Post 6: Slow and Steady

This week was definitely at a different pace than what we've done the past couple weeks. Dr. Meierdiercks has been at a conference so there was no field work! Not going to lie, staying inside doing computer work for four days straight is not super fun and makes time go by a little slower than usual. However, I'm trying this new thing where I find the positive aspect of certain situations I'm in. Even though I didn't get to do any field work this week, I still accomplished a lot and got some very important work done. 

So far we have data from the USGS showing us discharge and specific conductance measurements from 2002 to 2008. We have our own field equipment that's been out for about eight or nine weeks now collecting discharge and specific conductance data and next week we will go out and collect that data (yay more field work!). One parameter that could be related to discharge that we do not have a dataset for is annual rainfall. I tried finding any datasets of rainfall that could've been collected by the USGS or DEC in the Albany area considering they had these stream gauges set up and were taking discharge measurements. I looked everywhere I thought I could find such datasets on both websites and I had no luck. So guess who had the bright idea of going on a weather website, looking up each individual day from October 2002 to September 2008 and recording the amount of precipitation in Albany each day! That's right. I made six different tables for each "water year" the USGS had discharge data for, filled it with every day of that year, looked for the amount of precipitation that occurred that day, and then record that information in my table. I created a graph showing the annual mean for each water year and we should be able to relate it to the annual mean of discharge that I have. I also went through and calculated the monthly mean of precipitation for every month in every year and was able to create six separate graphs showing monthly mean. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time compiling this data. But I know that this new data will be able to help us with our project by possibly relating the two datasets and helping us explain certain phenomena that have happened in our area.

This week I also analysed our sediment samples using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) in the lab. This also took more time than I expected. However it was really interesting working in the lab with this equipment and very cool to see how it worked. I was able to collect some very important data for this project regarding sediment composition. Our target element is lead. There used to be a lead company on the Patroon Creek until 1984 and it was known that pollutants from this plant managed to get into the environment. As we all know, lead is definitely not a good thing to have in the environment. The XRF is able to tell us what heavy metals are present in a sample and how much of it is present. We had five samples and I ran each sample three times to try and get an accurate reading. In many of our samples I found several different heavy metals at varying levels. Some were at safe levels, some at rising levels, and some at levels that were too high for a healthy environment. 

Yesterday I started to work on a water quality report. Basically, I'm taking all of the data we have, from past studies that look at different aspects of the environment like soil cation exchange and macroinvertebrates to datasets that have the same parameters that we are collecting, and compiling it into one huge explanation of what the overall quality of Patroon Creek is. Soon enough we will have our own data to add to this report. Even though it isn't field work or.... some people's definition of fun, I've realized that this work is very important to our project and needs to be done. However, after a week of inside work, I am SO ready to get back out in the field to finish this project!

Post 5: Hell Yeah, I'm a Scientist

When I got back from vacation a couple of weeks ago, my family whom we visited in Belgium followed soon after to visit other family members here in the United States. One day, my seven-year-old cousin was interested in what we all do for work during the summer. I told him that I was working up at school doing a research project. He was curious as to what the project was so I told him I'm studying the water in my area to see if it's good or bad quality. He took a few seconds to ponder the information and then looked at me and said "Oh! So you're a scientist." I said to him (with a little chuckle) "Sure! I'm a scientist." But to be honest, in my head I said "Hell yeah! I'm a scientist!" I've told a lot of people about the research I'm doing, but I think that was my favorite response!

This brings me to the question that I will surely be asked at least once a week for the next eight or nine months: "What are you doing after graduation?" Considering I haven't even started senior year yet and I never even know what I want to eat for dinner, I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing after I graduate. However, working on this project, talking to other people, and this conversation with my cousin has gotten me to start thinking. Who knew that a seven-year-old could help you plan out the rest of your life?

