Tides and Tribulations on the Hudson River

By Charlotte Rhoads

As the first light of day peeked out from the city smog behind us, Kyle and I drove north along the Hudson River. We had arranged to meet John Lipscomb of Riverkeeper, his labrador, Batu, and Luis Melendez, the boat captain in training, at the docks of Ossining, NY. The reason for our trip was to collect data for a NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) project on wet carbon. Our focus in the project is better understanding the dissolved organic matter (DOM) dynamics of the tidal marsh systems in the Long Island Sound and Hudson River using in situ sampling, laboratory experiments, and satellite remote sensing. We reached out to the Riverkeeper at the beginning of the year, hoping to build a partnership to improve our sampling logistics and gain access to their expertise on Hudson River ecology.

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