TGEOS 445 - Spring 2023

UW Tacoma Field Course - TGEOS 445 Estuarine Field Studies - Spring Quarter 2023. Students learn about Puget Sound and how to do oceanographic field work by sampling water properties using a CTD (temperature, salinity, density, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and transmissivity) and collecting discrete samples and analyzing them for chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen and nutrients, as well as phytoplankton. In addition, we periodically collect van veen sediment samples, horizontal plastics surface net tows and an occasional vertical zooplankton net tow (if ship facilities allow). All students rotate and learn all methods and write up field reports weekly as a research team. The final project consists of building a course website providing on overview with data and interpretation for all areas the team studied. Each pair of students are responsible for summarizing what we found in a particular area of Puget Sound.