The River Walk

09/10/2012

On this day our Lab consisted of a river walk on the Ocmulgee River to do some observations and get acquainted with the life of the outdoors.

Here is a image of the Zone of Study that we observed. During our observations we explored the clam population and flow rate of the river. We were supposed to measure the elevation of the river but unfortunately did not get to that because of technicalities. To get an accurate count of clams we used a sifting  tool which had several different levels eventually reaching the level of only the solids (clams). When doing the clam population we discovered that the number of clams living in the river differed immensely from those living in the river's islands. The clams were found to be in greater population in the river compared to the river's bed. The exact reason for this is not completely determined but I think it is because the nutrients water brings to clams. We also measured the flow rate of the river by collecting objects that would move down the river such as a bottle. The flow rate was measured by releasing the object at a certain location and recording the time it took to get to the end. This is usually done in a linear manner. The flow rate is determined by  distance divided by the time. As I mentioned we did not get to measure the elevation on the river, but I still would like to explain it to my knowledge. If we were to measure the elevation we would have to take a tool that consists of two poles and a piece of string separating the two pole which has marks on them representing levels.  We would take the two poles, put them in the ground and mark the level increasingly.