What is Sarah Ridgway doing?

There are 19 brilliant teachers from all over the country in my group. I am being hosted by Environment Canterbury in the Water Science Team. It has been an exciting time, with many opportunities to challenge my thinking and ignite my passion for science.

I have spent time working with the water quality team, testing the water quality of the tributaries to Te Waihora. We assessed habitat, looking at the percentage of Macrophyte (aquatic plant) coverage, sediment, temperature, clarity, salinity, nitrates, phosphorus and EColi. I loved being out learning about the methods and processes they use to collect this data. I feel so lucky to work with very passionate and knowledgeable scientists who are willing to take the time to answer ALL of my questions… I have a lot of questions!

I have also spent time with the coastal water quality and ecology team. They are currently testing a number of estuaries and mudflats for data towards the ‘State of the Environment’ data set. We trudged out approximately 1km through mud at Head of the Bay carrying buckets, spades, sample pots, sieves, measuring tapes and marker poles. Once we found the GPS point we had to start at, we got stuck in! At sites like this, there is no time to muck around as the tides control your testing time. Here we took core samples to look at sediment layers, sieved these samples through a 1mm mesh and took what was left back to the lab so it could be sorted under a microscope. We also took surface sediment samples that were packaged and sent off to the lab. Using a 50cm quadrat at 12 locations we looked at what living organisms were living on the surface of the mudflat. There were a lot more than I expected, but sadly not as much variety as there has been in the past. There was clearly a muddy layer of sediment covering the surface, this is mainly from run-off from road works and farms. A lot of the living creatures cannot survive in this extremely dense environment.

I have learnt a number of words I had never heard of before, I have added a few words below… I believe these words can relate to some of the projects we are involved in at Ladbrooks School.

Eutrophication is an excessive richness of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life.

Anthropogenic eutrophication(chiefly of environmental pollution and pollutants) originating in human activity.