Category Archives: Summer Scholars

End of the week thoughts from a restless woman

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Seeing as I posted only a few days ago, I do not have much to report on the work week. I have standard tasks that repeat every week: review policy documents or journal articles, write lots of emails, go to meetings, and make phone calls. This week was full of those things, but there is nothing particularly thrilling to report for a general blog audience. The main highlight was that a meeting I had changed the audience focus of the workshop that OSU will be holding for Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning this coming fall.

Today I will focus my post on briefly discussing my thoughts about my job and life phase I’m in. If you have been following my posts, I have stated that I really like the field that I am doing policy work for. Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning is a fascinating, new, exciting field that I definitely would like to continue my involvement in. While my current job has pretty predictable tasks, I’m not bored with it at all because its related to something I find engaging. I also love the freedom and independence I have to get things done. My supervisors are very trusting of my ability to get things done and I really enjoy that kind of work environment.

However, in the midst of liking many aspects of my job, I am also feeling incredibly restless. To refresh your memory, I am the only Summer Scholar that is from Oregon State University and did not have to travel to a foreign city for my internship. I just graduated from Oregon State and I have lived in Corvallis for the past 3 years. A driving factor behind my choice to become a Summer Scholar for a second time was to give me a cushion to transition from graduation to life as a post-graduate. While I am definitely enjoying my job, a part of me is also wondering if this was really a good decision for me to have made. I literally started this job two days after graduating from an extremely hectic final term of college. In the midst of starting this position, I’ve been moving around constantly and have had a lot of personal life chaos. In short, I’m exhausted and feel like I’m moving along at the level of stress I was experiencing in school. The thought of “traveling” that many graduating seniors claim to run off to sounds really appealing right now.

A larger factor in my restlessness is the discomfort in knowing that this job is not permanent. I will be joining the  ranks of the many unemployed college graduates come August 19th with a very small financial cushion to hold me over in the mean time. I’m stuck in a very tough place where I can’t really run after salaried full-time positions because I plan to go to graduate school in a year from now. Most companies/agencies don’t want to train someone that will leave shortly after investing in them. On the other hand, most “internships” for marine sciences that post-undergraduates qualify for are volunteer or give very small stipends. For someone who has college loans running after them in 5 months, taking a job where I won’t make money does not sound comforting. I have a position in Fiji lined up on January for 3 months, but it is not paid (actually, I have to pay to live there) and I’m having a large debate in my mind if its worth going.

At least, amidst all this restlessness I am satisfied with my work. To be honest, it’s really the only thing grounding me in Corvallis. I will continue to press forward, give my all to my job, and desperately search for an answer for grad school/work; however, I think deep down I will continually have this struggle between counting down the days to August 19th and finding contentment with the blessings that I have in the present.

Saving Oysters in Oregon – week 4

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fourth of July!

(sorry, no firework pictures)

Remember how special and exciting those 3 or 4 day weekends were in school?  Didn’t matter which holiday it was, it was just an excuse to stay up late watching movies and spend the whole next day reading a good novel? .. maybe that’s just me.. but anyway. THESE WEEKENDS ARE SO MUCH BETTER WHEN YOU WORK.  I just did not know how to really appreciate those long weekends (that also make the next week go that much faster).

NOT TO SAY that I hate my job.  Far from that.  I loveee what I’m doing out here.  I just need some time to re-energize so I can go at it with a renewed vigor the following week!

Back to July 4th.  It was amazing.  A weekend full of long sandy beaches, calm bays, picnics with barbecued oysters (I DID eat one.. I could learn to like them), the quintessential fireworks over the water, and a last-minute visit from my friend, Jake Bruene!

