This past week we traveled to Salmon River again and to Siletz Bay for more testing on the nutrient uptake project. I chose to work on the chambers placed in the channel at Salmon River and we were surprised to find shortly into our experiment that the tide was coming in fast. Apparently the low low tides we’ve been having also come with high high tides. The experiment takes one hour so we hurried to get the clock rolling. Near the end, however, water was close to pouring over the top of the chamber, but we managed one more water sample before it all was ruined.

We’ve also looked at the results from our first two days of experiments testing the effects of temperature and nitrogen to phosphorous ratio on nutrient uptake of the harsh marsh behind the aquarium. In previous experiments, our graphs for nitrogen content in our water samples have a set height at time zero, indicating the amount we know we put in, and a lower bar at time sixty minutes, indicating the marsh plants have taken up nitrogen. We were surprised to find in our first day of these new experiments that some of the treatments were gaining nitrogen as time progressed. These odd results were sporadic throughout the treatments and the second day showed none of these oddities.

While discussing these results with my mentor, I mentioned that on the first day there was some dog poop on the path to our study location. One of my coworkers stepped in it and he put his foot on the boards we used to pound the chamber in. Everything stunk after that as the poop clung to the boards. My theory was that some of the poop may have fallen in and gradually leeched into the water. My mentor then said, “So all this data from the first day is sh*t.” I replied, “Yes, literally.” Who knows? But the moral of the story is that we cannot use that data.

Next week we do more replicates for our experiments and we have an overnight trip to Coquille, which is three hours away and we need to time the tides right. I feel like all the logistics will be a challenge for this trip. There will be two field days in a row and we have to keep the water cold for the second day, so we’ll need 8 large coolers with ice. It should be interesting.

Celebrating the 4th in Newport was enjoyable. We looked at the tide pools in the morning, and then I went clamming with my roommates Hilary and Maryna, and managed to dig up…one! Maryna is very good at it, though. Sticking my hand into a dark hole of mud to find a squirmy, shelled creature is a little scary to me. I must be more brave!