For the past few days I’ve been working with the 2020 winter water quality data. I’m comparing dissolved oxygen concentration values, dissolved oxygen saturation values, and specific conductance values across 11 sites. I feel a little like I’m in a dark cave with only a weak flashlight; I’m swinging it around, not really knowing what’s going to show up or what’s going to be interesting. Personally, I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed by this kind of analysis. Along with the excitement of not knowing what’s going to be cool, I also don’t know for sure what’s important. That’s what I’m having trouble with in this dataset. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of LRCC members and our volunteers, we have SO many data points. If I were to plaster them all together it would be chaos. I have to look at what we have and decide how to “paraphrase” it.
But what if I eliminate data from certain depths in my graphs and we miss an important pattern? What if I can’t figure out how to tell the story of the data in the most effective way? What if someone else is better suited to this task? There is no right answer in this kind of work, and for someone who is addicted to having the right answer, it is a constant struggle against feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
Last week we hit a snag in this process. I wanted data from past years so I could track year-to-year changes. The problem: all old data is stored on one of the SLA computers to which I no longer have access. Elijah was kind enough to embark on an extraction expedition for me. He called me with the news that he was unable to send data from 2016-2019 because there was simply too much. I felt annoyance bubbling up, and then caught myself. I was annoyed… about having TOO much data. I pictured all of my water quality monitoring outings over the last few months: walking gingerly out to Moultonborough Bay with Maggy and augering every 50 m because it was late in the season; taking a mini nap out in the silence of Inner Squaw Cove while Elijah trekked back to the truck to retrieve our forgotten YSI; chatting with two girls who approached us at Piper Cove one day and asked a thousand awesome questions about water quality. Experiences like those are attached to every piece of data in that massive sheet. This kind of data collection is time intensive and you get cold and you don’t always get to see the fruits of your labor. And yet… many people over many years have dedicated hundreds of hours to build this dataset.
My amazement at the existence of this dataset doesn’t eliminate my doubt about my ability to do it justice, but it reminds me how lucky I am to be working on this project. And that reminder definitely makes it easier to move forward. I hope that I can make something helpful.
Grace is a full-year member who you can usually find lounging in quality comfort wear, attempting to home brew kombucha, or creating a functional DIY craft You can read more about Grace here!