1 Sep, 2013 Author: gid
This summer, Living Observatory was humming with research activity. Danielle Hare, a Master’s student at UMass (Amherst), used upwards of 2.5 kilometers of fiber optic cable to gather continuous temperature data in all the major channels on the western side of the restoration area. Deploying the cable was a tricky operation; as classes start she will be processing and interpreting the results.
Beginning July 8, we offered a 6 week internship to Eric, Henry and Ben in which they learned to measure ground water levels with Kim Tower, one of the Town of Plymouth environmental technicians; identify a variety of native plants and a few invasive species, coached by our botanists, Irina Kadis and Alexey Zinovjev of geosalicicola.com; deploy fiber optic cable without creating a tangle (direction of Danielle); explore the Fresh Pond connector with Eric Hutchins (NOAA biologist) and create a water level and sediment marker just above the dam/. measure dissolved oxygen in our waterways with Alex Hackman, our restoration specialist from the Ma. Division of Ecological Restoration, using the SONDE, recently acquired by the Town thanks to the A.D. Makepeace Neighborhood Foundation install sensors with Brian Mayton and Gershon Dublon, two PhD candidates at the MIT Media Lab; here is their live feed from Tidmarsh.
Throughout the 6 weeks, we visited several related habitats including Eel River, the Ponkapoag Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and bog, and various locations in Myles Standish State Forest. For several hours each week, the interns worked on projects of their own choosing: Ben’s discovery of a basic, affordable soil moisture probe gave Henry the idea of building this probe into a low cost, hand-held unit, which he did. Meanwhile Eric honed his movie-making skills; often calling on Henry or Ben to help smoothly navigate our waterways, Eric captured a number of excellent time lapses. Eric’s four minute video about the restoration has just been entered into the Island Press student contest. You watch and VOTE herefrom September 3-10. Good Luck Eric!
We also hosted a visit by 3 artists - Kelly, Wendy and Lori - where were invited by MIT Media Lab PhD candidates Brian Mayton and Gershon Dublin. Our newly arrived videographer, Emmett captured the spirit of the visit. Thank you Emmett and Eric for significantly improving LO’s video archive.
On Sunday the 25th of August in collaboration with Public Lab, we hosted our last research event of the summer. We tested the wind using a kite, but soon transitioned to a balloon flyover. We used a consumer camera adopted for infrared which allowed us to capture the lush vegetative surface of the restoration area. You can help by ranking the images you will find here. Thank you Jeff and the team at http://publiclaboratory.org
Do we use a kite or balloon?
Photos of the Living Observatory 2013 Summer Interns (PDF file): http://tidmarshfarms.com/literature/LO_Summer2013_v3.pdf