Working on a video on what people call sinking islands

A lot of our project this year has been setting up a video on Delta levees and subsidence. There are 57 man-made islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to keep the rivers from flooding the islands levees have been built  to surround the islands. 

Over the years subsidence has caused the islands to look like they are sinking but that isn't what subsidence is. We interviewed two Doctors from UC Davis last week that explained to us that oxidation in the soil is causing the soil to disappear. You'll have to wait and see our video to learn more. 

There are all kinds of important research being done on levees and subsidence, including the grant we're working on here on Jersey Island. 

Below are pictures of some of the club members interviewing the docs.  

 Rezahn Abraha is interviewing Dr. Steve Dervel from Hydrofocus on subsidence and levees.

Monet Marie Kristina Gasca is interviewing Dr. Bees Butler on the economic impacts of failing levees due to subsidence.

July 8--Weekly Report

July 8--
Today at the DSC-AFRI Summer Science Club we talked about Subsidence and Levees and how we are going to frame questions for next week's interview sessions with the UC Davis and UC Berkeley scientists.

We are working on ideas for questions and hoping to have a few good answers from the scientists to add to our videos.

One of the professors who will be attending is an economist, Leslie Livingston, who is going to help us understand the economic ramification of keeping levees working on the Delta.

What happens to our California economy if all the levees failed and the state didn't help pay for them them?

We are also wondering a little bit about the structure of levees in the delta and how they work?

We also tested our main field soil before the we transplant the rice from the greenhouse. We did tests for phosphates, nitrogen and potassium.

Our numbers were:
Phosphates = M
Nitrogen = M
Potassium = L

Those are really good numbers to start with this year.

We also completed Green House Gas (GHG) or CO2 air sampling. We tested the everyday air we breathe at Big Break Regional Shoreline Park and then burned peat soil and measured the air (in simulation of the peat fires we often see on Delta islands.)

Our carbon (GHG) reader said the normal air was 394, but when we tested the black smoke of the peat fire air the readings were off the charts at 2,400+. That just means that all of those fires we see on the Delta islands are adding way to much GHGs into our atmosphere. From tests they've read last year out at our Learning Lab where most of the soil is peat the everyday area usually reads into the 700s.

Thanks to EB Parks intern Kyle for helping us start our fire and keep it under control. :)

Weekly Reports of the DSC-AFRI Summer Science Club Meetings

We've been behind on our posts this year. Attached you'll find our students' posts from this last few weeks.

June 17--
During this summer's program we are going to be making a few videos about the Delta. We aren't sure if we are going to get through all of them so we decided to concentrate on one video at a time. The first video is going to be on subsidence and the Delta levees.

Our plan is to make the videos no more than three to five minutes each, so we've been checking out short videos presented by other students who have done stuff like this before. We are also beginning to do the research involved in making the videos.

We're going to get to interview people from UC Davis and UC Berkeley that know about levees and subsidence in the next couple of weeks so we are setting up a list of questions for them.

June 24--
Today we watched a couple of more samples videos from students who won video awards for short videos. We also had the chance to do some research on levees so that we can come up with ideas how to make our video. We also took a tour of Big Break Regional Shoreline Park to check out the small levee system they have at the park. They have a really cool map on the ground that shows all the rivers that make up the Delta and it have a 3-D type of Mt. Diablo.

July 1--
Jersey Island Learning Lab-
Today we had the chance to see Jersey Island, which we learned is a good example of most of the Delta Islands along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. We saw the issues of subsidence. In some areas on the island the subsidence is as bad as 18th feet. We have a chance to walk along the levee and see the rock or what is known as "rip rap" that is holding the levees together.

We were able to take a lot of video and pictures to use in our video project.

AFRI-DSC Summer Science Club is underway

 

It is hard to believe that summer is already underway and we are getting ready for another planting season on the AFRI-Rice Culture Mitigation Grant. Once again we are working with a great team from UC Davis, UC Berkeley and Tetra Tech on the project and hoping that we will open young minds to the importance of research programs to better the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, after all these children are the future of the Delta. You can read about this program by checking out the side panel of this blog. 

The AFRI-DSC Summer Science Club begins tomorrow and once we are up and running the students will be taking care of this blog and posting their thoughts, findings and giving a review of what they have been doing. The blog won't always be neat and organized, but it will be fun to see how they are enjoying and understanding the program.

