Research: The Ythan Estuary

Environmental Monitoring of the Estuary

Water Temperatures

A data logger was deployed in the estuary in December 2004. The data logger records the water temperature every 30 minutes and is changed every 3 months. This has provided a set of continuous data from which the daily maximum and minimum water temperatures have been extracted and are presented in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Maximum and minimum daily water temperatures.

Click here to open the Excel chart. Note how the winter minimum temperatures have risen. Is this an indication of climate change or just part of a natural cycle? There is a gap in the data around January 2009 for a few days when the buoy broke free from its moorings.

The position of the buoy to which the data logger is attached in relation to the Boathouse slipway
(N57 19.709 - W1 59.995)

Water Sampling

A sample of water has been taken weekly every Friday since the 7 January 2005 as close to the time of high tide as possible. The samples are taken at the Oceanlab Boathouse slipway from a water depth of approx 1.5m, i.e. the sampler walks down the slipway until the water level is waist high and the sample is taken from over the edge of the slipway.

The sampling site.

For the first 8 months the following parameters were analysed, 1) Salinity, 2) Phosphate, 3) Nitrate, 4) Ammonia and 5) Silicate. However, the sampling for Salinity has continued weekly up the the current date September 2008) and is still ongoing. The Salinity levels up to January 2007 are displayed in Figure 2. This figure will be updated when the most recent analysis becomes available.

The analysis for Parameters 2 to 5 above stopped after the 8 August 2005 and the results are shown in Figures 3.

Figure 2. Salinity

Figure 3. Phosphate, Nitrate, Ammonia and Silicate levels

Acknowledgements

Oceanlab would like to thank the Marine Laboratory Aberdeen for providing the data loggers and for the analysis of the water samples.

A month in the life of the Ythan in 5 minutes

A time-lapse camera was setup in the Oceanlab Boathouse and an image of the estuary was recorded every 3 minutes from 6 June to 8 July 2005. The results of this recoring are shown in the video below.