Our
My World map of the water Temperatures in the Channel Islands in the Year
2006
How Does El Niño affect Channel Island water temperature?
On
our eight-grade trip, we went to Catalina islands, a rather large island,
off the cost of Los Angeles. We took a plane to Los Angeles Airport, LAX,
then a short bus ride to the dock where we then took an hour-long ferry
to Howlands Landing, Catalina Island. Our trip was designed so that our
8th grade class would be able to learn about the four themes of the Catalina
Environmental Leadership Program (CELP), bond with our fellow classmates,
conduct research on the kelp forests of the Channel Islands, and have
a great oceanic experience away from home. Team challenges set up by the
CELP instructors helped us understand the four themes of nature, the large
amounts of free time kept the kids happy, while having them bond with
their friends at a much faster rate then at school, and the great environment
of the island made research easy. We learned throughout the week that
in nature, everything is connected, that there is no waste in nature,
everything runs on energy, and that biodiversity is good. Our group, Stefan,
Ryan, and Matt, asked the question, “How does El Nino affect the
water temperature at Catalina Island?”
Our entire grade collected data for everybody else in a large data pool that individual groups could pick and select from. My partners and I only wanted the water temperatures for this year, and an average water temperature from years past. The data for our particular project was collected during our kayaking. Different groups went on their separate kayaks, stopped at points, and took information such as salinity, visibility, depth, etc. When the kayakers returned from their trip, they recorded their information, storing it together with the other group’s research. We then took what we needed from that pool of data, and used it on our project.
The
research was done very smoothly, at least in our group. No difficulties
arose that I did not foresee. The temperature was taken, written down,
and transferred to a computer easily. The only problem with the process
was the time that the information took getting on the computer. Our group
is behind, because the information that we wanted is not currently accessible
to us.
Our researched proved our hypothesis that the El Nino increased the water temperature around Catalina by about 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit. In conclusion, we traveled to Catalina Island to do research. Our group wanted to know temperature how temperature differs in an El Nino year. We found that the water was 2-3 degrees warmer, and that the kelp population in the area was practically destroyed by El Nino warmth.