Earth Science Rivers Research Project
Goal: Explain discharge-related watershed processes and patterns utilizing time-series based scientific data
Objectives: Construct a research question and a corresponding thesis statement about seasonal river discharge
for your selected location; collect, evaluate and analyze data and information; drawconclusions;
Approach: Students will describe watershed settings of a selected river and analyze seasonal river discharge
patterns for regional rivers in the USA in a simple analysis and short research paper. IF YOU READ THIS GUIDE
AND THE DIRECTIONS FOR EACH ASSIGNMENT CLOSELY, THIS ASSIGNMENT WILL BE FAIRLY EASY
Research Assignment Description
Who: This is an assignment done by paired student groups (See River Selection.pdf for group members and river
selection)
What: Each student group will be given a major US river and US geographic region with which to collect data for
temperature/rainfall climatology (see end of document for air temp/precip data links and how to get the
appropriate graphs) that control river discharge in that region. Each group will evaluate/analyze these data to
determine the factors controlling seasonal river discharge (e.g snowmelt, spring/fall rains, summer rain season).
Climatological temperature and rainfall data information will come from the national center for environmental
information: (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/regional/time-series).
Working with and Contacting Your Rivers Research Teammate
As soon as you read who your partner is for this research assignement, you should write an email to that person
to figure out a time to 1) meet online/in person and discuss this assignment, 2) figure out times in which to
communicate in the future, and 3) decide on how to complete/review the different assignments.
The research project is a set of group assignments, but, each student is individually responsible for
making sure each assignment is completed and submitted. Due dates are everyone’s responsibility, not
just the person who says they are going to submit the assignment.
Students are expected to maintain REGULAR contact with partners through email or other agreed upon method
at agreed upon times. Everyone works and is busy, so please remain patient. Group work takes time and planning.
Please contact the instructor for assistance – I’m part of your research group too.
Research Project Sections
I. River Research Hypothesis/Question (Time expected: 2 hours includes reading directions and writing)
The scientific method is based off explanations (hypotheses) based on your current knowledge of the processes at
work in a system and experiments/tests made to collect data to determine if there is enough evidence to support
your prior explanations. We will follow this model in our research project about river discharge. Before we collect
data and before you look up anything about this river, we will form a research question and seasonal hypotheses
about river discharge in your river over an entire year. Your CURRENT prior knowledge of the United States
whether poor or very accurate is sufficient and all you need to do for this assignment.
Florida SouthWestern College Introduction to Earth Science
Your Research Question: What is the seasonal variability of discharge “InsertRiverName” at “InsertLocation”? —
yes, it’s that simple – or if chosen, you can write it a different way: “How does the discharge in “InsertRiverName”
at “InsertLocation” change over the year?… Choose the one you like and be sure to insert your river name and
location in the correct spots!
Hypothesis: Your hypothesis is your detailed PREDICTION (answer) to the research question – think about how the
seasons will change the discharge of your selected river (See the posted video on the Research Project Intro
Page). Remember, this is your prediction and should be done to the best of your current knowledge. It needs to be
your impression of the river based on what you know NOW about the region the river is in and can be
proven/disproven later based on the data you collect – DON’T DO RESEARCH ABOUT THE REGION YET – just make
an educated guess based on what you know about the region the river is in. Do the prediction “seasonally” – think
about how the discharge will increase/decrease during the winter/spring/summer/fall based on temperature and
rainfall.
Your hypothesis must include ALL 4 seasons starting with WINTER (months JAN-MAR), Spring (APR-JUNE),
Summer (JULY-SEPT), Fall (OCT-DEC). Despite what you might think about the seasons, the calendar year winter
on a majority of the North American continent arrives Dec 21st (solstice) while winter weather doesn’t really
show up until JAN. Here is an example of what someone might write for the Caloosahatchee R for just the
summer/fall seasons:
NOTE HOW EACH STATEMENT BELOW BEGINS WITH A STATEMENT ABOUT HOW DISCHARGE WILL BEHAVE
FOLLOWED BY HOW BOTH TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL BEHAVE IN A SEASON AND CONTROL RIVER
DISCHARGE.
Winter (Jan-Mar): Discharge in the Caloosahatchee R. will drop severely over winter due to dry, warm conditions.
