10b: Brainstorming Ideas for the Application Project

1) news article : -   a general guideline how to determine the environmental effects on removing a 

                                  dam

     - write about a dam under consideration in the area

2) editorial : - My opinion on my topic

                       - how removal varies on location and size 

     

10a: Reporting on Your Field Research

So on my field research I have e-mailed but I have yet to get a response but here are my questions that I asked. 

1) How do you determine the reversibility of a dam?

2) In your opinion are there dams that should not have been removed?

3) Some people argue that the benefits of hydro power out weigh the effects of the dam's placement, where do you stand on this?

4) What dams are you evaluating right now?

5) If the right precautions are taken to remove a dam can they all be removed eventually?

8B

1) http://chriseng1020blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/research-journal-assignment-7.html#comment-form
2)http://jazzywazzy0915.blogspot.com/2009/10/rja7b-internet-research-tool-test.html#comment-form

9b: Brainstorming Visual Aids

9b: Brainstorming Visual Aids–Brainstorm a list of at least five different visual aids you could include in your research paper.
1) I coule use pictues of the dam release.
2) Pictures of the damaged dam.
3) Crunstruction tools with an effort to manage the sediment.
4) Dams varrying in size.
5) Also I could use mesasurement of the sediment such as charts and graphs of sediment build-up.

9a: Writing Thesis Statements

9a: Writing Thesis Statements–Write three possible thesis statements for your research paper.

1) Removing a dam impacts the environement and ecology.
2) Removing a dam changes the sourounding environment and is over all harmfull to the environment.
3) Dam removals ecological efects vay depending on size and location.

8a: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Select a passage of several sentences from an online source related to your topic. Copy and paste the passage into your blog post and create a link to the page where you found it.

1. Write a paragraph incorporating a short quotation from the passage.  Modify the quotation using an ellipsis and brackets.
2. Paraphrase the passage. Check your paraphrase carefully to make sure that it is accurate and appropriate.
3. Summarize the passage. Check your summary carefully to make sure that it is accurate and appropriate.

http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/jcm22/pdfs/Marks%202007%20Sci%20Am.txt

 A major problem that dams face when the age is sediment build-up.  When the dams are being removed all build -up is being released it has been known to cause all kinds of  ecological problems. Specifically according to Redfield-Wilder "...  sediments trapped behind a dam's walls can choke waterways, muddying the environment and wiping out insects and algae..."  The sediments decrease the amount of free oxygen and available water for plants and animals.  This dramatic change in environment can cause them to die.   

BIOLOGISTS have also recorded unexpected problems. The release of sediments  trapped behind a dam's walls can choke waterways, muddying the environment and  wiping out insects and algae, which are important food for fish. This wave of  turbidity can also eliminate habitat for sessile filter feeders, such as  freshwater mussels. Sometimes the mud that had been held back by the structures  is rife with contaminants. When engineers removed the Fort Edward Dam on the  Hudson River in 1973, concentrations of PCBs rose in downstream fish and  remained high for many years; even today the striped bass fishery remains closed  because of high levels of PCBs. Sediments that are not washed downstream can become problematic as well. As they  dry out, they may provide fertile ground for potentially noxious exotic plants  whose seeds they harbored. Eurasian reed canary grass--which homogenizes  wetlands by outcompeting native plant species--grew explosively after  Wisconsin's Oak Street Dam fell, even though restoration scientists had seeded  the area with native prairie plant species. 
A release of sediments can cause lots of problems. The sediment itself can cause damage to native algae and insects.   The turbidity can also hold contaminants which can harm the surrounding soil and killing plants. 

Sediment removal can harm the surrounding ecology in a stream. 

RJA #7c: Field Research Plan

My plan was to interview one of the professors in the UCD campus in the environmental science program.  Questions

1) What is your current opinion on dam removal? 

2) Do you think the pros out weigh the cons?

3) Do you think there should be a national regulation?

4) Should size be taken into account?

5) Should it be regulated on a case by case account?

1

• Resource searched: google
• Keywords used: ecology and dam removal
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches) and
• Date of search 10-5
• Number of hits 450,00
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5) 3

2

• Resource searched : google
• Keywords used: ecology and dam removal and harm* and environment
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches) and *
• Date of search: 10-5 
• Number of hits: 2,000
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 4

3

• Resource searched: google
• Keywords used:  dam retirement
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches) none
• Date of search 10-5 
• Number of hits: 3,120,000
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 3

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools

            The internet search engine I use the most would be google.  Google generally turns up the greatest amount of hits with relevant information.  The downside of google would be that not all of the sites are credible and also the volume of hits that generally show up.  The trick of google is knowing how to narrow your search and pick what you need. 

            The other tools I use are the databases from the library.  Unfortunately they generally turn up less results but the information is more relevant.  Databases can give a general scope of the data such as the main biology page or specific journals such as ebsco.