Week of 04/07

Nobody went out in the field this week, and everybody has finished collecting their samples (or they should be...). We focused on our final report first draft and finishing up any statistics and graphs that did not get finished or perfected last week.

I helped Alyson run some of her stats in JMP and make some graphs because she was sick last week when I spent a lot of time working on mine in the lab with Dr. Entrekin and Ali. Our group worked on our report draft using google docs and it was fantastic. We can comment for each other and when we do work we don't do something that somebody else has already done because we can see the updated version on Google docs. There were some controversies over a few parts of our draft but it all worked out. I know that both Alyson and I have our Trimble points on an Arc map. two of my points are missing, and one of them is way off north where I definitely did not go to sample. At first I thought it was accurate, but I would have had to have walked through the water to get to the location that is recorded. I'm not sure why it is so inaccurate because it has tree information that I recorded in it. We will still need to go back in and add Ali's sample points and correct mine. I also have a duplicate point.

Alyson and I worked in the GIS lab to make locator maps and maps showing our points so that we would be able to put our own work into the report and not have to use a map that somebody else made.

I think our first draft of our report is farily good. There are still things that I want to add for the discussion, and I think our discussion at this point is a little weak. We also need a paragraph or something to conclude the entire document. At this point it kind of just stops.

I volunteered this morning for Girls of Power in STEM (GPS) from 7:30 to about 9:45. I helped with registration of the teams, team leaders, and students. It was exciting and I think I would have enjoyed fully participating for the entire time. Unfortunately I have other things I had to do today so I was unable to stay longer than just for registration. I got a T-shirt and a goody bag out of it though! I think the GPS program is a really good idea and I hope the students get a lot out of it for the remaining time they have left.

Alyson and I worked on the beginnings of our presentation, which we are also doing through Google because it worked so well last time. Ali had a prior commitment in NLR this morning and couldn't join us. We will be working on the presentation and polishing our report for the final version throughout the week.

Late Review of Night Sampling

It only just occurred to me that I hadn't posted about the night spider data collection that took place nearly a week ago. Though many had been asked to go, and several gave a "strong maybe" response, in the end, only 4 of us showed up. Myself, my lab partner Gray, and the Entrekins. Despite lower than expected participation, the search went wonderfully. Professor Entrekin taught us a method for scanning an area for spiders using flashlights reflecting off of spider eyes. While at first I had trouble seeing things, I quickly found it was a matter of location. In the tall grass areas, there was too much interference. In the short grass area, there didn't appear to be much to see. But in the leaf litter under the trees, the effects of this method became clear. The further you walked into the trees, the more little sparkles you saw reflecting back at you. It became a little startling just how many spiders had been under my feet that whole time. Later, Gray and I took a moment in the control site to just stand in silence with the lights turned off. Once your eyes adjust to the low levels of light, the bayou becomes quite a beautiful and peaceful place. Before I left, I encountered a large frog (where was he when I was looking for frogs?!?), and heard something rustling in the leaves near the edge of the control site. I assume it was a herd of deer, but my spotlight had died, and I had no way to pursue them. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable experience.

Tooling for citizen science

While you guys were at UCA slogging through your data, I was in Springfield Mass attending a conference. I learned some things that I wanted to share with you all. I know that some of  you are familiar with some of these resources, but probably not all of them. They can be used in multiple different ways and are a good way to keep your foot in ecology if you move out of the field when you graduate. Hope you find this helpful. ~Sally


*Applications for Iphone and Android smartphones*
*Ebird*‑id and document birds found in the field
*iNaturalist*‑enter notes and images that are shared with others and
automatically puts gps point
*BAMONA* (Butterflies and Moths of North America)

*Natures Notebook*
*itree*‑assessing and managing community forests
*mytreetracker*

*Big data collected and transmitted in real time*. Students can use
these
data for labs. Some colleges have written proposals to fund the
development
of a course centered around the Serengeti dataset.

https://www.zooniverse.org/
http://www.snapshotserengeti.org/

Samples

 I finished identifying my samples except for a few things that I want Dr. Entrekin to check for me. I am very sad that we had to cut the wood samples but I hope to be able to finish them next semester since I will still be at UCA. Now I am excited to sit down and actually see the results and see how similar the sites are. I think that as a group we still have a few decisions to make but everything is coming along well. Now we will analyze the data and work on our final reports. We also need to take another look at our Trimble data and figure out why some of our points are not showing up after the transfer. 

