, water height measurements, in terms of absolute pressure, are recorded every 5 minutes.  Pressure readings are uploaded from the HOBO water level loggers using HOBOware software which compensates for temperature, fluid density, and barometric pressure, then are converted to absolute water height above the river bottom.  Data is QA/QC'd to ensure that the loggers report the same flood water elevation on the marsh surface. The surface elevation of the marsh as measured by the marsh water level loggers must match that of the gps'd surface elevation.  Any corrections made to a particular logger data field (logger # Dc (m)) are reported in the Offset corr field (Offset corr logger # (m)).  Shad Creek is completely dry at low tide.

 

Well Location Information:

Logger                Well           Height of Marsh Surface Above Creek Bottom (m)        Horizontal Distance Upland of Creek Edge (m)

tide gauge        Nref                                  0                                                                                                 0.23

1                        S101                            0.969                                                                                             0.00

2                        S102                            0.985                                                                                             0.20                                                                 

3                        S103                            0.955                                                                                             0.56                                        

4                        S104                            0.908                                                                                             1.01                  

 

Logger 7 tide gauge located near river bottom.

Marsh wells S101, S102, S103 and S104 move from water edge into the marsh platform.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:
Due to occasional equipment malfunction, readings are not continuous throughout the field season.  Times in EST.

The GPS survey undertaken for the 2017 field season was flawed.  As a result the 2017 GPS marsh elevations were approximately 0.35m higher than they should have been.  I used GPS data from 2018 (taken at the same sites) to back calculate the marsh for 2017.  Because the reference logger is in a different place each year I used the 2017 GPS data and subtracted 0.348 to recalculate its position.  Additional details of these corrections can be found in the individual files from 2017.

Maintenance: 

new data for 2017, collection done

Version 01: August 3, 2019, data and metadata updates to comply with importation to DEIMS7 and LTER Data Portal. Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007_Jun2019.xlsm 6/7/19 12:58 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - water table