Posts

Ventura Surfrider Workday!

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IMG_8963Sunday March 20th my brother and I took all of my nieces and nephews out to Ventura Point to work on the Ventura Surfrider Dune restoration project.

The learned about Ecosystem based management of the point and the native and non-native plants in the dunes.  At Ventura point we have seen a large difference in the loss of beach between the area where the dune project is in effect and about 200 feet south along the boardwalk.

VenturaPointSand Loss

 

 

Where the restoration project is located much of the beach has remained intact and south of there (seen in the photo to the right) most of the sand is gone and damage has been done to the walkways during the large storms this winter.

 

 

Completion of Data Collection

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March 18 marked the completion of my water quality data. I was able to take data on 8 parameters including: acidity, chlorophyll, temperature, specific conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. Here is an example of one of my data sheets which was collected for March 18.

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Finally, Torrey pine growth!!!!

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I finally have Torrey pine sapling growth! It took longer than expected to see grow within the Torrey pine seedlings. Currently, I am monitoring the growth of these seeds every three days. They are on a strict water regime, which is based off of the Western Regional Climate Center’s weather monitoring system. This climate monitoring system allows me to determine how much water to water these plants every month. This is calculated by taking the average rainfall of that month from each year dating back to the early 1900’s, and distinguishing what will be calculated for the high and low watering regimes.

Torrey pine saplings!!!
Torrey pine saplings!!!

SAGE Student Research Conference at CSUCI

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This week I worked on generating an abstract for my application to the annual SAGE Conference.

Abstract

Over the past hundred years coastal Southern California has been an epicenter for population growth and urbanization. The Calleguas Creek Watershed is located in Ventura County and has long felt the effects of this exponential growth and urbanization. In fact, from 1965 to 1980 the surrounding population increased almost 300% (Towne 1998). Within the watershed lies Arroyo Conejo Creek, which is formed by the confluence of South Branch Arroyo Conejo and North Fork Arroyo Conejo. This stream flows through Newbury Park, CA and is tributary to one of California’s most impaired water bodies, Calleguas Creek. During this growth period Arroyo Conejo and its South Branch were channelized to divert stormwater runoff away from homes. The North Fork however, was left natural as requirement from the City of Thousand Oaks in the development of the master planned community, Dos Vientos. In this experiment I compared the water quality of the channelized Arroyo Conejo and South Branch to the natural North Fork to test my hypothesis that natural streams have better water quality than channelized streams.

For twelve consecutive weeks spanning December 31 to April 18, 2016 I collected water quality data in Arroyo Conejo Creek, South Branch Arroyo Conejo, North Fork Arroyo Conejo, and Calleguas Creek using the YSI EXO2 Multiparameter Sonde. I tested eight water quality parameters on a weekly basis, which include: acidity, chlorophyll, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, total dissolved solids, and turbidity. Using Calleguas Creek as a baseline for impaired water quality, I was then able to compare the water quality of the natural North Fork versus the channelized Arroyo Conejo and South Branch. Specifically, I found that chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, and temperature had the highest disparity between Arroyo Conejo, the South Branch and the North Fork while other parameters were similar. Calleguas Creek proved to be highly impaired, showing significant water quality discrepancies compared to the other natural and channelized sites on every occasion.

NOLA bound this week!

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I can’t believe how fast this semester is going by! By the end of this week I will be in New Orleans for spring break. I have been looking forward to this trip for such a long time it seems, and now it is right around the corner. Marine debris research is going good and is right on schedule for the most part. I only have one more beach to finish processing and I plan on getting that done before NOLA so i can focus on my paper and analysis after that and until my last SRI trip in early April.

Data Analysis

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This week I have focused more time on data analysis. In comparing the four stream sections (North Fork, South Branch, Arroyo Conejo, and Calleguas Creek I have found some interesting differences and similarities. Here are some graphs showing the greatest disparity between the natural North Fork and the channelized South Branch.

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Over time chlorophyl levels have been significantly higher in the South Branch in comparison to the North Fork.

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Over time dissolved oxygen has been more prevalent in the North Fork in comparison to the South Branch.

Happy Pi Day!

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Being a math lover, Pi day is one of my favorite days! I love math and plan to pursue it in grad school and apply it in the environmental sector after I graduate. Pi day is not only one of my favorite days because of math but also because I love Pie and its my best friends birthday! So every year, I celebrate this day with math, pie, and my best friend.

This past weekend, I spent my time analyzing data for my capstone. In honor of Pi day, I plan to be in a math mindset and work on my Linear Algebra and Calculus 3 homework!! I will continue cranking on my capstone the rest of the week.

Happy Pi Day everyone!! Go celebrate by doing math and eating some pie!

Pi Day

Organizing data

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Last week I gave the students my final survey and now comes the hard part. Sorting through my surveys and figuring out how to analyze it. For now I will be putting what I have on Excel to just have it all in one place. That is all for now.

Audubon Presentation on Beaches are Habitat Too

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This weekend I had a presentation table at the Ventura Audubon event for “Beaches are Habitat Too” at the Channel Islands Boating Center.  Dr. Clare Steele presented on Sandy Beaches as habitats for many species, including Sand crabs and other invertebrates.  This community based education seminar was set up by Ventura Audubon to educate the local homeowners about the threatened shore bird populations as well as other threats to the sandy beach ecosystem.

I had a table to share some of the Marine debris collected by my colleague Michaela Miller from the Santa Clara river mouth, along with our Pollutants Poster and some micro trash samples.  I brought the small digital scope with me to show people just how small these particles are.  I was able to explain what micro plastics are, where they tend to come from and why its important we pay attention to them as pollutants. Many of the folks I spoke with did not know what microbeads were or that there had been a ban and were very thankful for the information to make product changes at home.

CSU Chancellor’s Conference

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Tuesday evening Tevin Schmitt and I attended the CSU Chancellor’s conference sponsored by CSU Coast.  We shared our research on petroleum based pollutants in our sandy beach environment and their effects on sand crabs.

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