Week of 3/31

This week I worked with my data. For me, personally, I think this was a highly productive week in that regard. I learned how to make a data matrix, and I downloaded JMP and learned how to use it to run the stats that we needed to look at, and I learned a few new things about excel. Ali and I worked with our data on Friday with Dr. Entrekin helping and guiding. The three of us had a really good discussion about Ali's hydrology and the variation within the wetland. There is pooling near the middle school and in the degraded site, but there is not pooling near the main channel and pre-impact site 1. Why is there a difference? We decided that some of it could be due to foot and vehicle traffic, and the lack of trees.

I think I have finished working with my data and making graphs, but I'm not 100% confident that I did everything correctly. I got a lot done this week. I have four graphs, one of which is a stacked graph. I had never made a stacked graph before and I had problems understanding how it worked in regards to setting up my matrix to get it to display what I wanted, but it is finished and looks pretty!

Catching Up

So as some have noticed, I am awful about not making these posts as often as I should. I'm not much of a blogger (I generally don't have much more interaction with technology than I have to when it comes to social media). That being said, I also haven't had much to say. The short summary is that collecting amphibian data was not going well at all. Though I could see frogs (and took a number of photographs that will eventually make their way onto this page, as soon as I can sort and edit them from my phone and camera), almost no frogs actually showed up in any of my samples. I have actually felt pretty bad about that, since it seems that most if not all of my classmates have completed sampling and are well into their analysis of their data, and yet I haven't even collected any usable data. I have been going out at least once or twice a week, spending 5 or 6 hours at a time in the field trying to catch anything I can use, but it just didn't pan out. In response to that, my topic has changed from amphibians to spiders (a last minute switch that has left me scrambling to restart and do a lot of things in a short amount of time). Last night I went out with my lab partner and we were able to sample two transects each at the P2 and Control site. The P2 site had an exceptional number of spiders, and I was relieved to finally have some data. The Control site had significantly less data, with only 3 spiders turning up between the two transects. This isn't such a bad thing, though it is a curious result as one might expect there to be more spiders in the Control site than in the other sites. I still need to do a lot of research on spiders, sampling methods, and things of that sort, but again, I am quite pressed for time (between this course and several tests and papers coming up in the next two weeks, I probably won't sleep much more than I did last week, averaging about an hour and a half per night). Last night I finally received an email to download the JMP program for statistics, though I had sent the request for it Wednesday, and everyone else got their email within a few minutes, an hour tops. I don't know why mine didn't come until last night, but I ended up passing out before I had time to play with my data. That is on the agenda for today, as well as the research for spider sampling methods.

Tonight however, I have different plans. I am attempting to organize a group spider sampling event, in which anybody that shows up will help us search for spiders for a given time at each site within a given location. I need any help that I can get, so if you are reading this and have some spare time tonight around 7, please send me an email at ksullins@email.com. I'm ironing out some details for that this afternoon, but after yesterday's success at P2, I am hopeful that this is going to be equally as effective. A quick note, if you have a flashlight or two, the brighter the better, bring it. We will be using them to try and reflect light off of spider webs and spider silk threads along the ground and trees. I wish I had more information at this time, but I will release more information as it becomes available.

Field Post 1 (P1 and Degraded sites)

Completed dip netting of P1 and the Degraded site. Results: P1 had very few visible amphibians, with only 2 frogs seen and 1 large tadpole captured on the 7th of 10 attempts (an attempt being 4 sweeps of 1 meter each). A few crayfish were captured in the process. The Degraded site had frogs everywhere, constantly jumping off the banks as I walked. There was no sign of tadpoles nor were any caught, however one frog was captured on the 8th of 10 attempts, and crayfish were captured in abundance in every attempt. Several other fish and insects were captured and seen as well. Spiders were nearly as common as frogs. In the distance, large white birds are constantly visible in the more secluded wetlands. Of the frogs in the ruts of the degraded site, there appear to be between 3-5 species, varying in size and color. None larger than an inch or smaller than a half inch.

A few photos were acquired and will be loaded later.