'Day in the Life of the Hudson River' Data Activities

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Annual Activity Sheets from 'A Day in the Life' Student collected data

Starting in 2009 worksheets and educational materials have been developed focused on the data students collect at their sampling sites. Comparing between years shows a dynamic system that adjusts with changes in conditions. Be sure to review the metadata with your students as this will add the context they need to be successful in using the data.

Metadata
Salinity Activity
Other Activities
Fish Catch Activity
Explore Further
2020
Salinity Worksheet-Students - Teachers menhaden Students Fish Worksheet - ES/MS Student - High School Teachers Fish Worksheet - ES/MS Student - High School
10/22/20 - The eighteenth year of the program was our most unusual and memorable. With COVID-19 keeping students out of classrooms the event shifted to a virtual platform. Supported byour many incredible partners we were able to collect videos and data from all throughout the estuary to share with our network of teachers and schools. The day began with a layer of fog but being out on the river after months of being shut inside was magical! A very dry fall had pushed the salt front well upriver to ~RM 74 just south of Poughkeepsie!
2019
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
schodack
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
channelcatfish
10/22/19 - Our annual sampling event arrived with threats of showers and a thick fog that blanketed the estuary. Several downriver sites ecperience rain events during their sampling. In contrast to 2018 much of the summer had been really dry, however, several bursts of rain in September and October provided the waershed with much needed rains and kept the saltfront pushed down to below Newburgh Bay. Some sites upriver posted salinities that sat below the detecable limits of our sampling (>32 ppm) but the salt front (@100 ppm chloride) was located at RM 53 by West Point, where we would expect to find it at this time of year.
2018
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
boat
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
pipefish
10/16/18 - Sampling this year we found a totally saturated watershed, soaked from over a month of high levels of rain, in many places at totals were double and even triple thirty year rain averages. The ground saturation pushed the run off from anyrecent rain straight into the river. The result was the freshest lower estuary we have seen in our 16 years of running this event, with the salt front (@100 ppm chloride) down by Piermont at RM25.4. The day itself was extremely windy and cool, with a blow out tide exposing large expanses of mud along the river shorelines.
2017
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
fish eats
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
salinity
10/12/17 - Our fifteenth event started overcast and slightly wet in the southern end of the estuary, with New York City students and adjacent areas facing morning damp weather. The dampness was accompanied by strong gusts of wind that hinted at what has been the busiest hurricane season in 124 years. Although the Hudson Valley is no longer categorized as being in the dry and even drought like conditions of 2016 and 2015, a wet spring and summer transitioned to 45 days of very dry weather and only half the normal rainfall. The salt has been pushing up to RM 65.
2016
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
crab
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
Silverside
10/20/16 - Our fourteenth annual event found the estuary very dry with the saltfront pushed well upriver, in fact the leading edge of the saltfront was pushed further upriver than we have found it over any of our previous Day in the Life events. Thunderstorms threatened the area and the upriver sites did see rain for part of the day. Turbidity was low as the lack of rain slowed nutrients and sediments from moving downriver, and salt-loving fish, like the bluefish were found well upriver at RM60.
2015
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
naked goby
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
darter

10/20/15 - Our thirteenth annual 'Day in the Life of the Hudson River' the day was crystal clear and dawned cool. Little rain had reached the estuary for the last month or more and so influences from the salt, entering at from the Atlantic Ocean at the southern reaches of the Hudson, were found well upriver. Atlantic Silversides, an ecological indicator of the leading edge of salt in the estuary, were netted up by Beacon and Newburgh (RM60). One surprise was the saltwater loving pipefish that made its way as far up as Norrie Point (RM84.5) where the water was well below what we would consider brackish.

2014
River Challenge Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
A Day in the Life Almanac
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version

Shipping and Math - Student - Teacher Version

10/16/14 - The weather was poor for much of the lower river with torential rains and thunder and lightening in some areas.. Many sites contacted us cancelling or postponing. We ended up supporting as many schools as possible with make up events. It turned out the storm went on for several days and so even make up events were rescheduled or held in difficult weather conditions. We accepted and posted data from any number of different dates in the two weeks around the event date.
2013
Salinity Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
A Day in the Life Almanac
Fish Worksheet - Student - Teacher Version
Fishing in 2013
10/10/13 the weather threated rain after a fairly dry August. Most sites were able to sample without

ulsterA second straight year saw salt move up beyond Newburgh.

catfish
The day was cold, averaging a full 10 degrees Celcius colder than 2012.
seineCool temperatures may have contributed to very low fish counts. Many sites netted nothing. Tides, Plants? Overall fish counts were down - several sites had empty nets where in past years they had netted fish. In many areas the tides were at the high end of their range, making seining difficult. In the upriver freshwater sites lack of vallisneria (water celery) might have contiburted to low counts of fish as small fish use these beds for protection & foraging.
2012
Salinity Worksheet - Student / Teacher Version
Day in Review

10/4/12 The week leading up to the event was wet, although the summer had been very dry.

 

 

RiverHeavy mist and rain covered much of the Hudson during the day. Some schools postponed - most participated.

SalinityThe salt pushed way upriver to Poughkeepsie.

Weather

Water plant vallisneria (water celery) was mostly absent post hurricanes.

striped killi
2011
Salinity Worksheet - Student / Teacher Version

10/18/11 the river was extremely turbid & swollen with rain after Hurricane Irene (8/28/11) & Tropical Storm Lee (9/8/11).

 

GreenIsland
Pier 95
Inwood Sampling nets pulled in few blue crab but LOTS of young herring, perhaps sent downriver by the rains.

CrotonThe salt front was low, pushed down by all the rain.

2010

Salinity Worksheet - Student / Teacher Version

A Day in the Life Almanac
Fish Worksheet - Student / Teacher Version
Day in Review
10/14/10 the day began shrouded in fog and for the afternoon samplers ended in rain. and the salt front pushed down to ~ RM 36 - about half where it was in 2009.
smiles

The weather was cool and crisp.

VERPLANCK
Recent rains throughout the watershed had left the river running very full.
kowawese
bronx river

2009

Salinity Worksheet - Student / Teacher Version A Day in the Life Almanac Fish Worksheet - Student /Teacher Version The Blow Out Tide & HRECOS
10/8/09 a 'blow out tide' greeted samplers. Strong winds on the Hudson began midday 10/7/09, strengthening during the night.

The strong wind affected tides causing a 'blow out' or extremely low tide exposing large expanses of mudflats.

Fish catches were poor. Salt levels dropped with a rain on 10/7/09.

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(Activities provided in pdf format - If free downloadable software for viewing is needed please click on the adobe icon)