Jeff Muehlbauer’s Research-Ecological effects of recreationalflow releases in the Adirondacks |
|
Contact me: jeffreym [at] unc [dot] edu |
|
Site Navigation |
|
I served as a field assistant for this project in the summer between graduating from Northern Arizona University and beginning graduate school at UNC. The project was actually the brainchild of my UNC advisor, Dr. Martin Doyle, and Dr. Randy Fuller from Colgate University, both of whom have additional projects on this river that I was not involved with and don’t discuss here. On the Indian River in the Adirondacks, the river floods to bankfull levels 4x weekly as a result of water releases from an upstream dam. The purpose of the flooding is to support a whitewater rafting industry. We looked at how macroinvertebrates, sediment, shear stress, etc. in the Indian River were affected by these regular, frequent floods. Using a reciprocal replacement of colonization trays from low shear stress to high shear stress areas of the river (and vice versa), we found that communities transplanted to high shear areas quickly resembled un-transplanted high shear stress communities (likely because non-adapted taxa were swept away). Trays moved to the low shear area took longer to equilibrate, however, likely because the environment was less harsh and allowed under-adapted taxa to persist. Perhaps more importantly, this project involved sitting in a ducky during floods in order to measure flood velocities. Seriously. All in the name of good data! Results of this study (with Randy as lead author) were published in the Journal of the North American Benthological Society (see my pubs page). |
|
Mailing Address UNC Curriculum for the Environment & Ecology CB 3275 Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA |
|
Physical Address 307 Whitehead Hall (Corner of Columbia St & South Rd) |
|
Last update: 5 January 2012 |
|
Home | CV | Research | Publications |
|
Research Projects
Flow Releases
|
|
In a ducky waiting for the flood. Undergrad Ben Bogardus does his best Tuskan Sand Raider impersonation. |
|
The flood comes. Notice Jeff gritting his teeth. |
|
Even Ben is starting to look nervous here. Moments later we lose our grip and go careening downriver. My hat continues on down to sleep with the fishes and mobsters in Hudson Bay, but Ben and I made it ashore (with velocimeter and ducky intact!) Good, clean fun. |
|
Now if the Aquadopp actually worked in cobble-bedded, shallow rivers (shown here on a mounting plate homemade by Jeff), ducky measurements wouldn’t have been necessary. |
|
Randy Fuller proudly displaying a hellgrammite. I don’t tell fish stories; I tell bug stories. |