ALASKA: Field updates from the Alaska EPSCoR Interface of Change Kachemak Bay Stream Team!

This summer, the Interface of Change project Kachemak Bay stream team, Jordan Jenckes, Aeon Russo, Wyatt Matyas, and Lee Ann Munk, coordinated a successful installation of four new monitoring wells at sites near the outlet of the Wosnesenski River, as well as gages at Grewingk, Halibut, Wosnesenski, and Jakolof stream monitoring sites. Each well has a sensor installed that collects a continuous stream of water quality data.

In July, the team returned to Kachemak Bay for their ongoing quarterly stream sampling and gaging. Meanwhile, they also conducted a second geophysics campaign with Jens Munk along the Wosnesenski Delta using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). ERT essentially allows us to understand the interactions between saline and freshwaters within the Wosnesenski delta.

The team uses this data to characterize the hydrology of this glacier watershed and observe fluctuations over time.