Assessing redesigned effectiveness of the water quality monitoring program in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida

1. In 1996, the long-term water quality monitoring network (WQMN) program in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) of the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) that began in 1988 was redesigned to eliminate statistically redundant sampling and satisfy modeling requirements. 2. Methods, procedures, and equipment were standardized across multi-agency monitoring partners to produce reliable and comparable data. The redesigned strategy also included elements to determine previously unknown quantities such as differences in water quality parameters with depth and tidal cycle. 3. Reduction of sampling sites from 150 to 24 resulted in a significant improvement of standard deviation (t-test; alpha = 0.05) for most water qualify parameters analysed. The enhancement in data quality has demonstrated a more cost-effective and efficient monitoring tool to measure the water quality of the seagrass environment in the IRL. 4. Results supported the view of a well-mixed condition at the sampling stations on most days. Refocusing and streamlining the water quality monitoring program within the context of its mission would enable conversion of data into meaningful information regarding the interrelationship among water quality, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and seagrass PAR requirements. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.