25 hours in the estuary.... sounds kind of weir don't you think?

As part of the last week at UNF we conducted a twenty-five hour study of the changes in an estuarine environment for both biotic and abiotic parameters. The study included factors that were observational such as the variance in tidal height, which was extraordinary, and other factors that were measured like water quality and species composition. There were two stations at the site. The first site was on the lake side, above the weir and the second site was the estuary side below the weir. At each site we gathered intel on the water quality every hour which included reading a YSI meter for air temperature, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen percent and quantity, and conductivity of the water. Then we used a seine net to capture what we could every three hours. We had to identify and count what species where brought up from the nets. Then just for fun we tried a large 70 foot seine to see what we could find and ended up with a small stingray.
As part of the observational study it was our job to find a pattern of sorts with the information that we gathered. As a result, it is evident that the water changes throughout the day along with the organisms that live there. The salinity and dissolved oxygen decreased as the day went on and was lowest at night. The entire distribution of fishes come and go through the day. For example, on the estuary side in the mid afternoon was catching more silversides in the seine and then at night the lake side was pulling them in by the thousands! (we had to count all 4500 of them) There was a clear difference in when the most fish were present.
Here are some things that were interesting to me.
-we were visited by at least two alligators at three in the morning while seining and one was at least seven feet long. It was scary and cool at the same time.
-The fluctuation of tides at this site was at least a few feet to the point that when we first got there, there was at least ten feet of beach and by high tide was completely flooded.
-The huge distribution change of the fish between night and day was tremendous.
-There are many people who fish there during the day and don't catch anything, but as soon as they leave for the night every fish in that lake will bite a hook.