River Ecology

© AMNH

New York State's Hudson River has seen many changes, but perhaps none more dramatic than the arrival of the zebra mussel in 1991 and its rapid spread. To fully understand environmental changes like this one, you must consider the whole ecosystem: the web of interactions among organisms and their physical environment. Biologists at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies have been studying the Hudson's freshwater tidal ecosystem since 1987. They look for patterns in their data in order to understand how the river is changing, and might change in the future. This website gives you access to decades of actual data these scientists have collected about the river. It is divided into four sections. You can:

  • read the Overview for background information about the river, its inhabitants, and their interactions; 
  • access Curricular Materials—videos and text passages with discussion questions; 
  • Graph the Data to pick which factors to view in relation to one another; and
  • Make a Scatterplot to help observe patterns in the data. 
Article Overview Background information about the Hudson River, its inhabitants, and their interactions. Article Curricular Materials A case study of the Cary Institute scientists at work on the river and in their labs. Article Graph the Data Graph the Data to pick which factors to view in relation to one another.  Article Make a Scatterplot Make a Scatterplot to help observe patterns in the data.