Field Notes

Microclimates

Cyber Lake

Deer Watch

Dig Deep

Flood Alert!

Gizmos

H₂O Sleuths

Healthy River?

Mystery Lake

Rain Gauge

Recycling

River Kids

Runoff Effect

Tree Growth

Whaling Rights

O ur group was trying to find out how plants adapted to the different microclimates in our area.

What is a Microclimate?
We live in an area with four different towns and each area has a different elevation and at each elevation the soil, climate, and plants are different.

We found that there was a total of four different microclimates in our area. Sara and I went to a place called Little Horse. We took samples of trees (with a tree-core thing) and we also took samples of soil. The other girls in our group took samples of plants and soil from other sites: the area behind Lake Roosevelt school and the land near Nespelum Creek. We took these samples and brought them in and tested them for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. We found that in these different microclimates the plants are all very different.

Future Plans:
We want to make an interpretive trail behind our school using the different soil and different plants to show the differences between the microclimates. We also want to complete an identification key for the plants and confirm the micronutrient values in the different soils.

Lake Roosevelt H.S.
Grand Coulee, Washington
4 young women researchers
Advisors: Erik Lampi, Ralph Rise

Journey North Is a fun web site with a lot of hands-on science ideas and lesson plans. This link will take you to their lesson plan on microclimates.

Tree Canopy Research

Wind River Research Station has a Microclimate Page that provides access to their microclimate megadata and microclimate database.