The Cullowhee Creek Environmental Field Station
The Cullowhee Creek Environmental Field Station
(CCEFS), a portion of campus that is the focus of most investigations
(Figure 2), consists of fixed-position hydrologic stations, and
portable geophysical and hydrologic equipment to study the site.
The equipment permits students to measure, monitor, and characterize
the environmental systems on campus. Tools and approaches used
in characterizing the field station are also used to address questions
outside the Cullowhee Creek watershed, particularly in upper level
classes and independent research projects. A web site for the
CCEFS serves as a communication tool, providing access to equipment
protocols, conceptual background information and links, maps,
and archived along with newly acquired data. Hydrologic stations
include three groundwater wells, a stream gage, and an automated
weather station. Each well and the stream gage contain water-level
loggers (pressure transducers) that continuously monitor water
levels. Portable hydrologic equipment includes a logging multiprobe
(temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity),
standard hand-held probes (e.g. temperature, pH, conductivity),
current meters, groundwater bailers and pumps, and spectrophotometers
(Table 1). Effective characterization of the stream, and particularly
the groundwater systems on campus requires an understanding of
the surface and subsurface materials and structure. Surface exposures
of bedrock and soil are evaluated by students using traditional
tools (e.g., hammer, soil probe, etc.) to make observations and
descriptions . Lithologic logs, from the drilling of the groundwater
wells, provide spot information on subsurface materials. Several
geophysical tools; including seismic, resistivity, ground penetrating
radar and magnetics (Table 1); permit better three dimensional
characterization of subsurface parameters such as depth to bedrock
or the groundwater table. Each of these tools has strengths and
limitations so that the combined methods provide a better understanding
of subsurface parameters than any individual method. Geophysical
equipment includes a SmartSeis 12 channel seismograph with refraction
analysis software, a Sting R1 resistivity meter with 800 m of
cable and 2D inversion software, a Ramac ground penetrating radar
system with 50, 100 and 200 MHz antennae, and an E G & G proton
precession magnetometer.
