Another Sampling Day? But Why?

Last week I took my research team out to collect more sediment from St. Andrews Bay. This is the second Fall sampling event I have organized in the bay, potentially surprising for a one-year study. However, the sampling trip is imperative for my research. I was unable to sample from one of the two wastewater treatment plant sites during my first two trips to St. Andrews Bay. Therefore, the samples I processed and the data I have are representative of one polluted site and three reference sites. Such a low sample size is unrepresentative of what is happening in the system. On this most recent trip, my team and I sampled from all of the sites and from the second wastewater treatment plant. We collected subsamples from all of the sites that I had previous Fall data for to assess whether the Fall samples differ between the two years. If there is no difference between the two years, then I can confidently compare the previous Fall samples from all of the sites to the new Fall samples from the second wastewater treatment plant site. 

The weather was beautiful, the water calm, and the company great. However, everything broke in the field. One of the boat's motors died, the truck died as we were trying to trailer the boat, and I even had an issue with my equipment in the field. I did fix the equipment in the picture, but nothing else. Luckily, we collected all of the samples and transported them back to the lab, where they await processing. I hope to finish working on these samples before the Spring semester starts, since I will go out in the field in January/February to collect one more round of samples for this research. Once the Spring semester starts, I will also dedicate more time to microplastic analysis, so look out for more laser analysis commentary and images!

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