The MYSound project: Building an estuary-wide monitoring network for Long Island Sound, U.S.A.

A network of five water quality monitoring stations has been established in Long Island Sound, measuring temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen since 1999. The stations are located in areas of extreme water quality degradation (western Long Island Sound) as well as in pristine areas (eastern Long Island Sound). The data from these stations are collected every 15 minutes and posted to the project web site in real time as provisional data. After subsequent quality assurance procedures, the data are archived to the project File Transfer Protocol (FSP) site for downloading by the user community. The network of stations is in part supported logistically by a number of partners, including state and local agencies, schools, and non-governmental organizations. Data from the monitoring programs of some of these partners are also published to the project website providing a more comprehensive and complete picture of the status of the Sound than can be provided independently. This repository of information is used by marine educators, resource managers, scientists, and the general public, each with a different end purpose. We use the data from two of the stations to show that these high frequency time series measurements can be used to complement and enhance other monitoring programs within the Sound, documenting in greater detail the occurrence and duration of hypoxic events.