Environmental Science – Mt. Whitney Trans-Sierra Trek

#1: Walking transect

The goal of our walking transect is to immerse students in the plant communities of the region as they walk through them, and to draw attention to the reasons why community assemblages shift as a result of abiotic conditions.

This lab takes place across the entire trip. At regular intervals during our trek, students will record a waypoint, including altitude, and do a quick survey of tree species present. By the end of the journey, they will have a data table that records the biodiversity across the length of the trek.

They will represent this data with a chart showing distance, altitude, and tree species. This is a 5 ft long chart, with species represented by color. Points of interest will be noted along the route, and the shifting assemblages become easy to talk about as a function of altitude, slope, aspect, etc. Students become familiar with abundance, distribution, and local naturalism.

#2 Soil science

The goal of the soil science lab is for students to understand limiting factors in the environment, and to introduce ideas supporting soil retention (negative feedback) and understanding how runaway erosion can occur because of deforestation (positive feedback).

We will take soil chemistry indices, including nitrate and phosphate tests, as well as do a soil composition analysis. These analyses will take place in forests of different types along the trek, allowing students to create and test hypotheses relating to communities, succession, competition, and soil quality.

#3 Water quality indices

Water quality indices are a hallmark of secondary science and outdoor education programs. Collecting water chemistry and temperature data, and surveying marcoinverterbrates is a great, low tech and fun way to engage student groups with science.

We will be using these indices as a baseline for student question asking, hypothesis testing and comparative analysis. Along with soil chemistry data, water chemistry data will be retained to establish a longitudinal data set from our programs moving forward.

#4 Microcrustaceans, UV and glacial history

This activity is an extension of our water quality studies, to include lakes. Students will collect all standard water quality indices at the lakes along our trek. By design we will be steering them towards indices that respond to human pressure as we approach the second half of our trek (nitrates, phosphates, BOD).

Lakes also offer us an interesting opportunity to study different fauna, such as the microcrustaceans that typically populate still water. Studying these organisms with field microscopes gives us a launching point to discuss glacial history in the region. These organisms are easy to collect, and allow us to discuss glacial expansion and retraction, refugia and post glacial dispersal.

Students will also use a Secchi Disk to measure turbidity and allow us to discuss UV penetration into high altitude lakes. We will also be doing comparative analyses on pH of streams, lakes, and snow to discuss acid deposition, and the connectedness of global systems (atmosphere, water).

#5 Snow Science

While we hope to encounter snow on Colby Pass, this may not be the case every year. However, when conditions permit, we will perform various analyses on the snow.

Students will focus on density, dissolved solids, and we will use surface temperatures of variably reflective surfaces to discuss albedo and negative feedback.