Field trip: surface samples

My day started a bit earlier than most people’s. For my part of the field trip, I needed to go and get surface samples, and that works best during low water. That would be in the afternoon. I had to pick up the students from Bangor at 11, but I went to the lab before that; I had core samples to sieve out. And I managed to do that before I had to set off. Success! 

Then I picked up the students, and we went to HQ. There we devised a sampling strategy with concomitant logistics. And set off. 

Our logistic plan collapsed soon. In the woods we hit a blockage; there was forestry going on ahead and we couldn’t pass. We decided to walk from there. At least we were allowed to pass the actual logging on foot. And upon arriving by the marsh, we first sat down to have lunch. And then we got down to science. 

We first walked all the way down to pretty close to the other side of the estuary, inventorising potential sampling locations along the way. And on the way back we collected all the samples, and surveyed them in. It went well! And then we could go back. 

Walking back from sampling. One student really likes the tidal channel

The next day we did something similar, with some differences: I not only had to deal with the samples of the previous day, but had a cohort of students coming in to sieve the surface samples they had taken the day before. Also, the students voted to have lunch at HQ rather than in the field. And we spent a lot more time faffing with the GPS because it didn't want to play ball this time. And then, the bulk of my part of the field trip was done! I had to do two more mornings of sieving samples, and I was still needed for one more afternoon in the field, but there I was just an auxiliary in someone else's project. It had flown by! 

On the sandflat

There is, of course, still the practical in which the students create an actual data set. That is quite a lot of work as well. But that is something to worry about later…