Collaboration with NOAA and DNR – stream food web research:

As part of the T3 Watershed forest harvest experiment on the Olympic Experimental Forest-https://www.onrc.washington.edu/t3-watershed-experiment/, this is an opportunity to collaborate with scientists from NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) and the Washington DNR (Department of Natural Resources).  

For several years scientists have been collecting 2-3 years of pre-logging data while post-logging data collection is underway. Although this project could not directly address the logging question, this data set presents a unique opportunity for someone interested in stream food web ecology to ask a variety of questions about energy flow and growth conditions for stream rearing fish (coho, rainbow, cutthroat and sculpins).

The data set consists of 2 years of pre-logging data on stream invertebrate drift, benthic invertebrates, and fish diets collected in summer from 16 streams in the T3 Watershed. Associated with these data are several environmental covariates including water temperature, stream nutrients, physical habitat (e.g., wood density, gradient) and fish populations (density, biomass). All of the invertebrate data mentioned above is summarized as density, biomass, and energy density. Interested students could collaborate with Peter Kiffney at NOAA, Teodora Minkova and Kyle Martens at DNR. Please contact Carri LeRoy if you are interested to learn more and make contact with these collaborators.