Dr Dana Warren unfurls a large spool of 1/2 inch irrigation tubing used in the warming portion of the study
Drought Experiment 2022
Dr. Dana Warren, Dr. Catalina Segura, and graduate student Allison Swartz are exploring how drought conditions affect streams and the animals that live in streams. Under low-flow conditions, trout and salamanders aggregate in pools or cooler water, increasing competition for macroinvertebrate prey, and causing reduced growth and survival. Groundwater inputs may reduce the severity of drought effects on stream flow and temperature. In 2021 and 2022 the researchers conducted a drying and warming experiment in a stream at the Andrews Forest. They created separate sections of stream with (a) low flow and (b) elevated temperatures (using passive heating of water traveling through black coils of tubing before returning the water to the stream). They measured groundwater contributions using longitudinally distributed temperature sensors and synoptic measurements of O18. In the study and control stream sections, they measured prey availability, fish and salamander individual growth, abundance, survival, and use of deep pools. Also see photos from the Drought Experiment 2021 field season.
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_001
The dewatering experiment involves using irrigation tubing to circumvent a section of stream. This is the discharge reduction reach with 4" bypass tubing
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_002
Undergraduate technician Casey Warburtun organizes tubing
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_003
Dr Dana Warren, a stream ecologist, is part of the research team trying to understand the effects of drought and warming on streams
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_004
Dr Catalina Segura, a geomorphologist, is part of the research team trying to understand the effects of drought and warming on streams
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_005
Graduate student Allison Swartz (left) and faculty researcher Catalina Segura (right) ready the pump which will move streamwater through coils of black tubing
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_006
Graduate student Allison Swartz inspects the pump and hose used to initiate the siphons for the warming lines. Water will be pulled from this section of the stream, warmed through black tubing sitting in the sun, and then deposited back into the stream
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_007
coils of black tubing and a repurposed air mattress hold the stream water and warm it in the sunshine
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_008
coils of black tubing and a repurposed air mattress hold the stream water and warm it in the sunshine
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_009
Dr. Dana Warren (left) and Dr Lenka Kuglerova (right), a visiting scientist from Umeå University in Sweden, organize and place tubing for the experiment
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_010
the warming lines (1/2 inch irrigation tubing) follow the streambed and will eventually empty into a section downstream
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_011
the experimental drought reach of the experiment
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_012
A student researcher pulls the warming tubing through the study area
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_013
An undergradate researcher, Casey Warburtun, runs the warming tubing over the stream discharge reduction reach down to the warming reach
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_014
the study area of the dewatering and drought experiment
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_015
Undergraduate researcher Casey Warburton (front) and graduate student Allison Swartz (back) run the 1/2 irrigation warming lines past the low-flow reach to the warming reach.
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_016
Marking the different warming irrigration lines
Photographed by: Lina DiGregorio
Date: 7/21/2022
Photo number: afh_017