DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14015325
title: Salinity variation with water level in shallow lakes

description: This dataset and associated R code describes water level and salinity data collected by the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions and its predecessors as part of the South-West Wetland Monitoring Program (SWWMP). SWWMP measured 152 lakes on multiple occassions between 1977 - 2019. The R code presents analyses of this data and associated groundwater quality and streamflow. The dataset consists of the following:

Water_Data.csv

A comma delimited ascii file containing the following columns of data.

Code: A string denoting the lake identifier.

Date: dd/mm/yyyy

Depth (m): Lake water depth, relative to its deepest point.

Salinity (ppt): g/L estimated from electrical conductivity measurments. 

Salinity_variation_shallow_lakes.R

An R script for the analysis and interpreation of salinity vs water level data, utilising the data files included here.

Dulbinning_StageDischarge.csv

A comma delimited ascii file containing the following columns of data.

Date,Depth (m),Salinity (mg/L)

Date: dd/mm/yyyy

Depth (m): Lake water depth, relative to its deepest point.

Salinity (mg/L):  Stream salinity.

Q (Ml/day): Daily discharge from Department of Water and Environmental Regualtion stream gauge.

EC (uS/cm): Stream electrical conductivity.

d: Adjusted lake depth (m) relative to threshold depth at which streamflow is initiated.

Q: Stream discharge (ML/day)

SiteSummary.xlsx

A Microsoft excel file with four sheets.

Sheet 1: Data, containing the following columns.

Code: A string denoting the lake identifier.

Name: A string. The full lake name.

Reserve_Name: A string. The full name of the nature reserve (if any) containing the lake.

Easting: UTM easting in meters.

Northing: UTM northing in meters.

Zone: UTM zone.

Longitude: decimal degrees.

Latitude: decimal degrees.

Bathy_Beta: Bathymetry exponent.

StreamOutflow Level (m): estimate of level (relative to lake bottom) stream outflow is inititiated from bathymetry data.

Lake Overflow level (m): estimate of level (relative to lake bottom) lake overtops its banks.

model: prior expectation of the pattern of salinity variation with water level as estimated visually from the data.

Soil_types: String describing the soil classes adjacent the lake described by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

Inflow stream: Whether a stream geomorphic feature was seen in aerial imagery flowing into the lake and its type, None if no stream seen, perrenial if observed as wide and full of water, ephemeral if a dry stream feature with riparian vegetation seen.

Outflow stream: Whether a stream geomorphic feature was seen in aerial imagery flowing from the lake and its type, None if no stream seen, perrenial if observed as wide and full of water, ephemeral if a dry stream feature with riparian vegetation seen.    Outflow DWER gauge: Department of Water and Environmental Regulation stream gauge identifier.

Aridity: ratio of annual potentia evaporation to annual rainfall.

P_ann: Annual rainfall in mm.

E_ann: Annual potential evaporation in mm.

 

Sheet 2: Data Description is a briefer version of the data description for Sheet 1 as detailed above.

 

Sheet 3: BEVE n-Q

Lake water level data from Lake Beverly and DWER gauged streamflow at the outlet of Lake Beverly.

 

Sheet 4: STAT n-Q

Lake water level data from Station Lake and DWER gauged streamflow at the outlet of Station Lake.