Project Overview

SiteName

Piney run

Coordinates

39°22’20”N 76°54’35”W

Weather Source + Conditions

Weather Underground: The total accumulation of precipitation during the recording of this experiment in 4.93 inches of rain. Sunday, September 17th, had the most downpour with 1.21 inches of rain.

Sensor Location Notes

“- Lower Sensor: The deepest part of the stream, equivalent to knee-deep height. Most stable banks with tree roots exposed to hold sediment. While the sensor was knee deep there was slight debris and leaves caught by the rebar.

Middle Sensor: placed in a shallow stream with a mix of cobble, gravel, and fine sediments on the channel bed. Low flow rate is exhibited at this location, and roots on the left bank, along with vegetated slopes, show a moderately stable bank.

-Upper Sensor: placed in a shallow headwater stream surrounded by a riparian zone. Here is the most shallow section of the stream with highly visible stream bed. Low flow rate, especially with stones in the middle of stream. We can also tell the stones here tend to grow moss as well.”

Wildlife Observered

Winter Berry Holly

Bank Stability

Banks are generally unstable, there is a highers sediment load at upstream location but gradually becomes more secure as you get down the stream. The stream is the most stable at the lower sensor area right before the stream converges into the main run.

Flow Speed Estimate

The Stream had an overall low flow speed. Through the photos you will be able to tell that there is minimal turbulance along with an extremely visible streambed.

Study Area Map

Table Summary Stats

Wet Frequency

## # A tibble: 12 × 3
##    Location      Classification  Days
##    <chr>         <chr>          <int>
##  1 Air           Dry               46
##  2 Air           Buffered           9
##  3 Air           Wet                1
##  4 Downstream    Buffered          30
##  5 Downstream    Dry               20
##  6 Downstream    Wet                6
##  7 Middle Stream Buffered          42
##  8 Middle Stream Wet               10
##  9 Middle Stream Dry                4
## 10 Upstream      Buffered          35
## 11 Upstream      Wet               13
## 12 Upstream      Dry                8

Slope Stats

{No Precipitation}

##          Sensor               Start                 End Start_Temp End_Temp
## 1      Upstream 2025-09-01 06:00:00 2025-09-01 18:00:00     55.510   60.017
## 2 Middle Stream 2025-09-01 06:00:00 2025-09-01 18:00:00     59.205   62.810
## 3    Downstream 2025-09-01 06:00:00 2025-09-01 18:00:00     59.178   65.483
## 4           Air 2025-09-01 06:00:00 2025-09-01 18:00:00     53.813   66.431
## 5      Upstream 2025-09-01 18:00:00 2025-09-02 06:00:00     60.017   56.412
## 6 Middle Stream 2025-09-01 18:00:00 2025-09-02 06:00:00     62.810   60.107
## 7    Downstream 2025-09-01 18:00:00 2025-09-02 06:00:00     65.483   60.079
## 8           Air 2025-09-01 18:00:00 2025-09-02 06:00:00     66.431   54.715
##   Slope_C_per_hr
## 1          0.376
## 2          0.300
## 3          0.525
## 4          1.051
## 5         -0.300
## 6         -0.225
## 7         -0.450
## 8         -0.976

{Precipitation day}

##          Sensor               Start                 End Start_Temp End_Temp
## 1      Upstream 2025-09-17 06:00:00 2025-09-17 18:00:00     60.017   61.820
## 2 Middle Stream 2025-09-17 06:00:00 2025-09-17 18:00:00     61.008   63.711
## 3    Downstream 2025-09-17 06:00:00 2025-09-17 18:00:00     60.980   63.682
## 4           Air 2025-09-17 06:00:00 2025-09-17 18:00:00     60.124   64.629
## 5      Upstream 2025-09-17 18:00:00 2025-09-18 06:00:00     61.820   60.017
## 6 Middle Stream 2025-09-17 18:00:00 2025-09-18 06:00:00     63.711   62.810
## 7    Downstream 2025-09-17 18:00:00 2025-09-18 06:00:00     63.682   63.682
## 8           Air 2025-09-17 18:00:00 2025-09-18 06:00:00     64.629   63.728
##   Slope_C_per_hr
## 1          0.150
## 2          0.225
## 3          0.225
## 4          0.375
## 5         -0.150
## 6         -0.075
## 7          0.000
## 8         -0.075

Plots

Analysis

From the data we can tell that the air sensor experiences large daily fluctuatuions experienceing bothe sharp daytime peaks and nightime lows. Overall all three sensor sights experienced a delayed thermal response with smaller diurnal changes. Intrestingly enough, the upstream location had the coolest temperature and the downstream location had the warmest temperature. With shaded headwaters it’s understandable how diurnal temperature would be cooler upstream compared to the non shaded, still waters of downstream. I’ve added statistic of to figure out the frequency of wet vs. Dry days be creating code using the following stipulations: - < 3 °F Temperature range (Smaller Swings) are deemed wet - 3-7°F Temperature range are considered buffered - > 7 °F Temperature range is considered dry.

From the data we can conclude that the upstream location is statistically wet for the most amount of time of all the sensors (13 days). THis indicates the headwater conditions has strong thermal stability. There is a shallow but consistent groundwater influence with a lot of limited exposure to direct sunlight.

Slopes

To examine how our variable of interest responded to different conditions, we compared the rate of change (slope) during the day with the most precipitation to the day without. Statistics show that the midstream exhibited the least amount of change during non precipitated events compared to upstream and downstream. From the sensor picture it’s evident that the midstream sensore has a mix of shading, and flow that protects it from fast heating and cooling. The Downstream location is open and more stagnant which could promote more warming and cooling. During the precipitation events air and stream temperatures showed flatter slopes compared to the non precipitation days. This shows that rainfall dampend the diurnal heating and cooling cycles. Also interesting to note that stream exhibited no nightime cooling on the rainy day.

Piney Run 09/22/2025

2025-09-23