Upper Athabasca Data is Now Online!
February 8, 2018
We have some very exciting news (which might have already been given away in the title); Mackenzie DataStream now contains data from Alberta! That means that DataStream has data from three of the six jurisdictions that the Mackenzie Basin covers, with more data coming your way soon.
A monitor preparing to collect water, sediment and benthic invertebrate samples from the McLeod River near Edson (from theUATHCBM Site)
Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring Program
The data is coming from a new collaboration with the Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring program. This program collects information from 15 locations in the Athabasca sub-basin, which is the southernmost sub-basin in the Mackenzie River Basin.
Map of all the Data Collecting Sites (from theUATHCBM Site)
Grab Data that was collected from both 2015 and 2016 are now accessible on our site (with 2013 and 2014 data coming in the future). If you don’t know what grab data is, here is the definition from our site:
A grab water sample is collected just below the surface of the water and tells us what is in the water at the time it is collected. In the lab the samples are analyzed for 75 parameters including pH, turbidity, conductivity, chlorophyll-a and total and dissolved metals.
As a volunteer, self funded effort, the Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring program has grown each year from two sites and two volunteers in 2013 to fifteen sites and about fifteen sampling volunteers in 2016. Assuming resources are available to cover their major expense, including accredited laboratory analysis of samples, you can expect to see more sites added in 2017.
To see results from the Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring program check out Mackenzie DataStream, or read more in their community based monitoring report from both 2015 and 2016.
Who is collecting the data?
The Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring program involves volunteers from three local stewardship groups: The Green Foundation of Edson, the Central Athabasca Stewardship Society of Fort Assiniboine and the Tawatinaw Watershed Stewards of Tawatinaw.
Thanks to the hard work of Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring Program and their volunteers, everyone now have access to these important datasets.
From the DataStream team, we would like to provide a BIG welcome to the Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring Program!
The Upper Athabasca Community Based Monitoring program depends on the generosity of donors. If you are interested in finding out more contact uathcbm(at)gmail.com
DataStream now has data from the southern reaches of the Basin all the way to the north! But there is still lots more data that needs to be made openly available, if you are interested in providing or helping communities bring their data online please contact us.
A week at the International Association for Great Lakes Research Conference
In May, the DataStream team gathered in Toronto for the 66th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, hosted by the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR).
Meet our team: Lilian Tran
As part of our ongoing staff feature series, we are thrilled to profile DataStream’s Operations Coordinator, Lilian Tran!
National Lake Blitz makes citizen science a cinch
In 2021, Living Lakes Canada launched the National Lake Blitz. The water stewardship organization had two goals: to help track the impact of climate change on Canada’s lakes and to make it easy for everyone to get involved in water monitoring, no matter their age or experience.