A series of background reading articles for our SSIFWC website readers

To-date we have articles on:

• Watersheds - What is a Watershed?
  - Salt Spring Island is comprised of more than 100(!) named watersheds and numerous un-named watersheds. But, what exactly determines area to be a watershed?
  - want a guided tour of a watershed, please have a look at our watershed walks!
  
  

• Water Budgets - Why do we study island “water budgets?”
  - understanding “water budgets” and how these relate to the hydrological cycle is critical for any island, such as Salt Spring Island, with finite freshwater resources (and a delicate balance between "INs" and "OUTs") over time.  Learn more about water budgets and how our FWC field data may be used to inform our island’s areal water budgets (and/or water balance).
  
  

• Freshwater chemistry on our island - the first and second in a series of "our SSIFWC chemistry and what it means" - What is pH?" and "What is Conductivity?" articles
  - our SSI FWC field volunteers collect a variety of important data when they visit sites across Salt Spring Island. Volunteers use an Oakton meter to measure water temperature, salinity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), conductivity and pH.  These measurements provide insights into water quantity (groundwater "baseflow" components) and into possible anthropogenic (human) controlled factors controlling water quality variations.
  Next in our reading series is island "Groundwater and Aquifers"

• And, our insights into surface and groundwater "Wells In Watersheds" webpage might also be of interest.

Note - more freshwater, background reading, articles are in the works (and cf. our glossary for some of the technical terms).  In the mean time,  if there is something that you would particularly like to see, please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.