I kept him pretty busy showing him my favorite nature spots, the oysters I’ve collected, and of course my Oly ROCS.  I guess I tend to ramble, because as I was trying to explain to him my work and the problems oysters are facing, he had to slow me down to be able to digest all this new information I was throwing at him.  He was impressed by how much I had learned in a few weeks, and at that point I realized.. Yeah!  I HAVE learned a ton.  If you want to learn more about a field, there’s nothing better than jumping right in to a hands-on project with a great advisor.  And that’s exactly what OSG provided ( <– mid-internship thank you for this opportunity).  I’m also beginning to understand the term “trusted broker of information” that is in the OSG mission statement.  I would say I’m starting to become one; I just need to slow down when I explain things, apparently.

Now, about this week’s tasks!

remember the Dredge Islands?

They contained all those oyster shells from the subtidal environment, and I collected those shells to be able to compare shell sizes with those in the intertidal environment.  Well, early this week, I was able to measure living oysters in the intertidal for the comparison… and guess what I found?  There was a similar bell-curve type of distribution for both intertidal and subtidal oysters, but on the average, the subtidal shells were a good 20mm larger than the intertidal ones.  The shells for this comparison were randomly selected to include the whole spectrum of sizes, so the next project will include comparing all the largest oyster shells to see if there is a significant difference in their maximum sizes.

boats and pH.

In Coos Bay and South Slough, my advisor has a good number of dataloggers that measure temperature, conductivity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pH every 15 minutes.  They have been recorded for at least a decade now, meaning that they have a significant amount of data to study the smallest changes that have been going on in these waters.  For good measure though, we wanted to compare the pH measurements of the field dataloggers to those of a more precise lab instrument.

So I took Jake with me on a nice, chilly and wet boat ride to collect some water samples near the dataloggers!  I’ve been trying to show him a good time in Coos Bay, but of course, that day had to be the coldest, foggiest day to be out on the water.  I had a good time though.  I was able to use field instruments, record data, and collect samples all by myself!  I felt very independent.  Well.. I don’t have my boating license yet so Adam was driving the boat for me, BUT I was able to drive the state truck the next day to different beaches to collect more water samples.  So all in all, this was a great week of gaining independence.

As for the pH comparison, it didn’t go so well.  It seems as though the lab instrument and the field instrument were not calibrated or standardized the same way, because I was getting slightly different readings.  No need to worry though, I’ll just try again next week!

And those Oly ROCS…

We did end up making more of those, and they’re definitely closer to what they need to be for implementation.  (I also recruited Jake to help make his first Oly ROC).  I think we’ll be putting them in the bay soon, so I’ll have those pictures for you when that happens!

Test! Test! Test!

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What another interesting week!  This past week was spent preparing for the main experiment that we are going to be conducting this summer.  Our main focus this week was testing the new bladders for our artificial sea water. We had much more faith in these bladders than we should have.  The cubitainers that we have been using have some rigid support to them and can be easily fit into a plastic crate.  The bladders on the other hand have very little support and the water sloshes around as we are trying to carry them in their flimsy storage containers.  The bladders still may be our best option though, when the channel that we are putting them in is not far lower than the chambers were we are conducting the experiment.  As explained in my last blog, there must be a height difference between the reservoir of water and the base of the chamber in order for the water to flow in and out.  There are some places that are rather level where we need a flatter container to make sure that this happens.

So, the majority of the week was spent testing three different bladders that we had in the lab and out in the field.  After our lab experiments we determined that two of the three bladders would work best because they were more stable so we set out the next day to test them in the field.  Once we got to our site which is called Winant Marsh, up the estuary about half way, we realized some additional problems with the bladders.  Because they weren’t stable the nozzle that was connected to a hose that connected the chamber with the bladder kept bending in weird ways under the pressure from the hose that we kept getting an air lock.  After some messy alterations we were somewhat satisfied with the way the experiment was set up so we left to wait out the high tide.

In the afternoon, we came back to take down the equipment and analyze our data back in the lab.  It quickly became apparent that the water pressure from the tide did not sufficiently force the artificial sea water out of the bladder and in to the chamber.  The next day, we also discovered that there was a leak in one of our bladders that caused it to gain a sufficient amount of water from the high tide.  To make things worse, the bladder that worked the best was not being made any more so we’re not able to get as many as we need!

