Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Mayberry | Gilbert Tract
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Hill Slough: 2023-06-29 09:00:00 (DOY 180)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Alex

Summary: Windy, low tide, knocked barnacles off of water sensors, CDFW wants to import tules from surrounding wetlands

2023-06-29
Hill Slough

Alex K. and I arrived at 9:00 PDT. It was windy and sunny and we could see fog over the Diablo foothills to our west. Originally I had planned to continue the 7700 calibrations today, but looking at the forecast in the past few days, I decided it was still too windy. Maybe in a few weeks. It was near low tide and the staff gauge read 3.4ft at 8:55 PST. With most of the ground around the boardwalk exposed, we could clearly see some emergent cattail coming up.

This is Alex’s first visit to the Delta on his sabbatical. I showed him how to clean the flux and rad sensors. I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. The wash reservoir was 80% full and we refilled it.

The 7500 read: 411ppm CO2, 578mmol/m3 H2O, 16.7C, 101.5kPa, 98SS – 100 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 2.0ppm CH4, 47RSSI – 70 after cleaning

After servicing the tower, we stopped at the channel so I could show Alex the water sensors. We rinsed out the eosGP screen (it wasn’t too bad) and I knocked off some barnacles growing on the eosGP and CTD sensor (they were growing in the few spots where there was no copper tape, such as on the connector). Some of the copper tape on the CTD is starting to come off. The EXO sensor lenses all seemed clean.

The water level was low enough that we needed to read the staff gauge by the channel. At the last visit, Robert had climbed down the boardwalk to read the staff gauge. I thought to repeat his trick this week, but in climbing down my feet slipped from the cross brace. My hold was good so only my feet got wet. I also hadn’t exactly planned how to get back up onto the boardwalk again, but Alex was able to give me a hand up. I need to move the staff gauge for a better viewing angle so we can read the water level without acrobatics.

While we were inspecting the channel sensors, Sarah from CDFW stopped by to chat. They are planning to move some tule islands/mats into our marsh, either by seeing if any nearby landowners are trying to clear their vegetation, or harvesting other floating mats from the marsh to our south. She confirmed that the “plantings” would not impact our measurements. She also said that next week they would be out in our area surveying for listed species. They usually try to wait for higher high tides for surveying so it’s easier to get their boat around. Full moon is next Monday.

We left at 10:00 PDT.

0 photos found

4 sets found

20 HS_met graphs found