Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Mayberry | Hill Slough

Gilbert Tract: 2024-06-25 10:25:00 (DOY 177)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Jess Turner

Summary: CRAM assessment, regular data collection/cleaning, heat wave coming

2024-06-25
Gilbert Tract

I had planned to meet Jess Turner and her team at Sherman Island this morning to accompany them on their CRAM assessment at Mayberry and at the Sherman Wetland site. CRAM = California Rapid Assessment Method, a standardized field methodology for assessing the ecological functioning of wetlands. Jess is with the Central Coast Wetlands Group at Moss Landing Marine Labs and the CRAM work will be part of her M.S. project at CSUMB looking at wetlands conditions and carbon burial rates.

Unfortunately, a natural gas-powered garbage truck caught on fire on I-680 North in Concord, closing down all northbound lanes AND two southbound lanes. It took me two hours to get from campus to the Delta area. Since the CRAM assessment was going quickly for them, they also wanted to add Gilbert Tract to their plan for the day. I decided to skip Sherman Island and just meet them at Gilbert Tract instead.

It's only been a week since the last visit, but the field schedule got jiggered because of the CRAM assessment. There will also be a big heat wave in the next two weeks.

I arrived at the channel at 10:25 PST (11:25 PDT). It was warm and humid with partial cloud cover. I even got some raindrops on Highway 4 near Pittsburgh. A cool breeze provided relief. There was a small drone flying overhead near the levee breach, but I didn’t see anybody else around. The tide was ebbing. There will be a major heat wave in the next two weeks with highs near 43C(110F)!!

I downloaded Flo’s data, reset its clock, and restarted logging. There were a handful of ants in the enclosure so I put in a mothball.

I got to the tower at 10:40 PST (11:40 PDT). The staff gauge read 61cm at 10:55 PST. I also measured the surface water conductivity.

Sample, temperature-compensated conductivity, temperature
Surface, 232.0 uS, 23.5 C

I downloaded met and USB GHG data. I forgot the spare camera card (and the card reader), so I didn’t download camera data this time. The dfPAR data seems ok now since we installed the new motor (with motor control board) at the last visit. I cleaned flux and rad sensors and cleaned the camera enclosure inside and out. I topped off the wash reservoir and left a prophylactic mothball in the met enclosure.

I checked on the Song Meter Micro and synched its location and time with my phone via the app, but I didn’t collect data since I didn’t have my card reader. I swapped the desiccant for the Song Meter Micro and tied it back up on the tower.

The 7500 read: 420ppm CO2, 808mol/m3 H2O, 26.4C, 101.0kPa, 98SS – 98 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 2.15ppm CH4, 37RSSI – 86 after cleaning

While I waited for Jess and her team, I trimmed back the tules and cattails from around the tower. I also re-organized some of the cables that are tied to the scaffolding, especially the ones between the 7550 and met box.

Jess and two people from Americorp/CCC arrived around 12:30 PST (13:30 PDT). They did their whole assessment using a color printout of the satellite view of the site, and a quick look from the top of the tower (“R stands for rapid!”). They graded the wetland among multiple categories, such as:
- Hydrologic connectivity: are there any barriers that impede flow?
- Ecological connectivity: are there any barriers that would prevent animals from moving around freely? (a paved road might impede movement, but our dirt road did not count as a barrier)
- Clumping of vegetation: 4 categories, with the top category showing multiple, distinct clumps, and the bottom category showing an indistinguishable mass.
- Vertical heterogeneity of vegetation: 4 categories, with the top category showing extensive vertical canopy heterogeneity, like we see among the tules/cattails
- Looking for patchiness(?) such as burrows
- Presence of secondary channels
- % waterways vs ponds (I think)
- % native plants (I told them it was probably >75%)

They finished their assessment as we left around 13:30 PST (14:30 PDT). I called Robert to check in with him, Irene, and Koong who were taking soil samples at Hill Slough today. They were also wrapping up soon so I headed back to the lab.

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7 sets found

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16 GT_met graphs found