Because of our test, this next week will be interesting.  Jodi has some ideas as to how to make the bladders work better and we can hopefully find out how we got a leak in our bladder.  Currently, I am working on a logistical outline for one of the experiments that is coming up and I will be reviewing that with my mentor early this week.  But man! It is way more complicated than I would think! I usually don’t know what to expect in the coming days, but as time goes by I’m getting more and more used to the way things work around here.  I can’t wait to see what I learn next!

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

Check out my personal blog: Sara Duncan

 

Another down

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Another week has gone by and, again, I am wondering how it went by so quickly. I think the holiday weekend has thrown me off a bit. Nonetheless, while last week went by fast, there were some interesting things that happened at the job. The most notable experience was traveling up to Portland on Friday for a regional meeting on Obama’s new priorities for ocean policy.

My day started at 5 am when I got up early to get ready to hit the road no later than 6:45 to Portland. I carpooled up with my boss, Jenna, and two other graduate students from OSU that I knew previously from a Coastal Law course that we took together. By 9 am, we were sitting in a jam-packed room full of people in Portland.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide a venue for stakeholders to receive more background and information on Obama’s priorities, as well as voice their opinions or concerns about how these priorities are being carried out. As of now, most of Obama’s priorities are still in initial phases of planning. Not too long ago, staffers for the National Ocean Council produced interim “Strategic Action Plans” (SAPs) for all the priorities which outlined background information, outcomes, and milestones to making each priority a reality. The meeting was primarily focused on these SAPs and getting public input into their development so far.

During the first portion of the meeting, there were a series of talks done by individuals involved in national marine policy, such as Jane Lubchenco (head NOAA advisor and former OSU marine ecologist) and WA Senator Kevin Ranker. After that, there were a series of “comments” from some OR politicians and tribes and a Q&A session on the SAPs. By around 11:30, the meeting adjourned into poster breakout session. Each SAP priority had a poster and at each poster there were representatives to speak in greater detail or answer questions about that priority.

I enjoyed the meeting and some of the contacts that I spoke with; however, I’ll be honest, I felt like the meeting wasn’t worth all the effort we took to go up there. The information presented was basically a duplicate of the national meeting that I sat in on. Also, before the meeting I had already read all the SAPs in detail, so I did not find the background information useful. Because the SAPs are not fleshed out in a lot of detail, most of the answers that the panel gave to the audience’s specific questions were vague and overarching because they themselves did not know quite how the SAPs would specifically pan out. The National Ocean Council has a huge feat before them in developing the specifics of these plans, especially in light of having little to no additional funding to spearhead the process.

Going to the meeting in Portland was a nice personal affirmation that I grasp and understand the material in my field well. I also have enough experience and knowledge in marine policy that I am able to think critically and provide feedback to the SAPs too. It’s nice to know that I am capable and knowledgeable enough to contribute. Too bad most jobs require me to have a MS or PhD in order to be consider “qualified” to give valuable input and assist the policy process.

Hope you had a good fourth of July! I’ll be back Friday for a short recap on this week.

Redfish Rocks |wk.3|

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Hello Everyone!

ENTER: 

Project #1. Code name: Port Orford/Redfish Rocks. (I’ll probably be using these names interchangeably – so don’t get confused!)

This project entails creating a highlight video of our 2010 ROV footage of the Redfish Rocks marine reserve and marine protected area near Port Orford. 

HISTORY:

So what is a marine reserve and a marine protected area? As defined by Oregon’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council a marine reserve (MR) is:  

“An area within Oregon’s territorial sea or adjacent rocky intertidal area that is protected from all extractive activities, including the removal or disturbance of living and non-living marine resources, except as necessary for monitoring or research to evaluate reserve condition, effectiveness, or impact of stressors.”

While the federal definition of a marine protected area (MPA) as defined by Executive Order 13158 is:

“Any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, tribal, territorial, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.”

