National Park Service

Five-year Review and Recommendations for Revision of Aquatic Sampling Protocols at Buffalo National River and Ozark National Scenic Riverways (Natural Resource Report Nps / Htln / Nrr?2012/563) National Park Service

This document reports on analyses and other efforts to evaluate various aspects of the monitoring protocols relevant to the big river parks, and serves as an administrative history and record of decisions made during the revision process. The primary purpose of this report is to document evaluation of potential changes to the monitoring of fish and aquatic invertebrates at BUFF and OZAR. Changes that have been considered include sampling fewer sites, sampling less frequently, collecting fewer invertebrate samples per site, collecting data on fewer habitat variables, and not collecting data on fish lengths and weights. Based on this review, recommendations are made for revising the protocols associated with sampling and analysis of data from the big river systems of BUFF and OZAR.