Spring (Apr-Jun): Discharge in the Caloosahatchee R. will continue to decrease in spring due to dry, warm
conditions before they begin to rebound as temperatures become warmer and precipitation becomes heavy.
Summer (July-Sept): Discharge in the Caloosahatchee R. will increase during the summer due to increased rainfall
from major thunderstorms and tropical storms.
Fall (Oct-Dec): Discharge will decrease as the region enters a cool, dry period.
You need to follow this above example for your river BUT, make sure you have a hypothesis for each of the 4
seasons.
II. Graphs (Time expected: 2 hours; includes reading direction closely and retrieving graphs/images)
In this section of the project, you will follow the guidance at the end of this handout to capture river discharge
data from your river and daily average temperature and precipitation from your watershed/region of the United
States to document where your data sources come from in the Research Methodology Section. You will also find a
watershed map of the whole river and seasonal images of your river from the surrounding region.
- Watershed map of your entire River showing its Headwaters Region and downstream
- Google images of your river near (+/- a few miles is fine) the USGS measurement site: 1 image for each of
four seasons, the idea is to give you an idea of the discharge changes/cross-section of the river - Graphs: 1) one full year (Jan1-Dec 31st) of daily river discharge data from the USGS on your specific river.
Must be from last 10 years, 2) one full year (matching to discharge timespan) Atmospheric Average
Temperature for your watershed or specified region (See “…Sources Table Below” from the National
Climate Data Center (NCDC), 3) one full year (matching to discharge timespan) Atmospheric Average
Florida SouthWestern College Introduction to Earth Science
Precipitation for your watershed or specified region (See “…Sources Table Below” from the National
Climate Data Center (NCDC) - Additional Graphs: you may wish to include a graph or table of data (snowpack, nearby local precipitation
graph, etc. that may help to explain the behavior of the discharge graph). If you do so, you will need to
add a reference to where the data was collected (see next item) - Research Methodology: identify where your scientific DATA was collected from – list the government
websites/data warehouse from which the data you are using came from and indicate the dates. The
Graph assignment page will provide an example of the writing to include in your document for both the
USGS Discharge and NCDC Climate data for which you will be able to copy and edit with your river and
timeframe.
III. Data Analysis (2-4 hours; includes analysis and writing)
The analysis will focus on interpreting the data/graphs, comparing the interpretation to your hypotheses, and
reissuing the hypotheses based on your new knowledge of the system. The Data Analysis assignment will combine
all previous assignments with the analysis. An Analysis/Outline Guide Template.docx and videos are provided for
your help completing this task - You will combine all previous submissions to this one, then add:
- Seasonal Data Analysis – You will seasonally interpret the data you gathered from the USGS and NCDC
- Conclusion – you will seasonally refute or approve your original hypotheses and EXPLAIN how the data
showed that your initial impression was wrong/right. - Reissue your hypotheses corrected for the new information you have considered
River Discharge Data and Atmospheric Air Temp/Precipitation Sources
A. River Discharge Data: Follow the link below to your river as given by the professor (Check Research Paper
Module & Announcements)
River Location USGS website –
DISCHARGE DATA/Graphs ONLY –
no other data comes from this
website – see bottom of pg 4
NOAA NCEI Climate Time Series
Regions – Get TEMP and
PRECIPITATION GRAPHS FROM THE
CLIMATE DATA SITE BASED ON THESE
REGIONS – see page 6
Apalachicola Sumatra,
Florida
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?023591
70
Southern Plains and Gulf Coast, South Atlantic
and Gulf
Arkansas Great Bend,
Kansas
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/07141300/
Arkansas-White-Red Basin
Colorado Near
Colorado/Ut
ah State line
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?091635
00
Upper Colorado River Basin
Connecticut Thompsonvil
le, CT
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/01184000/
New England Basin, Northeast Climate
Columbia Vancouver,
WA
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?141447
00
Northwest Climate
Delaware Trenton,
New Jersey
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?014
63500
Mid-Atlantic, Eastern NWS Region
Gila Safford
Valley, AZ
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/09448500/
Lower Colorado River Basin or Southwest
Climate Region
Florida SouthWestern College Introduction to Earth Science
River Location USGS website –
DISCHARGE DATA/Graphs ONLY –
no other data comes from this
