Tag Archive for: dept-ESRM

Yesterday (12/05/15) I went to FJ Middle School and I listened to their presentations. They had the same information and the same groups as the high school but to recap the groups were endangered species, macroinverts, water chemistry, surface water runoff and invasive species. The middle schoolers are for sure more into this program that we are doing then the high schoolers. I think this would be because the middle school is made specifically for kids that want to go into the sciences and have classes designed for this. Whereas the high school is more standardized, more general classes. For the presentations the FJ middle schoolers did very well, they were a little hard to hear at time but they had all of the info and where using words that I would never had used at that age and seemed to know how to use them correctly. They all did very well. I look forward to the days that I am there.

This week is finals week, and the paper associated with the research is being created using pictures from the field, books and research found through the internet.

Hi everyone!

My capstone introduction is due in two week. Feeling nervous but excited. Over this past semester, I have learned how to collect data about the Torrey pines, what its habitat range is, and its seed dispersal and germination. I am still waiting for my permit to collect seeds from Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve located in San Diego. I hope  to find out soon if the permit will be issued or not.

Here is an action photo of me collecting data

Come visit me at the Marine Debris/Microplastics booth on December 19th at Ledbetter Beach in Santa Barbara.

Lakey Peterson: Surf Happens Keiki Bowl

This semester I went to Santa Rosa Island 5 times to conduct research.

Recap of the weekends:

The first weekend we found all the site where we were going to survey at and what in particular we wanted to focus on.

The following four trips the stream team went out into water canyon and did multiple cross sections every weekend. Up until now, there is a total of 15 cross sections.

Collecting this data came with many challenges. As with all field research small problems came up. Luckily, there hasn’t been an issue that has been too big to solve. The biggest challenge that I have faced in my research so far is identifying unfamiliar plant species. When the plant is easy to take a picture of with clear details, is still living, or has flowering parts, the process of identifying it later is much easier. Not only have I spent hours in the field identifying plants, but I have spent numerous hours indoors looking up different plant species to correctly identify plants that are in my cross sections. Grasses have become my nightmare in the field the last five trips.  I plan to master identifying grasses before going out into the field in January. Hopefully, this will minimize the number of hours looking up plant species after the fieldwork is completed.

I still have more fieldwork I plan to collect over winter break and next semester. In January, I will be on the island for two weeks straight. This large amount of time will allow me to complete my terrace data (the transects that contain all my grasses), finish the cross sections we had planned out, and add in any new cross sections to complete my data set. I will also be able to run sediment analysis on the areas that I am surveying to complete that aspect of my research. Next semester,  I hope to have the majority of my research done so I will be able to focus my time on data analysis and writing my paper. I will take trips periodically if the data set is not complete or if there is any severe environmental changes, such as heavy rain storms due to the El Nino.