The majority of my summer will be spent learning R which is a computer programming language used for statistical analysis. After learning R, I will go through a substantial amount of data and look for any significant trends in water parameters near Tillamook Bay. By analyzing the data at Tillamook Bay through R, we can visualize how ocean conditions, such as pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature, have changed over the past few years. The data set is very large, so using a coding program like R will allow us to better organize the data and take out bad data points.

Once we have an understanding of these ocean trends, we can compare our results to other estuaries and see how this could affect oyster growth. Keeping track of how estuaries are responding to anthropogenic stressors, like excess carbon, is vital for maintaining the resilience of these ecosystems so they can continue to support the coastal community. This is essential to the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission, which works towards protecting both human health and the environment through writing, interpreting, and enforcing regulations. We hope to see how badly Tillamook is affected by ocean acidification which will allow policymakers to make informed decisions on how to combat the adverse consequences of climate change.