This week I finally got through analyzing most of the soil samples I have been collecting for the past two weeks. I am not only looking for soil salinity but also performing a grain-size analysis on each sample. This just means I’m looking for what percentage of the soil is composed of gravel, sand, silt, and clay. In order to do this I use four sieves stacked on top of one another, going from largest mesh size on top to smallest. I then run the sample through and collect what remains in each sieve, making sure to categorize based on sieve size. Once I complete this with all of my samples and do the necessary calculations I can start comparing the soil types of each site. I am interested in comparing soil types of the sites with huge patches of bird’s beaks to those that only had a few individuals. I have also been compiling all of the GPS data of bird’s beaks sites onto one map. When I’m not working on those parts of my project I’m most likely editing my proposal, the deadline of July 9th is now less than a week away. My first batch of soil samples, dried and ready to be weighed. This painting of bird’s beak was just hung up in the office this week! As for non-project related activities, on Wednesday my mentor and I went out during low tide to do transects on eelgrass. Populations of native species of eelgrass have been declining throughout the past years and monitoring sites where they are present can help find out what factors are causing this. I also learned how to tell the difference between native and invasive species of seagrass. It was amazing to see what the estuary looked like with almost all of the water receded and to be able to walk across areas I had gone through on a kayak earlier. The low tide made the estuary look almost empty. A 50 meter transect set up for eelgrass monitoring. This week even included seeing more of the coasts beautiful hiking trails. One of the trails I went on with the other REU students led to this secluded bay near Sunset Beach. We had to climb down this old rope but the view alone made it all worthwhile. Tonight we are all heading out to camp at Cape Argo for the weekend, I’ll write about what happens along with more project updates in next weeks blog. The hike was a bit challenging but seeing the bay was worth it, That’s me sitting on some moon looking rocks.
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AuthorI am an incoming third year student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa studying Oceanography. I’m looking forward to learning all I can about the Oregon Coast from this internship! Archives
August 2019
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