Students from Belle Sherman’s 5th grade classes did a great job today, helping us collect information on water conditions today! We focused on two topics, in particular.
First, we scouted locations for this Sunday's Eco-cruise, when Cornell's mini-sub will create video surveys of underwater plant communities. Mr Van Slyke’s class took samples of lake plants near the west shore, and Mr. Field’s class collected samples from the East Shore. Both sample sites revealed curly-leafed pondweed (Potemageton crispus), Northern Eurasion Milfoil, Naiads and Elodea. Some of the Pondweed plants were already over 6 feet tall! Living in association with these plants, we found small crustaceans called amphipods, and also many caddis fly larvae, rolled up in protective leaf sheathes. We decided that the east shore would be our first priority for a video survey. Additionally, based on our Secchi disk readings, which only 3 M on the East shore, we decided that plants may start to be sunlight-limited (I.e. not enough sunlight to grow) at depths over 9M (about 30 feet). We’ll try to verify that on Sunday (June 20).
