Tyne Rivers Trust - Adopt a Stream - Chemical data

Dataset Description: Adopt a Tributary – Water Quality Monitoring (North East Rivers, UK) Project Name: Adopt a Tributary Purpose: This dataset was collected as part of a citizen science initiative to monitor water quality in tributaries across North East England. The project supplements statutory monitoring carried out by the Environment Agency (EA), providing broader spatial and temporal coverage of smaller watercourses. ### Data Overview This dataset includes environmental observations and chemical water quality measurements collected at multiple river sites. Volunteers recorded basic weather conditions and used field kits to assess water chemistry and physical characteristics. ─────────────┬─────────────────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────── Category │Variable │Unit │Method ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── Site Metadata│Site Code, Date, Time│— │Recorded by volunteers ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Latitude, Longitude │Decimal degrees │GPS/online mapping tools ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── Weather │Weather Type │Categorical │Visual observation ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │River Flow │Categorical │Visual observation ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── Temperature │Water Temperature │°C │Digital temperature probe ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Air Temperature │°C │Digital temperature probe ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── Chemistry │pH │pH units │LaMotte pH strips (LM2972) ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Phosphate │ppm │LaMotte tablets (LM5892) ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Ammonia │ppm │LaMotte test strips ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Nitrate │ppm │LaMotte strips (LM2996) ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── │Nitrite │ppm │LaMotte strips (LM2996) ─────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────── Physical │Turbidity │Opal Disc Units*│Opal disc + 2L plastic bottle (OPAL method) ─────────────┴─────────────────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────── *Turbidity is recorded using a visual estimate based on an Opal disc placed beneath a 2-litre bottle of sampled water. ### Limitations & Notes * Test Strip Accuracy: The chemical indicators used in this project (particularly for nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia) are based on colorimetric test strips designed for rapid field assessment. While suitable for indicating presence and general concentration trends, these methods are known to have limited precision and sensitivity, especially at low concentrations. Users should interpret these values as semi-quantitative. * Dissolved Oxygen (DO): Dissolved oxygen measurements were initially included using a tablet-based method but were discontinued early in the project. Observations indicated the method produced inconsistent results under field conditions, and data from this test are therefore not included in the dataset. * Zero Values and Data Completeness: Some chemical parameters include zero values, which may represent either true measurements or unrecorded tests. Care has been taken to retain these values to preserve the integrity of the original submissions. Users are encouraged to apply appropriate quality control procedures to distinguish between valid zero readings and potential placeholders. * Citizen Science Context: This dataset was collected by trained volunteers as part of a structured citizen science initiative. While methods were standardized where possible, some variability in technique or conditions may exist. These contributions provide valuable spatial and temporal coverage and complement professional monitoring efforts.