Redfish Rocks MR/MPA near Port Orford is one of two pilot reserves established in 2009 – the other being at Otter Rock. I say ‘pilot’ because the rules adopted by ODFW for the area are not yet in effect. A recent update  states that closure will take effect January 1, 2012 so that ODFW can collect another seasons worth of data. There are three main state agencies who have adopted rules for this area. First, ODFW establishes prohibitions and allowances on fish and wildlife resources. Second, the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) authorizes uses on state-owned submerged and submersible land. Third, the Oregon Parks & Recreation Department (OPRD) governs the use of portions of the ocean shore as well as areas adjacent to the MPA/MR.

THE RULES:

The rules differ between the MR and MPA. Basically, a MPA is a little more relaxed than a MR. The MR does not allow:

Redfish Rocks MR/MPA

  1. Removal of kelp or seaweed
  2. Take of any fish or wildlife
  3. Hunting
  4. Fishing
  5. Commercial or recreational salmon trolling
  6. Commercial or recreational crabbing

While the marine reserve prohibits 1-6, the marine protected area allows everything except 2 and 4. Of course, some of this is allowed with a permit. Also, as a disclosure, I’ve simplified this as much as I could! For specifics please check out the following websites:

WHERE I COME IN:

This video will be great as a visible resource. After the closure takes effect Mike, my advisor, and his Marine Habitat team will continue to monitor the area with the ROV. So basically, we will have before and after footage to which we can visibly compare – and I will be showing you the before!

OTHER NEWS:

Friday I got my shellfish license (!!!). So this weekend Lauren, Betty, Margeret, and I headed out to Seal Rocks to gather mussels. Our mission was very successful and we decided to grill ’em later that day. We are still unskilled in the ways of mussel-bakes so some of the mussels didn’t completely open, butttt, they were still very delicious! However, some of the other girls may have differing views… :)

Happy 4th!

 

The Government Agency Tango

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Hello again! This marks the end of my 3rd week working at Hatfield Marine Science Center. Now that I’m familiar with the environment, my advisers, and the other workers here, I’m definitely falling into a good work routine. This past week was marked with a lot of phone calls to various government agencies—USDA, USDC, NOAA, ODA, etc.—to get clarification on which agency has jurisdiction over what in terms of agriculture and aquaculture. When I called the USDA, my intention was to figure out why they regulate all agricultural products except for seafood. It seems odd to me that aquaculture is not managed by the USDA because it is a growing part of the domesticated food supply in the U.S. I spoke with an information officer for the Food Safety Inspection branch and he explained to me that the USDC was designated as the regulating body for aquaculture and fisheries. The act passed by Congress that put NOAA and the USDC in charge went through in 1946, so I decided to look it up. However, when I read through it I wasn’t able to find a clear statement about what agency was put in charge of seafood regulation. It’s not surprising, but getting to talk to the right person is really difficult. A large portion of the time I spend making calls is just me being connected to one person, then another, then another, then another, then finally someone who can help me. It feels like square dancing—you just have to do-si-do until you land with the right partner.

Another project I began working on last week was getting a comprehensive list of the flights available from the various airports in the Pacific NW, flight times, carriers, etc. I thought this would be a useful addition to the guide we are creating, as it gives people an idea of their shipping options when trying to distribute seafood products internationally. I got to meet with a Sea Grant extension agent who really helped me get a handle on the major issues with transporting live seafood. Being a commercial fisherman as well as a Sea Grant agent, he had much insight on what issues producers are most concerned about. As he pointed out, security is probably the most important thing in terms of shipping internationally. Both the distributor and the buyer are entering into a risky deal when live seafood is involved and new entrants into the market want to know how to protect themselves against that risk. In my opinion, risk is inevitable when you begin in any business but there are a few methods of guarding your business. First, logistics are key if you want to get your product to the end user alive and in good condition. This is something I discussed with the owner of Oregon Oyster Farms and I feel that it’s what makes or breaks a new business in this market. The other important factor is having a good relationship with your distributor/customer. Trust and communication are so important in this business because the product is literally harvested and sent across the world to a buyer who may or may not have even seen one of your oysters or crabs before. Every customer has different standards as well and as a distributor, you must gauge those and meet them.

