How Flood and Ebb tides relate to Alkalinity-Salinity relationships in the Murderkill River

Objectives:

  1. Using discharge data to determine the flood and ebb tidal ranges, negative discharge being the flood tide, and positive discharge being the ebb tide. This will be compared with water gauge height.
  2. Differentiating between the flood tide and the Delaware Bay water coming into the Murderkill river
There are two main endmembers here, the Delaware Bay which dominates on the flood and high tides, and also estuarine flow, which dominates on the ebb tide. Using this information, I can create a relationship between these endmembers and how they affect TA-S in the Murderkill River.

Methodology:

In the lab I have been working on running samples from various different rivers, creeks, coasts, and estuaries using a Gran Alkalinity Titrator. I ran 100+ samples in the past couple weeks, averaging 10-12 per day, including calibration, conditioning and standardizing. Our target analysis goal is each run measurement of each sample to be within 0.1% of each other, which means I run each sample 2-4 times, depending on the quality of my initial sample results. This is my first real lab experience other than general chemistry and biology labs, so I am very excited about the work I’m doing and I am very passionate about aquatic carbon cycles.