Sophia Girand ’25, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Sophia Girand ’25

Major

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Project Title

StreamWatch Water Quality Monitoring Program

Presentation Link

View Sophia's Presentation

For over 30 years, StreamWatch volunteers have collected water quality data from over 50 freshwater sites across the state of New Jersey. I joined scientists at the Watershed Institute in analyzing these samples for E. coli, nutrients, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity to better inform the quality of a stream, lake, or pond and advise the public of potential hazardous events, such as harmful algal blooms. As the StreamWatch program has expanded over the years, new technologies have been introduced for volunteer-collected data. For my individual project, I collected and analyzed samples with different technologies, including chemical kits, various meters and a Gallery Discrete Analyzer, in order to understand how the collection methods differ. To enable StreamWarch data collected via different methods to be analyzed and compared simultaneously, I applied a transformation to the 30-year StreamWatch data. I’m grateful for my experience working at the Watershed and I’m excited to continue pursuing research in the future.