This week I get to go on another interview, this time at Tillamook Bay Boathouse. Tillamook Bay Boathouse is a retail and wholesale operation that provides fresh seafood on the premises. While on the website it doesn’t appear that they ship internationally, my interview will touch on that. I think an interesting question is why a distributor would choose not to ship internationally and what would help them to get into that market.

In other news, I had a great weekend with a friend from out of town and some of the Sea Granters. We went to a blues festival in Portland and I showed them around to some of my favorite PDX spots. It was beautiful weather all weekend, which has continued into today! I’m looking forward to a productive week and I’ll keep you posted.

Sea_Gil’s Blog Pt.3

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Wow! I’ve already completed my third week of work here at the EPA. This past week was full of “data mining” information on a number of different bivalves. It can get a little confusing with some of the family names (example: Cardiidae and Cardilidae, Nuculanidae and Nuculidae). I have to make sure I’m looking at the right family when I get to the ones with the similar names like that. After a while of working in Excel, I also have to make sure that I am filling information out in the right columns and rows. Thankfully, one of my colleagues taught me a few little tricks which makes it much easier to track what column and row I’m in.

Luckily for me, there were some other events which broke up all the spreadsheet work I was doing. My mentor and a few other colleagues had an important meeting last Tuesday with a professor from OSU who knows a lot about bivalves. This professor gave us some good suggestions. He said that we should try to run some experiments to determine the dissolution rates of shells with aragonite and shells with calcite. Experiments like these would get us more information on whether or not changing acidity will actually causes shells to dissolve. As of right now, my impression is that very little scientific work has been done in this area, so I think it would be good to find out about those rates. My mentor is looking to work with people over at the  Narragansett EPA station (on my side of the country!)  to get the experiments started. Unfortunately these experiments probably won’t begin until after I leave, but I’m sure my mentor will relay the findings to me.

My mentor also let me listen in on a conference call he had with people at the EPA offices in DC. They were discussing “tasks” that will be put forward in a draft document addressing climate change.  My mentor is in charge of the vulnerability working group so I think they will be looking at how different ecosystems and species will be negatively affected by climate change. This phone meeting made me realize how hard it is to organize and coordinate various tasks and projects, especially within a large agency like the EPA. There’s obviously a great deal of planning involved in things like this, but the conference call really drove that fact home for me.

This upcoming week I will be doing some more data mining. I’m excited though because my mentor was talking about letting me go out in the field at some point within the next couple of weeks!

I had a really great weekend too! Some Sea Grant friends invited me to come along with them to Portland for a blues festival, which was totally cool. It was fun exploring Portland because I only had a brief brush with the city when I landed in PDX last month. Yesterday, some friends and I collected a bunch of mussels and we steamed them. I discovered that I’m not really into mussels, but I’m glad I tried some.

Oh, and Happy Belated 4th of July!

Patience pays off!

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ODFW Adventures: Part III

To begin to describe my week, I will start by sharing my progress on my non-work-related goal for the summer, which was to learn how to cook. And not just make dinner from a package, but to create authentic meals that I usually find myself going to restaurants to satisfy my cravings. So this week I decided to take my cooking a step further–I cooked something I have never made before, Dahl. This Indian dish of lentils, vegetables, and spices may have taken me nearly two hours to make in our tiny kitchen, but my efforts were a success! Especially when it was served with rice, curried chicken, and naan! I hope to update everyone next week with another new dish!

At ODFW, the most exciting thing I accomplished was counting my very last sample on Friday afternoon, meaning no more bending over a microscope, no more clicking, and no more sore neck muscles! My patience and persistence has finally paid off! All in all, I counted 21 samples and 442 sub-samples that weighed 1-2 grams. It was a long process, but now that I’m finished counting I can use my online GIS training by applying it to this project! Although I still find GIS software to be quite complicated, the online course I took last week was extremely helpful and walked me step by step of how to make different “layers” of a map, using Yellowstone as the example. I learned how to create layers of trails, temperatures, precipitation levels, ranger districts, and other wonderful layers and features you can add to a map with this software. For my project I will be mapping the distribution and abundance of the herring eggs throughout the Yaquina Bay. The abundance that will be calculated with this map will then allow me to predict how many herring will be in the bay next season, and the fishing quota will be set at 20% of the predicted abundance. I am very excited to start the second half of this project in the coming week! 

