Brief Summary of the Project:
Brief Summary of the Project:
At the aquatic invertebrate lab, I have been working on research to compare initial species abundance and diversity to the most recent (2022) counts. I want to see how restoration might be affecting any changes we may see, but I am not yet sure how I will determine this. So far, I have been checking samples and recording filter beaker data to a shared excel sheet. I am also compiling and reading literature on brackish coastal lagoon invertebrates in order to learn some background information and get ideas about how to interpret our results. I am just now beginning the process of analyzing the data. I am reorganizing the data sheets and cleaning the data in R while doing research on how to code different types of plots in R.
Photo Courtesy of Lauren Stiles
Future Plans for the Lab:
For the rest of winter quarter, I will be working on making figures comparing 2019 macroinvertebrate and water quality data to the data from 2022. I plan to make a poster to present at the EEMB undergraduate symposium.
People Involved:
Lauren Stiles: Student Project Leader
Alison Rickard: Lab Director; CCBER Research and Monitoring Coordinator
Chris Kracha: Fellow Student Project Leader
Brenna Scholte: Student Intern
About the Project Leader:
My name is Lauren Stiles. I am a fourth year environmental studies student at UCSB. I got involved with the macroinvertebrate lab during the summer of 2021 and volunteered for a year. I became a student leader the following summer. Since the summer, I have been working on a research project analyzing collected macroinvertebrate and water quality data from the past three years. My interests include ecology, music, running, and reading.