I've always enjoyed science and was typically pretty good at certain subjects in school but I never really considered doing anything research related after school. This week, I met many different people who are currently working on or have done research. On Monday we took a trip to Bard College in Hudson and I met a couple of professors and a student working on water quality in their area. Their work is being incorporated into a bigger project that Dr. Meierdiercks has been working on to assess and improve the overall health of the Hudson River watershed. While at Bard, we took some direct discharge measurements in their study site to help further their research and knowledge of the water quality. After meeting and working with these individuals it was great to see how much people want to work together in a research based work setting to achieve the same goal and try to better their environment.

On Wednesday, we did macroinvertebrate sampling in Tivoli Lake Preserve with a couple of volunteers from the City of Albany and the County of Albany. These samples were collected by our team for analysis and will help the DEC determine different aspects of water quality in the area we collected. One volunteer who works for the City of Albany is working on a restoration project to improve Tivoli for community members so people will visit more and use it like the recreational park it was intended to be. She asked me about plans after graduation and asked if I wanted to do research. When I answered I didn't even think about it; I kind of just blurted out "I've never really thought about doing research but after this summer I would seriously consider it." So far I have had an incredible and interesting experience working on this project. It has really influenced my thoughts about graduation and has made me consider expanding my options even more. I am so grateful that I am able to work on this project and get this experience that not many other people would have.

Throughout the two and half hours we worked in Tivoli this past Wednesday, I could really get a sense of how this type of work has influenced this specific volunteer. The way she spoke about her project and Tivoli showed true passion about what she does and that she truly cares for her environment. Learning how to do this type of sampling is just one of the many things she was willing to do to better understand her environment to be able to improve it to the best of her abilities. I'm very sure that these interactions will remain important to me when dealing with post-undergrad sadness. So of course, thank you Dr. M for giving me the opportunity to work with you on this project and teaching me everything that research work entails. Thank you Eli and Chris at Bard for your excellent teamwork and dedication to this project. Thank you Mary from the City of Albany for sharing your passion with us and showing us that if you want to get something done you do all that you can to make a difference. And thank you Gabe for calling it how it is and making me realize that being a scientist is pretty cool. :)

Post 4: Back At It

My first week back from vacation was pretty busy and I couldn't be happier about it! Monday we were able to deploy the last stream gauge and soon enough we will be able to collect data from all of them. We have stream gauges in both the Kromma Kill and Patroon Creek Watersheds. We also have access to data collected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from October 2002 to September 2008 in the Patroon Creek. The main parameters we are focusing on with these gauges are discharge and specific conductance. Discharge is the volume of water that passes a specific point over a period of time. Specific conductance is the ability for water to conduct an electrical current and can be used to determine the total dissolved solids concentration of ions in solution. Our goal is to compare the data between the two watersheds, along with comparing present data in Patroon Creek with data collected at least eight years ago. 

When we weren't out in the field I was analyzing the USGS data online. They have measurements of discharge, temperature, and specific conductance from 2002 to 2008. Data was taken every day for those years and I was able to download it for analysis. I calculated the average of every parameter for each year and compiled that data into a summary chart. Then I was able to graph these points to show trends for discharge, temperature, and specific conductance. I found that average discharge has been steadily increasing from 2002 to 2008, average temperature has been increasing very little, and average specific conductance has decreased starting in 2002 but started to increase in 2007. Even though we are collecting data eight years later, hopefully we will be able to explain these trends better and see what has been occurring in the Patroon Creek these past years. 

On Thursday we started collecting sediment samples from the Patroon Creek Watershed. We will be testing these samples for heavy metals using x-ray fluorescence technology in our SAInT Center. I have absolutely no idea how to use this technology or how it will tell us what is in the soil so training next week will be very helpful! I'm really excited to see how this technology works and what I'll find in these samples. 

Next week we will also be working with the DEC for macroinvertebrate sampling. We'll be teaching a group of community members how they can help the DEC with water quality testing by collecting macroinvertebrate samples. Needless to say I'm really excited for the weeks to come! It was great being in the field as much as we were this week and I'm really looking forward to taking a look at the data we have.