Drought in Texas is Impacting the Watershed

    The drought that's plagued Texas since January of 2011 is evident in these images taken during the freshwater sampling several weeks ago. Grade 7 students were sampling in areas northwest of the Trinity River and Bay area. Their ClassEco Project compliments the SMORE Project because it gives us information about what's happening in the freshwater systems farther up the watershed.

In areas that are traditionally full of water, students found the profound effects the drought has had on these aquatic systems.  They're sharing their data with the G8 SMORE students to figure out what impact this has on the coastal areas in their study.

Meanwhile, SMORE students in Texas, Alaska and Georgia are holding teleconferences to discuss data from each of their samplings. Our next blog will talk about their ideas!

Ironically, shortly after the G7 sampling, we had our first significant rainfall! Measured 3-5 inches in different parts of the sampling areas. Wish we could have gone right back to see what was washing down! Within a day however, you couldn't tell it had even rained- hasn't since either!

    Cypress Creek behind our school- water level is only ankle deep midway!

     Lake Houston boat ramp and fishing pier- where's the water????

      We're standing where water should be over our heads!!

       Work goes on though....

                                      

The San Jacinto River didn't offer us much more !

                                                               Soil testing for nutrients.

SMORE Coastal Sampling is a Success!

The Texas team packed bags, ice chests, and equipment and headed out to the Trinity River Bay this Friday, Sept. 23rd. It was the first day of Fall and the weather couldn't have been better! Clear skies, breezy, and a very comfortable temperature ONLY in the 80"s- that was a treat after the triple digit temps we've been having!
 

Team at first site

Collecting samples for UGA

 Students had been practicing their testing skills, as well as learning how to operate the loggers and sensors the weeks before the fieldwork. As the day approached for going out into the field, there was a mixture of sentiments and emotions. Everyone voiced excitement about going out to the bay, but some also talked about being nervous about doing their testing "right" :) Mrs. Lollie assured them that even Dr.Yager and her ANACONDAS  team had some of the same feelings as they headed out to the Amazon Plume!

Once we got to the first site, the training kicked in! However, as we were setting up the work stations, a million (at least) lovebugs invaded the area and were quite a distraction- until Mrs. Lollie reminded us what we were there for!!

Reading the soil test

 

 

 We traveled to 2 other sites. The second was at Smith Point, about halfway down the bay. It looked more like the ocean there with waves and wind blowing a little harder. By this time we knew what do do better and it was "less scary" .

Tailgate lab at site 2

Measuring flow rate

 

 

 

How clear is the water?

 

 

Logging in the salinity data.

The third site was on Bolivar Peninsula, right on the beach. We had to park and work on the street side of the sand dunes, but were able to get right up on the water! Wish we could have gone in for a dip!!!!

Great day for the beach!

Using the colormetric scale

After a long day, we headed home! Now we're looking at the data we collected and will try to figure out how it all fits together. We don't understand it all yet, but that's why we're doing this. We wonder what the other SMORE students are thinking about their fieldwork. We are planning some SKYPE  conferences with them soon! Check in next week to see what our test results were.

Our first sampling trip is a success!!