On the Nearshore Strategy side, I spent the week finding sources to use for the supplemental climate change document my team will be writing. Once I found the articles my team suggested, I organized them into folders based on their emphasis on habitat (for the purposes of the Nearshore Strategy, rocky shore, sandy beach, rocky subtidal, soft-bottom subtidal, and open water) and/or impact type (changes in sea surface temperature, sea level rise, upwelling, hypoxia, storm intensity/erosion and wave height, ocean currents, interannual and interdecadal cycles, ocean acidification, and freshwater inputs). I have learned that although the ocean currently is and will experience many of these different impact types, many articles written by climate scientists and oceanographers focus on temperature changes. Finding this in my research frustrated me because I believe that the complex systems and processes of the ocean are effected by many different impact types, each of which is just as important as the last. Yet I am excited to read the articles in depth and search for more articles to learn more about how climate change will affect the ocean off of the Oregon coast. With these articles I will be creating an annotated bibliography for the climate change document this week that will likely become an appendix to the document. To prepare for this task, I had some practice making a reference sheet this week when I cited the articles Ali used in the overall strategy update. Although it was a great review of how to cite scientific articles, I learned that not all articles (especially when they are found on the internet) are easy or even possible to cite. So I figured out how to cite articles and sources with whatever information is available–I am now a citation master! With this useful skill set, I will be spending next week in the library if anyone needs to find me!

Saving Oysters in Oregon – week 3

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office time.

For the first time in 3 weeks, I spent some good bonding time with my desk.  I finally got my internet, login credentials, email, etc figured out, so I spent a good portion of this week doing some office work.  Plus, the tides weren’t so great the beginning of this past week and it was raining, so it was best to stay in.

What I’ve learned:  Science isn’t all about the lab or even field work.  You have to spend time writing grants to apply for funding, putting together reports, seminars, or powerpoints for meetings, and gathering information into summaries void of scientific jargon so that the vast majority of people can understand them.  The last one is what I did.  I read many many many scientific articles, powerpoints from workshops, and shellfish restoration manuals, and pulled together all the important pieces of information.  I’ve noticed that my advisor has to spend a huge amount of time at his desk, too.  He’s busy writing grants to secure salaries, conference calling to inform and spread knowledge to policy makers, among other things.  I guess it’s just how things are.  I personally think it adds a bit more variety to the job.

I also did online research on how to improve my Oly ROCS (we’re going to implement those next week, so you’ll be hearing about those soon!).

 

searching for oysters.

There’s a plan to build a liquid natural gas pipe through Haynes Inlet of Coos Bay, and despite much community resistance, that plan was approved.  Was.  Then it was brought to their attention that the Olympia oyster (species at risk) may be inhabiting areas that would be affected by the current plan.  They wanted someone to go and check if they were there, so my advisor, Laura (a postdoc) and I did just that.

In some places, they were amazingly abundant.  Others, there were smatterings.  And in one area, none at all.  We could basically foretell where they would be by the different characteristics of each area.  The rocky shorelines  had more oysters than the muddy, almost anoxic flats.  It’s not always that simple though.  We also began to see that the residence time of water was a major factor of whether or not juveniles would be present.  Salinity is important too.  I also observed that there were many juveniles, but not many older, larger oysters in some areas.  I began to question whether these areas with seemingly abundant populations of oysters were actually good for them.  Did certain environmental conditions create hostile environments that led to premature deaths?  Is there good larval recruitment but something else that’s killing them?  Or are they thriving just below the surface where we can’t see them, and the ones above the tideline just can’t tolerate being out of water for that long?

