Peter has been continuing his monitoring and manipulating of snow cover in his plots this winter, and he has periodically collected samples. Today, sampling didn’t quite go as expected; an off-the-chart flooding event washed through three of his five plots, effectively destroying them by altering organic matter and leaf distribution within the flooded plots. Regardless, Peter salvaged samples from two un-scathed plots and we sample the others just in case there’s something interesting to be found.
Some photos showing riparian flooding:
Showing the extent of the flooding, Peter stands 50 m away at the edge of the stream, and I take a photo from the edge of the flooded area.Riparian zone cleared of most of its leaves and all of its snow.
More leaf and snow clearing
Leaves piles on the base of saplings
Sediment and leaf clearing
A non-flooded plot:
Snow removal plot in the foreground, and the edges of the ambient snow and snow-added plot in the background.
Snow-added
Sampling flooded plots:
The flood waters surrounded and deposited sediment and organic matter around the edges of a snow-added plot
An ambient-snow plot after flooding
Depth of added snow
A quadrat used to remove a sample of litter from a flooded snow-removed plot
Above and here, the story of Peter removing a sample from a snow-added plot
Removing litter
Representing Kent State.
Ariel can't help but smile, even while working in a muddy, frozen, environment.
Another snow-added plot showing evidence of flooding.
