Day 4: Summer student journals learning experience in the field

This is part four of a six-part series in which Lauren MacDonald documents her internship experience as an environment summer student with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI). Here are MacDonald’s notes, in her own words.

Notes from the field day 4: installing water temperature loggers

I spent the afternoon with Rosie MacFarlane, a provincial freshwater biologist, as we travelled to five sites within the Morell watershed to install water temperature loggers.

Water temperature loggers continuously monitor a wide range of water temperatures. The loggers are positioned just above the stream bottom and anchored with a cement block. At the time of each installation, we used a multiparameter water quality meter to assess and record water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity.

Assessing and recording the various parameters of water quality is essential to ensure that aquatic life and the surrounding ecosystem are healthy. The levels of dissolved oxygen in a stream decrease as the water gets warmer, which can stress or kill fish and shellfish. Open, flat, and marshy terrain often promote higher water temperatures.

Today, I learned that a system is considered to have been anoxic if it had an average daily dissolved oxygen value below 2 mg/L for two consecutive days.

In June 2024, a fish kill was reported in Morell River. Around this time, water testing was done showing dissolved oxygen levels far below what is needed to sustain fish in that section of the river. However, a combination of factors were likely involved.

What I enjoyed most about this process is getting to see the different water quality parameters in different sections of the same watershed area.

Next week, I am going out geese banding with Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Services. Check back in to learn more about what I am up to next!

Cheers,

Lauren

Lauren MacDonald is from Stratford and studied at the University of Prince Edward Island in the Bachelor of Science in Applied Climate Change and Adaptation program. She’s currently a master’s student at Dalhousie University studying resource and environmental management.   

Read more about MacDonald’s experiences this summer:

New series: summer student journals learning experience while in the field

Day 2: Summer student journals learning experience in the field 

Day 3: Summer student journals learning experience in the field