I know I won’t be able to answer all of these questions, but I hope I can get closer to knowing the answers.  They’re important questions for the restoration effort.

What’s next:  probably more field work for their restoration, and working more on the Oly ROCS.  I’ll let ya know next week!

 

Science is hard work!

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Starting Monday of last week, I was officially done with all of the safety training and background reading and began the real work for my internship.  As an undergrad working in the labs at school, the logistics of the experiments that I do are for the most part already figured out for me, with this project at the EPA that is definitely not the case.  Monday was the first test run that I was a part of.  I went into work at about 10:00am and helped Caitlin make the artificial sea water for the chambers by adding nitrate, ammonium, and potassium compounds to five gallon jugs of water.  The concentrations of these compounds are our variables that we expect to change over the course of our experiment, so we must take samples before and after we run the experiment to be analyzed for changes.  Then we added the water solution to five 10-gallon cubitainers to be placed out into the marsh.  After lunch we went out to the marsh right outside the EPA building and began our long day in the field.  We had to add the chambers to the bases that we put out the Friday before and then we attached the cubitainers to the chambers with a long hose.  The way this experiment works is that you place the cubitainers below the chambers in the channel bed and as the tide rises, the pressure of the water forces the water into the chambers though the hose and then back out again as the tide falls.  I find it funny the easiest part of this whole process is running the experiment itself because after we got all of the cubitainers set up, we sat back and relaxed on the marsh for a few hours while only taking samples and dissolved oxygen measurements every 40 minutes.  After the experiment was done at about 8:00pm we had to take everything down and run about 30 samples in the spectrophotometer called the ISUS to test for nitrate content.  I didn’t get home until about 11:00pm.  All in all, the purpose of this experiment was to find out why our the nutrient levels that we were getting from the ISUS were lower than the nutrient levels that we were getting back from the lab at UC Santa Barbara.  We found out that the reason that we were getting a discrepancy was because we weren’t filtering our samples!  Something as simple as that could mess everything up.

This was my first taste of real science!  There are so many statistical, logistical, and experimental problems to work out.  For this experiment some of the issues that can make things difficult are: a lack of high enough tides, difficulties getting to a particular marsh, a lack of channels to put cubitainers in, a lack of marsh sites that have all of the habitats that we are looking for, inaccessibility to desirable sites because of private land ownership, problems running the experiment, slight mistakes in chamber building, inadequate sites to represent the whole estuary system, etc, etc.

Here’s a video of the different zones in the salt marsh: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/56/Salt_pannes_and_pools_high_and_low_tide.gif/340px-Salt_pannes_and_pools_high_and_low_tide.gif

The biggest aspect of working on this project is that everything here revolves around the tides.  So, if the high tide is not until late, we are out late, if the high tide is really early, we are out really early.  Because of this, I’ve spent several late nights this past week scouting potential sites up and down the estuary at high tide to make sure that they low marsh that we are trying to sample is flooding at high tide.  A lot of the time, the tides are not high enough to flood the low marsh, so when they are we must act fast to run our experiments on those days.

After running that first test, I realized that I need to start doing pushups to get stronger.  I am not particularly weak, but at only 100lbs lifting 20 gallon water jugs and carrying 10 gallon cubitainers in and out of the marsh requires a lot of energy.  I’m hoping that by the end of the summer I’ll be much more in shape.

Picture of the estuary that I took as we were scouting for sites.

This week, we will continue preparing for our next experiment which will begin around the 13th of July.  We are switching to “bladders” instead of cubitainers so we need to figure out which bladder will work the best.  We have to finalize the sites that we are going to go to for our experiment.  We also need to buy more supplies and continue to figure out the logistics to make this experiment as successful as it can be.  I’m hoping that this week will be slower (relatively) than last week. Three late nights a week are no fun, but I know I have more coming up.  I’m excited though because I get to do science and field work all day which is a lot of fun and is definitely my passion.

Check out my personal blog to see what I’m up to outside of work! Sara Duncan