NPS I&M South Florida/Caribbean NetworkMiami, FL
Judd PattersonBrian Witcher
Continuous DataCollection In
Florida and theU.S. Virgin Islands
OverviewOverview
1) What we collect water temperature weather station
2) Access database import wizard data validation
3) Workarounds Excel graphing (VB)
4) Problems size of dataset graphing
improvements
Where We WorkWhere We Work
40 reef temperature
1 weather station4 reef
temperature
2 weather stations4 reef
temperature
10 reef temperature
Water TemperatureWater Temperature
HOBO water temperature loggers on coral reefs
located at 47 reef sites in BISC, BUIS, DRTO, and VIIS
several sites have paired sensors
data point every 2 hours
Yawzi Reef 1988-present
• one of the longest water temperature datasets in the Caribbean
Why we do this…Why we do this…
25
25.5
26
26.5
27
27.5
28
28.5
29
29.5
30
30.5
31
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91
01
11
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91
01
11
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91
01
11
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91
01
11
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91
01
11
2
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Tem
pera
ture
(C
elsi
us)
Historically HOT seawater temps
Source: adapted from Miller et al. 2009
Why we do this…Why we do this…
2005 resulted in massivecoral bleaching and disease…
…and ultimately 60% decline in coral cover in the U.S. Virgin
Islands
Weather StationsWeather Stations
• land-based weather data collection in the USVI and Florida
• full weather station
• storing 9 sensor values
• logging every 10 minutes
• independent rain gauge
• storing 2 sensor values
• logging every 10 minutes
Weather StationsWeather Stations
1.Download data with a HOBO shuttle
Weather StationsWeather Stations
2.Open hobo/dtf and convert to csv
Data Validation WorkflowData Validation Workflow
3.Access database – Import
Weather StationsWeather Stations
3.Access database – Import
Weather StationsWeather Stations
4.Access database – Manual ValidationSpike
• Check suspicious readings with local airport weather
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/TISX/2010/4/14/DailyHistory.html
Flatline
Export/GraphingExport/Graphing
Pick a station, pick a date range, select the export location...
• VB creates appropriate query
• VB creates Excel document from template and loads with query data
WorkaroundsWorkarounds
WorkaroundsWorkarounds
WorkaroundsWorkarounds
Data ForEVERData ForEVER
Remaining IssuesRemaining Issues
1) Size of dataset With each new import a performance hit is
noticeable …inevitable switch to SQL Server on the horizon
2) Graphing Excel is also at its limit when dealing with large
datasets; particularly graphing
Thanks!
Questions?