STREAM TRANSECT COORDINATE LIST

Acceptance and utilization of LTER data requires that:

• the Principal Investigator be sent a notice stating reasons for acquiring any data and a description of the publication intentions.
• The Principal Investigator of the data set be sent a copy of the report or manuscript prior to submission and be adequately cited in any resultant publications.
• A copy of any resultant publications should be sent to the McMurdo data manager at:
  as well as the Principal Investigator. For a list of MCM LTER Principal Investigators.

FILE NAME: strmutm.datData File (Comma Delimited Ascii Format)
strmutm.txtData File (MS-DOS Text Format).

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Diane McKnight
Address:INSTAAR, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder CO, 80309-0450
Phone:(303)492-4687
E-Mail:mcknight@snobear.colorado.edu

OTHERS: Gordon Shupe

KEYWORDS: stream, transect, northing, easting, orthometric height

ABSTRACT: As part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, a systematic sampling program has been undertaken to monitor glacial meltwater stream attributes of the region. Optical topographic surveys were performed to produce a layout of the area studied. This file provides the northing, easting, and orthometric heights for points in the transects where such work was performed.

VARIABLES: dataset code, strmtrnptid, transect, location, basin, date/time, point ID, UTM northing (m), UTM easting (m), orthometric height (m), point description

RESEARCH LOCATION: Study areas were located in the Taylor Valley of southern Victoria Land, Antarctica (in the western coast of the Ross Sea at 77^oS). Latitudes and longitudes of the transects can be found in the Stream Transect Locations file. Maps of the following stream transects and surrounding areas are now available (click on the location desired):

• Andersen creek near gage
• Bowles Creek near gage
• Canada stream near gage
• Delta stream at gage
• Green Creek above gage
• House creek near gage
• Huey creek near gage
• Lawson creek near gage
• Delta stream at upper site
• Von Guerard stream at gage

METHODS: Transects were established on Taylor Valley streams during January, 1994. By performing an optical topographic survey, the northing, easting, and orthogonal heights were documented for the points along these transects.

TIMING: One-time only measurements.

CITATIONS: Alger, A.S., D.M. McKnight, S.A. Spaulding, C.M. Tate, G.H. Shupe, K.A. Welch, R. Edwards, E.D. Andrews, and H.R. House, 1997, Ecological Processes in a Cold Desert Ecosystem: The Abundance and Species Distribution of Algal Mats in Glacial Meltwater Streams in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Occasional Paper No. 51, 107p.

COMMENTS: Datum (3D) is ITRF-91.
Grid coordinates are UTM Zone -58.
Heights are modelled orthometric, OSU91A Geoid.

Some points present in the original observations have been omitted for plotting purposes. The original point ID numbers (as chronologically observed) have been retained for the record. These non-consecutive ID's have been preserved in the ARC files as well. Most of the omitted points were redundant (reobservation of the same point) and served no display purpose. Some of the omitted points were gage features which may be of interest, but fell outside the area covered by the plots. (see Stream Feature Coordinates file.)

STATUS: Public Access (Type 1).

VARIABLE DESCRIPTION:  

variable	type	description	units	missing value indicator	minimum	maximum	precision
Dataset code	Text	Code representing stream transect coordinate dataset	None	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
strmtrnptid	Text	Code for point within a given stream transect	None	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
transect	Number	Transect number of location	None	Null	n/a	n/a	n/a
location	Text	Area of stream / name of transect where samples are drawn	None	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
Basin	Text	Lake or oceanic body that stream drains into	None	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
Date/time	Date	Date/time measurements were made (McMurdo time)	MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MM	Required entry	01/01/1994 00:00	12/31/2004 23:59	MM (minutes)
Point ID	Number	Identification point assigned within the stream transect	None	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
UTM northing (m)	Number	Northing coordinates of point within transect	meters	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
UTM easting (m)	Number	Easting coordinates of point within transect	meters	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
Orthometric height (m)	Number	Orthometric height of point within transect	meters	Required entry	n/a	n/a	n/a
Point Description	Text	Description of point being documented	None	Null	n/a	n/a	n/a

LOG: Data was collected and organized by Gordon Shupe. While preparing the data for submission, the following additions & changes to the descriptor field were made:

• The descriptor field contains nearly all the original data as recorded in the field, with the exception of some very minor edits. Mostly these were housekeeping to correct typos. This was kept to a minimum and done only where necessary to enable accurate indexing for searches and symbol assignments. Occasional inconsistencies in spelling/abbreviation of the feature types were left intact.
• Two systematic additions to the original descriptors were made as follows for plotting purposes: The prefix "T" was added to all points along the transect line, and a separate column containing the sample number added to all sample points. These changes resulted in some descriptors exceeding the 16 character limit as existed in the field data.
• Site #2 includes four algae sample points (58-91) whose type was not recorded in the field. According to field notes by Cathy Tate, the samples taken at these points were embedded in small rock fragments and these rock pieces were collected. The notation "rck sam" was added to the descriptor for these points. This allowed the ARC plot symbol for red algae to be used in the ARC plots, due to the selection keyword "algae r". Please note that in this one case the symbol does not indicate algae type.

After making these adjustments, the data was sent to Diane McKnight and Denise Steigerwald to include in the McMurdo Dry Valley stream database. It was initially entered into the Microsoft Access relational database. Ascii, comma delimited and MS-DOS text files were exported from Access to generate the 'strmutm.dat' and 'strmutm.txt' data files used on the web page.

In July 2000, dataset code and location code (strmtrnptid) fields were added. This would simplify generating links between different data & metadata fields and assist in making the data more relational / useful in Oracle and ArcInfo.

NOTE: Data contained in these files has been subjected to quality control standards imposed by the investigator. The user of this data should be aware that, while efforts have been taken to ensure that these data are of the highest quality, there is no guarantee of perfection for the data contained herein and the possibility of errors exists. If you encounter questionable data, please contact the MCM LTER data manager (; (303)492-4639) so that the data can be corrected or qualified. Thus, these data may be modified and future data will be appended.