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Prioritizing Stream Temperature Data Collection to Meet Stakeholder Needs and Inform Regional Analyses

Changes in stream temperature can have significant impacts on water quality and the health and survival of aquatic fish and wildlife. Water managers, planners, and decision makers are in need of scientific data to help them prepare for and adapt to changes and conserve important resources. Scientists are tasked with ensuring that this data is produced in useful formats and is accessible to these stakeholders. In October 2015, project researchers hosted and facilitated a 1.5 day workshop, “Data Storage, Dissemination and Harvesting”, that brought together over 50 stakeholders from state and federal agencies, tribal governments, universities, and non-profit organizations interested in monitoring stream temperature with a particular emphasis on aggregating individual organizational efforts into regional analyses. This workshop built off of previous efforts of a Western Alaska LCC funded project to inventory, store, and display metadata for stream temperature monitoring efforts through the Alaska Online Aquatic Temperature site. Prior to the workshop, the project team developed a semi-structured questionnaire that assessed current data management practices among the stakeholders, their capacity for data management, and the desired capabilities of a data storage and management website. The workshop was used to discuss the results of this survey, assess other stream temperature efforts for application in Alaska, and explore best data management practices to ensure long term sustainability of stream temperature data. The 2015 workshop helped to establish that the stakeholders and science-users in Alaska need an assessment of existing websites that provide various components of data management for stream temperature. The project team is working on this assessment and is also developing a HUC-8 prioritization strategy for stream temperature data collection for the entire state of Alaska based on existing instrumentation and other relevant parameters. This project aims to investigate stakeholder preferences for data management for stakeholders interested in conducting regional analyses of stream temperature data.