Introduction/Background
Located in Riverside and Imperial
counties, the Salton Sea is California’s largest lake. The Salton Sea refers to
what is left of Lake Cahuilla, a prehistoric lake that once filled the entire
water basin. The Colorado River no longer fills the prehistoric lake, and so it
was left stagnate to evaporate. As the water evaporated, salt concentration
rose.
Today the Salton Sea has a salinity of
44 ppt, this is 25% more saline than the Pacific Ocean (Salton Sea Authority). Many
species within the lake are dying off. The Tilapia is the main species to live
in the high saline water although, they too are now suffering. Rivers that feed
into the Salton Sea are also severely polluted, specifically the Alamo and New
Rivers to the south. Agricultural runoffs contaminate rivers with pesticides
and heavy metals. Our research will strive to address these questions:
·
How will the rising salinity affect fish/birds
of the lake?
·
How is the surround agriculture affecting the
water quality?
Data
Salton Sea Authority. The Salton Sea: A Brief Description of Its
Current Conditions, and Potential Remediation Projects. 10/3/97. Web.
Retrieved 5/10/12. http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/Salton%20Sea%20Description.html
Lawrence A. LeBlanc, James L. Orlando, and Kathryn M. Kuivila. Pesticide Concentrations in Water and in
Suspended and Bottom Sediments in the New and Alamo Rivers, Salton Sea
Watershed, California. 4/2003. Web. Retrieved 5/13/20012. U.S.http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/ds104/ds104.pdf
GIS Data
Fish/ WQ/ Bathymetry layers: ftp://ftp.dfg.ca.gov/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/
Methods
Displayed coordinates to Fish and WQ layers. Select by layer to
divide dates by year that the data was collected. Exported six years; 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Used interpolation (IDW) to predict unknown values of
fish population and salinity displacement between all six years. For cleanliness, we masked the interpolation
by the Salton Sea boundary.
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