Monday July 25th, 2011
Our day started excitedly at 7am where we were testing waters at 237 meters deep (777’). One of the reasons we were so excited about this spot was because we all decorated Styrofoam cups, shoved them in pantyhose to secure them to the rosette, and lowered it down the 237m offshore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The pressure was so great that the cups were compressed to nearly half their size!
We then headed off to the mouth of the Bad River of the Chequamegon Bay without stopping, which took the rest of the day. That was fine with us because we had a lot of work to do on board. We are all presenting our small group research projects on Wednesday and needed the time to wrap things up.
Janet, John, Paul, and Jim have been researching the presence of plastic in Lake Superior. Using a mantatrawl drug to the side and behind the boat to avoid the wake, a sample is taken for one hour at 2 knots. They also have been taking shoreline samples for plastics.
Lori W., Jillian, Lori S.D. and are collecting zooplankton samples and comparing nearshore samples to offshore. They are looking for difference in abundance and biodiversity in relation to possible nutrient and temperature differences.
Mark, Diane, Sara, and JoAnn are collecting phytoplankton samples and comparing nearshore samples to offshore. They are looking for the relationship between phytoplankton and nutrient loading and therefore human population centers.
Sandy, Lynn, Cindy B., and June are researching different chlorophyll levels using the hydrolab (data sond) that we were trained with earlier on our voyage. They are comparing different levels and different locations to find the greatest abundance of chlorophyll in the lake.
We also learned a few lessons with Cindy H. and Rosanne to bring to our own classrooms covering watersheds, fisheries, and aquatic habitats to wrap up our day.
No comments:
Post a Comment