ARCN Arctic Lagoons Monitoring Database Export, 2025-5-16

The National Park Service (NPS) Arctic Network (ARCN) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program monitors physical and natural resources in the National Park lands of Alaska including Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park and Noatak National Preserve. Lagoon Communities and Ecosystems is one of the systems chosen by ARCN for long term scientific monitoring in the Parks. I&M has committed to the highest ideals of data quality by monitoring natural systems in the same way, year after year according to published protocols with the goal of providing reliable scientific information to Park managers . The heart of the data management system for the Lagoon Communities and Ecosystems monitoring program is a Microsoft SQL Server relational database which allows Arctic Network to meet its paramount duty: assuring the security, accessibility and longevity of the monitoring data into the future. In May, 2025 Arctic Network anticipates reductions in the federal work force that threaten the continued support and maintenance of this database. Consequently, Arctic Network is immediately publishing a snapshot of the Lagoon Communities and Ecosystems monitoring database as an emergency step in assuring the data remain available to the public despite the uncertainty of I&M’s future.

Data Quality

The data records in this release are provided ‘as-is’.

Inventory and Monitoring data typically goes through a value-adding life cycle where data are collected, processed for quality, validated and then certified for analytical use. Under ideal circumstances I&M policy is to only publish fully certified and documented datasets. Due to the urgency with which these data are being published the user should recognize that some or all of the records in this data release may not have been shepherded through all quality control steps, and may or may not contain accurate indicators of quality. Central Alaska Network is publishing data of unconstrained quality in the belief that it will serve the public interest more than withholding the data entirely.

Some databases contain a CertificationLevel column for each record describing its quality. Table 2 lists the CertificationLevels and their definitions. The database tables described in this report may, or may not have the CertificationLevel column and may contain other metadata columns containing data quality ratings. In such cases look for documentation in each CSV data file’s accompanying metadata file.

Table 2. Data quality indicator columns.

CertificationLevel Description
Raw Data as transcribed from field measurements, downloaded from logger files or otherwise received with no quality control processing applied.
Provisional Data that have received quality control processing and been validated for provisional internal use, but have not yet been certified by the project leader.
Certified Analytical quality.

Methods

Methods are described in the monitoring protocol:

Jones T, Apsens S, Miller S, Robards M. 2018. Coastal lagoons vital signs monitoring protocol for the Arctic Network: Volume 1, report narrative, version 1.0. Natural Resource Report. NPS/ARCN/NRR—2018/1824. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2257596

and standard operating procedures:

Jones T. 2017. Coastal Lagoon Vital Signs Monitoring Protocol for the Arctic Network: Standard Operating Procedures Version 1.0. National Park Service https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2310242