Dunesday 01 Southshore Spit: Water, Sand and Life

This unit entails an annotated walk including the following:

• Observation of presence/absence of animal and plant species and a discussion around the reasons for these.
• Observation of the relationship between the sand dunes, sea and estuary with a few some rough measurements followed by a discussion about what they may or may not mean for how this place formed and the implications for the future this place.
• The walk will include participants taking sea, estuary and tap water samples. Waters: examination of the differences between sea-water, river-water, groundwater, rainwater and tap water. Please bring a sample of river water with you in a closed screw-top jar. Local samples of groundwater and rainwater will be provided. Together we will take the tap-water, seawater and estuary water as part of the unit. We will compare the pH and salinity of each sample and draw conclusions about how the hydrological system is in this area.
• Looking at the implications of the nature of local soils for water take-up and storage, we may be using a double-ring infiltrometer and explain how we obtain data to calibrate our hydrological models.