Participatory science methods to monitor water quality and ground truth remote sensing of the Chesapeake Bay

Measurements by volunteer scientists using participatory science methods in combination with high resolution remote sensing can improve our ability to monitor water quality changes in highly vulnerable and economically valuable nearshore and estuarine habitats. In the Chesapeake Bay (USA), tidal tributaries are a focus of watershed and shoreline management efforts to improve water quality. The Chesapeake Water Watch program seeks to enhance the monitoring of tributaries by developing and testing methods for volunteer scientists to easily measure chlorophyll, turbidity, and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) to inform Bay stakeholders and improve algorithms for analogous remote sensing (RS) products. In the program, trained volunteers have measured surface turbidity using a smartphone app, HydroColor, calibrated with a photographer’s gray card. In vivo chlorophyll and CDOM fluorescence were assessed in surface samples with hand-held fluorometers (Aquafluor) located at sample processing “hubs” where volunteers drop off samples for same day processing. In validation samples, HydroColor turbidity and Aquafluor in vivo chlorophyll and CDOM fluorescence were linear estimators of standard analytical measures of turbidity, chlorophyll and CDOM, respectively, with R2 values ranging from 0.65 to 0.85. Updates implemented in a new version (v2) of HydroColor improved the precision of estimates. These methods are being used for both repeat sampling at fixed sites of interest and ad-hoc “blitzes” to synoptically sample tributaries all around the Bay in coordination with satellite overpasses. All data is accessible on a public database (serc.fieldscope.org) and can be a resource to monitor long-term trends in the tidal tributaries as well as detect and diagnose causes of events of concern such as algal blooms and storm-induced reductions in water clarity.