Environmental Science (EVS) 616
Field Practicum in Coastal Science
A Coastal Institute IGERT Project Class
Summer 2006

Week of May 22

Low DO in Upper Narragansett Bay

Monday, 9 a.m. MERL Conference Room, GSO
Standardize temperature, salinity and oxygen sondes. Quality control, calibration, verification. Visit fixed site GSO Dock and Buoy equipment. Manage data, perform data analyses. Bring laptop if possible.

Tuesday, 8:45 a.m. Eastern Surveyor at Allen Harbor.
(directions & map) When you get to the harbor, you'll see a field of new cars. Turn left when the road ends, taking you directly to the marina and parking lot. The boat is an 80 ft. vessel, so should be easy to spot among the 20 - 30 ft. boats. Box lunch provided.

Perform shipboard SeaBird surveys for temperature, salinity, oxygen. Quality control data.

Readings:
Carpenter, S.R. 1998. The need for large-scale experiments to assess and predict the response of ecosystems to perturbation. p. 287 - 312. In M.L. Pace and P.M. Groffman (ed.) Successes, limitations, and frontiers in ecosystem science. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Bergondo et al. 2005. Time-series observations during the low sub-surface oxygen events in Narragansett Bay during summer 2001. Marine Chemistry 97:90-103.

RIDEM. 2003. The Greenwich Bay fish kill - August 2003: causes, impacts, and responses. 32 pp.

Week of May 30
(Monday, May 29
Memorial Day Holiday)

Packing List

Monomoy Wildlife Refuge, Cape Cod

Tuesday 8 a.m. Depart GSO for Chatham, MA.
Lunch at the Refuge while Steph gives an overview of horseshoe crabs, shorebirds, and management at the Refuge. Afternoon at the beach tagging crabs, followed by a quick look at statistics at the office.
Wednesday Overview of shorebirds and public use (esp. shellfishing). Intro to designing a shorebird study. Intro to shorebird identification. Data collection on North Monomoy Island. Back to the office to enter data into spreadsheets, discuss statistical methods, findings, additional questions.
Wednesday 8 p.m. Return to GSO.

Readings:
Burger et al. 1997. Importance of beach, mudflat and marsh habitats to migrant shorebirds on Delaware Bay. Biological Conservation 79:283-292.

Gill et al. 2001. Why behavioural responses may not reflect the population consequences of human disturbance. Biological Conservation 97:265-268.

James-Pirri et al. 2005. Spawning densities, egg densities, size structure, and movement patterns of spawning horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, with four coastal embayments on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Estuaries 28:296-313.

Benthic Studies

Monday: READ...

Valente, R.M. et al. 1992. Mapping of benthic enrichment patterns in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Estuaries 15:1-17.

Nilsson, H.C. and R. Rosenberg. 1997. Benthic habitat quality assessment of an oxygen stressed fjord by surface and sediment profile images. J. Marine Syst. 11:249-264.

Solan, M. et al. 2003. Towards a greater understanding of pattern, scale and process in marine benthic systems: a picture is worth a thousand worms. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 285-286:313-338.

Tuesday (weather day Wednesday): 7 a.m. Meet at East Greenwich Boat Launch, Crompton Ave. (map;Right off Rte 1 North OR at Rte 401 got straight through light and take a left onto Crompton Ave. The boat ramp will be on your right. Park in the lot above the launch site).

Three shifts will be collecting data: 7 am to 11 am; 11 am to 3 pm; 3 pm to 7 pm. All shifts will embark/disembark at the East Greenwich boat launch.

Box lunches will be at the boat launch starting at 10:45 a.m. All those embarking at 11 am should plan to eat before embarking.

Benthic and water column studies in Greenwich Bay.
An armada of 2 to 3 vessels will demonstrate the new Spy depth-profiling Camera with video camera, SubChem Nutrient Analyzer, Acoustic Doppler Current System, SeaBird CTD.
(details)

Wednesday: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Data Analysis
Large Classroom, South Lab, GSO (map)
map of Tuesday's sampling sites

Policy SimLab and GIS

Readings:
Petrie,R. et al. 2004. Crops, water usage, and auction experience in the 2002 irrigation reduction auction. Water Policy Working Paper #2004-014.

Cummings, R.G. et al. 2002. Using laboratory experiments for policy making: an example from the Georgia irrigation reduction auction.

Monday: 9:30 a.m. 201 CIK. Focus Group (Fellows Only)

Noon to 1:30 - Lunch on your own

1:30 SimLab Tour (Faculty and Fellows)

2 to 3:30 Laboratory experiment in economics (Faculty and Fellows)

Tuesday:
Morning (9:00 AM to Noon, Policy Simulation Lab) - GIS as a Support Tool in Coastal Science. With a guest appearance by Greg Bonynge, the RI Geospatial Extension Specialist. Click here for the schedule
Afternoon (CIK 117) - Criticism in Science Workshop

Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CACS 111 at GSO

Preparation for the visit to the Baltimore LTER

Please bring your laptop (am checking if CACS is wireless, so stay tuned...)

The goal is to get as much as possible done now so you'll be able to focus, enjoy the visit, and be comfortable giving an assessment on the last day of the visit. You should be able to do a great deal of thinking/reflecting/organizing during this time.

9 to 10 or so...Group orientation to the site review process & walk through printed material from the Baltimore LTER with Art
10:30 to ??.....Two groups meet to break down the specific tasks for the two review components (one per group). Create an outline for your assessment, identifying areas that will need further inquiry when you visit the site(s), compile initial thoughts based on reading materials and web pages. Identify specific questions you want to get answered, assign tasks to group members.

Printed copies of relevant material will be distributed at today. Feel free to do some reading (below) before we meet. You can amaze everyone with your familiarity with all things Baltimore LTER.

Baltimore Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Site

Exploring Human Dimensions: A Major Challenge for Ecosystem Scientists

www.beslter.org

Readings:

Program Overview (Everyone reads)

Excerpts from the Baltimore LTER Renewal Proposal (pdf)

Renewal proposal on the web with important links:
Welcome - Central Questions
Welcome - Watershed Atlas
Using Science - Overview
Using Science - Programs (we will visit Watershed 263)
Poster - Baltimore Ecosystem Study Overview
Products - Overview
Products - One Pagers - Stream Studies
Products - One Pagers - Linking Science and Decision Making
Products - One Pagers - People as Part of the Ecosystem
Products - One Pagers - Education

Question 1 - Fluxes

Groffman et al. 2004. Nitrogen fluxes and retention in urban watershed ecosystems. Ecosystems 7:393-403.

Kaye et al. 2006. A distinct urban biogeochemistry? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:192-199.

Questions 2 and 3: Relationships and Linkages

Cook et al. 2004. Learning to roll with the punches: adaptive experimentation in human-dominated systems. Front Ecol Environ 2:467-474.

Watershed 263 Highlights follow the informational links in paragraph 5