Lava Beds National Monument - Water Quality

Due to the lack of surface water in the monument, water quality monitoring at Lava Beds is limited to ice cave resources. Water quality indicators that are monitored include pH, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, ammonia nitrogen, free carbon dioxide, nitrite nitrogen, hardness and chloride. Climatic influences affect ice cave development and ice level fluctuation. Monitoring is also conducted on ice level fluctuation over time. Data from this project is correlated with climate data to better understand how ice caves are affected by the changes in climate.