website – see bottom of pg 4
NOAA NCEI Climate Time Series
Regions – Get TEMP and
PRECIPITATION GRAPHS FROM THE
CLIMATE DATA SITE BASED ON THESE
REGIONS – see page 6
Missouri Nebraska
City,
Nebraska
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site
_no=06807000;
Missouri River Basin
Ohio Sewickley,
Pennsylvania
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?030860
00
Ohio River Basin, Ohio Valley Climate
Penobscot West
Enfield,
Maine
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?010
34500
New England Basin, Northeast Climate
Platte Grand
Island, NE
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/06770500/
Missouri River Basin
Rio Grande Big Bend NP,
Texas
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?083
75300
Rio Grande River Basin
Rogue Grants Pass,
OR
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/14361500
Pacific Northwest Basin
Sacramento Keswick CA https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoringlocation/11370500/
California River Basin
Snake Alpine,
Wyoming
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?130
22500
Northern Rockies and Plains, Northwest
Climate,
Yukon Pilot Station,
Alaska
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no
=15565447
Instead of Regions, select Statewide or
Divisions at the top of the page menu, then
select the appropriate area(s)
B. After arriving on the USGS web page, FIRST Click on the “LEGACY REAL TIME PAGE” just above the
heavily bolded Location Title (next to IMPORTANT), then on the legacy page scroll down to the Available
Parameters section. CHOOSE ONE FULL YEAR (JAN-DEC) of river discharge from any of the previous 10 full years.
Do the same for Atmospheric Temperature and Precipitation using the NCDC website. In the “Begin date” and
“End date” area enter a full year’s worth of time within the last 5 years (20xx-01-01) through 20xx-12-
- Select “Go”. You will be using only the “Discharge” graph from this list.
C. Scroll down to “Discharge, cubic feet per second” – verify the dates along the x-axis (are they a full
year?), then select “Create presentation-quality”. Rt. Click on the new figure that comes up and
Florida SouthWestern College Introduction to Earth Science
Copy/Paste the image into a document. You should also “Save As” (.gif, .jpg or .pdf) to store the image.
“Discharge” is the only data source needed from the USGS website.
Example Formatted Discharge Figure – presentation generated by USGS site; each figure/graph/table
needs to have a caption that describes to the reader the type of content found there. Note that the yaxis is in “log” format – every horizontal gray line goes represents an increase of 10,000 cfs. It’s
organized this way to show how the discharge changes at very low levels of discharge. If the y-axis is
displayed normally, small variations in discharge are very hard to see as they’re drowned out by drastic
changes in discharge (as in the peak for July 1st). The discharge line is in blue and this data is quality
checked (period of approved data).
Florida SouthWestern College Introduction to Earth Science
Example Caption: Figure “Insert Sequential Number Here”. Annual seasonal pattern of discharge for the
Missouri R at Nebraska City, NE.
B. Atmospheric Air Temp/Precipitation Sources – use the “Time-Series” tab on the linked website
Parameters to specify on https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/regional/time-series
- Parameter: Average Air Temp or Precipitation
- Time Scale: 1-month
- Month: All months
- Start Year: specify starting year – this should correspond to your discharge data year
- End Year: specify the same year as your starting year (For one full year of data, the starting/ending year are
the same - Region: find the region that most closely aligns with your discharge location – where is your river
geographically? Look at the far right column on the previous River Table (pg 3). You might look at a “Climate
Region” or a “River Basin Region” to look for a match to your discharge data
The plots produced will provide Mean or Average Monthly Temperatures in both deg F and deg Celcius or Mean
(Average) Monthly Precipitation in both inches and mm (millimeters). Monthly averages won’t be as good as the
river data which is Daily averages, so some of the climate information might not correspond perfectly (if a storm
overlaps months then the data is shifted a bit to each month’s average)
Note: Ohio Valley corresponds to the Central region and Upper Midwest corresponds to Eastern North Central as
depicted on this US climate map:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/regional_monitoring/regions.shtml - Options: Unclick any checkmarks in the options area
Plotting your Graph: After clicking “Plot” your graph will show up below the parameter specifications
Saving/Printing your Figure
Right click on the plotted figure, you’ll get a menu with several options. I suggest “View as PNG” after which you
right click again and copy/paste into a Word document
