Last Survey and data stats

Well I went to the Channel Islands High School and I gave them the last survey. It was good I was a little sad because I won’t be seeing them until April when we go to Santa Rosa.

I have also just started to get all of my data into one place where I can start getting an idea of what it is showing me. I had a meeting with Sean Anderson to talk about what I should be looking for in my data and how I should proceed So that is what it is all looking like. I hope that all of my data turns out well :)

My data
My data

Started Analyzing Data

I have started comparing water quality data from each site by looking at the average measurements of temperature, turbidity, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, ad chlorophyll from each site. Here is a summary of those values: Untitled

Almost every site had a chlorophyll level that fell below 1.5 µg/L. The only exception being Soledad Canyon Creek, which had an average chlorophyll level of 2.15 µg/L. However, any chlorophyll level falling below 2.6 µg/L is considered oligotrophic, or nutrient deprived. Moreover, all five sites fall into this category. Turbidity varied amongst the three sites but all levels fell under 8 FNU which indicates the water is very clear and has a minimal amount of particles floating in the water that would otherwise make it cloudy and less transparent. Four out the five sites had an average temperature between 50 and 57 degrees Fahrenheit. The Santa Clara Bouquet Bridge site however, had an average temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit. This is also the location where most of the wastewater from the Valencia treatment plant is released. Specific conductivity was measured in µg/L and is an indicator of dissolved solids which contribute to water pollution. Bouquet Creek and San Francisquito Canyon had the lowest levels, falling between 400 and 600 µg/L. Whereas, the other three sites had values ranging from 1100 to 1400 µg/L. All sites had an average pH falling between 7.5 and 8.5, which means none of them were too acidic or too basic. For salinity measurements, San Francisquito Canyon and Bouquet Creek had the lowest salinity values at around 0.26 psu. The Santa Clara River McBean Bridge site had the highest value at 0.73 psu, while the other two sites had an average of around 0.63 psu. Lastly, dissolved oxygen was measured by percent saturation. A value measuring above 90% saturation means the stream is healthy. San Francisquito Canyon and Bouquet Creek were the only two sites that had dissolved oxygen levels above 90%. The Santa Clara River Bouquet Bridge site almost reached this mark and only fell short 0.03% saturation. Soledad Canyon had an average value of 81.6% and the Santa Clara McBean Bridge site fell at 73.4% saturation.

 

 

 

Tree Growth

This weekend I had to leave my trees in the care of some friends because I went on  a trip to the Owens Valley with my water management class.  I always get a little worried when I trust my work to others but they did a great job and there has yet to be any growth in the trees.  The Owens Valley was very beautiful and we learned about the confusing bureaucracy that surrounds the Owens Valley.  Hopefully next week my trees will provide me with more interesting results to report.

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Field Photos

Despite working with cameras for my capstone, I have yet to have a photo of myself working. I’m heading back out over spring break with Dr. O’Hirok’s stream team, I’m sure there will be ample opportunities for field photos then. In the mean time, this is the best I have. The Lobo Canyon camera, capturing the back of my legs the last time I checked it. IMG_0237

Research Update 3/6/16

This week was spent interpolating data on ArcGIS and I began calculating the area of each year to find the total area and direction the population is moving toward.

In addition, I spent the last few days in the Eastern Sierras for Water Resources Management where we learned about and followed our water supply from the Owens Valley to campus. Here’s a picture from the trip below.

 

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Data Organization

The past few weeks have consisted of compiling all my data and organizing it into tables. Here is a table showing chlorophyll levels in each stream section over time.

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Hanging out in CIDocs

On 2/22, Michelle Pacansky-Brock shared 2 worthwhile tips about CI Docs. In today’s post, I want to further her discussion about CI Docs. I’ve been using it this year to foster students’ abilities to reflect on the reading and writing in my composition courses. Here’s what I’ve done and what I’ve learned so far.   […]

Common Garden Update

The common garden has shown no growth yet. This past weekend, I went to Owens Valley for my Water Resource Management class, so I had my friend Melinda water the plants and she found no growth. I am hoping to see some growth by the end of this week.

View from White Mountain Research Center
View from White Mountain Research Center