Data Entry

We had a very productive week on the Harbor Islands and gathered a lot of data. The focus of this week is taking the data we collected in the field and manipulating it into a form that will be useful for the National Park Service and other scientists. We compiled our data in the standardized format that the Park Service uses; Noting the transect location, quadrat number, which side of the transect it was on, and all species found in each quadrat. As we entered our data into the database we kept an eye out for any trends on which we could focus our own more individual research questions, as well as looking for overall trends on which to perform statistical analyses. We also entered our beach profile data and made graphs that show the overall slope of each of our transects. All the water quality data that we collected was analyzed and entered into our database. We performed titrations on samples collected the week before in order to study the level of biological oxygen demand vs. the original dissolved oxygen content of sample areas.

Brainstorming research question ideas.

Data sheets, samples for identification, and a field guide.

Today we took all the samples that we collected in the field down to the lab where we used the microscope for identification purposes. We were able to identify all our samples except one mystery tunicate. We made a very exciting find today. It turns out that the shrimp we found on Lovells Island is Palaemon elegans, otherwise know as the European Rock Shrimp. Ours was the first specimen to have ever been documented in Boston Harbor. P. elegans was first found in Salem Massachusetts in 2010, which makes it a relative new comer to the area.

Winkling to Determine Biological Oxygen Demand (B.O.D)

Determining invasives/ non native species found in this year’s survey versus last year’s.