Meg and Dan just finished an incredible weekend with the AP Environmental Science students from the Head Royce School in Oakland. These 14 students and two science teachers spent the weekend at Donner Summit doing research projects. This group did 5 different research projects with wide-ranging topics, but all projects were based around learning more about the ecosystems on Donner Summit.
Four girls, Hana, Nora, Aicha, and Chloe that were interested in soil nutrient distribution in the ecosystem. They focused on phosphorus because it is a limiting nutrient that can affect plant growth. They ran transects away from the lake for 50 meters and found that there wasn’t a big variation in phosphorus, but that is most abundant close to the lake bed. They concluded that overall the donner summit area is mainly depleted of phosphorus in the soil.
Jihae, Olivia, and Siena studied algae in two different waterways, the Headwaters of the South Yuba River in Van Norden Meadow, and Castle Creek where it meets Van Norden meadow. They chose this topic because meadows and creeks are critical water sources home to a range of species. While algae can be a great food source for some animals and insects algae blooms can deplete the water of oxygen and make it hard for animals to live there. They found that both Van Norden and Castle Creek had low levels of phosphate, nitrate, and nitrite as well as algae. Overall, they concluded that both waterways are very healthy and functioning well.
Matt and Daniel spent the weekend in the forest. They studied how do soil conditions (pH and moisture) affect tree growth and composition? They found that there was not a strong relationship between soil pH or moisture and tree size. They concluded that they could only test the pH of the very top layer of soil, but that the tree is mainly accessing nutrients from deep in the ground. If they were to try this again they would try to get soil samples from deeper.
Awo, Tess, and Jonathan studied the differences in water quality and macroinvertebrate diversity and abundance between Van Norden Meadow and Castle Creek. They found that the water quality was very similar between the two sites, however, the temperature was significantly colder in the creek and that diversity and abundance of bugs was significantly higher in Castle Creek than in Van Norden meadow. They concluded that the creek is a better ecosystem for the pollution intolerant macroinvertebrates.
Lastly, Lu and Hannah studied lichen. Their research question was, “Do primary or secondary growth forests provide a better habitat for lichens?” They found that significantly more trees in primary forests have lichen growing on them. Lichen are fragile and need healthy ecosystems to grow. They concluded that the primary growth forests have better overall health and a larger diversity of trees then the secondary growth forests. It is important to maintain our forests.
Lu Paris will be presenting her research on Lichen at the Celebrate Science Symposium on October 20th.
Meg, Dan, Gene and Hanna (their science teachers) learned a lot from their diverse research interests. We want to give a huge thank you to Gene and Hanna for going the extra mile to allow their students to pursue their research interests and helping mentor them on their projects.
