Typical day at the dorms
Abby had to go to a wedding in Eugene, so Ron, Micaela and I hitched a ride to explore Eugene!
We thoroughly enjoyed the Eugene Saturday Market and I got a cool rainbow trout hat!
Here’s us posing next to a sleepy Ron on the bus en route to see Inside Out in theaters. (By the way, super good movie! Go see it if you haven’t!!)
accidentally waking Ron up due to us taking pictures of him
This week on Monday, I went out with Abby and helped out ODF&W with their SMURFing surveys. I was super nervous and excited going into the day and came out with an incredibly miserable experience on the water. Abby and I went in for the first SMURF station/buoy, and I quickly had a mini panic attack and had to stop after the first station. Once I got back on the deck of the boat, I got violently sea sick and threw up throughout each subsequent station. It was super cool being able to go out in open ocean, but it’s definitely not for me hahaha. BUT, it was really cool to see Abby in such a comfortable setting. For context, Abby is on her way to getting her dive masters, and is already really used to these kinds of scenarios and settings and seeing her in the water was such a treat. She seemed so calm and in her element.
Afterwards, we came back to Newport to process the fish we caught via the SMURFs!
check out those colors!!!
Processing the fish in the lab afterwards was definitely more of my jam.
Further evidence that I’m destined for lab work.
Other work happenings….
Micaela at Wednesday donuts with my new wide-angle lens!
Labeling for dayssssss
I’ve mostly been on Excel/data work for most of the week:
note: Annie’s graham cracker snacks have been maintaining and guiding my desk side munchies towards a more manageable level
Bothering Micaela in her office
Grinding up green macro-algae samples for stable isotope studies (N15 specifically)
Some of the OSG scholars got together to watch the Grudge in the dining hall one night, so this is Abby and I imitating the Grudge girl a day later.
before
after
Bulls-eye at Bier One!!
One of the cool things about being this far along in the summer– you have enough data to actually analyze what you’ve been doing! So, after plotting the data we have accumulated from the estuary CTD/chlorophyll cruises, we found one of the extreme outliers was Alsea River.
So far, through our data analysis, we see a very clear trend across the board in all estuaries—as you increase salinity in these systems, you also see a correlated increase in phosphates. This can imply that there are oceanic drivers of nutrients and phosphates. However, Alsea showed high levels of chlorophyll and nutrients at a mid level of salinity, instead of this increasing trend we see with other Oregonian estuaries. We assumed the Alsea water samples already entered had been collected during an algal bloom, so we decided to do another sampling at Alsea a couple days ago to see if the data we had before was indeed, abnormal of typical Alsea conditions.
I analyze the samples we obtained on Thursday this upcoming week, so I’ll keep you posted as to what we find!
I got off work on Friday at 1:00pm, and brainstormed what I could do with all my free time. I visited the Hatfield visitor center and thoroughly went through all the exhibits, reading everything and watching every video. I was surprised I hadn’t done so yet, considering how long we’ve been at Hatfield already!
Also, unrelated, but this is a Potato Au Gratin dish I made for a get-together/potluck and I’m very proud of it.
Over the weekend, a few interns and I headed to Cascade Head and hiked to the top~
Remember when I said Salmon River was my favorite field site? I’m so glad I got to come back to Salmon again, this time with all mah new frands.
hanging out on the dock
Then after our hike, we visited Pacific City to go to Pelican Brewery and to hang out on the beach.
After a very jam-packed day, we chilled at the dorms and talked until the morning. This is Ron wanting to go to bed.
Also, since I’m not used to my GoPro yet, I have yet to make it a habit to upload all my pictures! Prepare for a photo-dump of photos taken from before.
From our weekend going up to Washington for the Gorge Amphitheater:
Field work:
Camping at the mid-summer check in!
Also this past week, for two days in a row, Abby and I decided to take advantage of living so close to the water, and just jump in after work!
“See you next week!”
Photo heavy, but photo-phantastic! Thanks for sharing such a great blend of work, fun, and real life for those of us out here in blog-land. Seasickness is no joke, and I’m glad you’ve found your passion in the lab. Any sneak-peak data results to share?