We will try to get as many pictures as we can up and maybe even try to add a few minutes of our videos here and there. 

High School students are welcome to join in on the program and we always need adult volunteers to help organize and keep on eye on the students. Those interested can email info@deltasciencecenter.org for details.

Interesting story on carbon in the Contra Costa Times

To get a clearer understanding about Carbon Emissions and the governments race against the effects of global warming check out the story in the June 2, 2014 edition of the Contra Costa Times. California has it struggles and the study that local East County Students are developing through the Delta Science Center's AFRI grant with UC Davis and UC Berkeley will give them help in understanding what carbon emissions is all about.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_25884260/historic-epa-global-warming-rules-how-will-they

Soaking the Rice to prepare for planting.

Rice seed Calmochi-101or CM101 will be used for the AFRI Jersey Island testing site. 
Calmochi-101 is a very early maturing waxy (also known as sweet, mochi, or glutinous) short grain released in 1985. It has excellent resistance to cool temperature sterility. Its pedigree is: Tatsumi mochi//M7//S6.features.

Since Jersey Island is located in Contra Costa County, the temperatures can be as much as 10 degrees lower than other areas where rice is usually grown. This is the same rice we had success with last year, so it should grow nicely in the greenhouse we've built to get it started. So far we are hearing that the temperatures are going to be a little warmer than 2013, so we're going to be watching the temperatures during the testing season this year to see how it any affect on the rice we're growing.

Welcome back 2014...

The Delta Science Center is beginning a new season for the 2014 AFRI rice field testing project on Jersey Island this week. Members of the DSC staff and volunteers built a new greenhouse this weekend. Rather than last year's six greenhouse, that could not withstand the island wind, we built one greenhouse that we hope will be work better.

Below are the photos:

The dimensions of this greenhouse is now 50 feet x 12 feet. It will allow to plant more seed and keep everything good and warm inside. The wind has already picked up the last few days and everything is hold pretty steady. 

Next step is soaking the soil...

Testing Day at the AFRI Rice Field

We took a lot of pictures today out at the rice field. This way we can get a close up idea of how all the rice in the field is fairing and decide when we are ready to take the next step. The next step is to stop adding water to the field and drain it. We will send the photos to our team members at UC Davis and see what they think.

In the meantime we also did more water testing today. For a look at what all the tests should be showing us, see our previous post.

Here are the results:
Nitrate-Nitrogen levels on both fields are still the same as last time at 0.0.

Sulfate levels are keeping pretty consistant, with just a little variation in Field 2 Sample B.
Field 1 Sample A = 160
Field 1 Sample B = 100
Field 2 Sample A = 160
Field 2 Sample B = 80

Low Range Phosphates show a little variation this time as well.

Field 1 Sample A = 1.0
Field 1 Sample B = 0.8
Field 2 Sample A = 0.2
Field 2 Sample B = 0.4

Amonia-Nitrate samples are the same as last week at all fields showing .25

Measuring of salt and conductivity remains within similar ranges

Field 1 Sample A = Salt 1540   Conductivity 2230
Field 1 Sample B = Salt 1550   Conductivity 2240
Field 2 Sample A = Salt 1480   Conductivity 2150
Field 2 Sample B = Salt 1560   Conductivity 2260

Water temperature at testing time: 70.7 degrees.

Here are the pictures of the fields.

Rice is flowering stage

Today we took air samples from our rice field AFRI project. We'll send the samples to our team at UC Davis who will check the totals. We take three carbon (gas) samples from each side of the field to see if there is any change to the amount of carbon emitted into air from each stage the rice is in. We take air samples every two weeks.

There are three main growth stages of the rice plant:

1. vegetative (germination to panicle initiation)

2. reproductive (panicle initiation to flowering)

3. ripening (flowering to mature grain)

Right now the rice on Jersey Island is at the flowering stage. The flowering stage begins with the emergence of the first anthers from the 'uppermost spikelets on each panicle.

Each individual spikelet flowers for only several hours during the middle of the day on two or three successive days.

Flowering begins among the uppermost spikelets and continues for approximately 15 days regardless of variety as the remaining spikelets successively open (the lowermost spikelets flowering last). During flowering, pollen from the anthers is transported by wind and insects to the stigma, which carry it down into the ovaries where fertilization of the ovules occurs.

In another week or so we will be draining the water from the field and letting the rice dry out which will take several weeks.