PhD Research Topic


My research topic has finally been finalized! I was completely aware of the fact that the initial research proposal is likely to change even though you fall in love with the original research theme. Same thing happened with me but I am okay since this topic is pretty interesting too. Of course I have to use the softwares and do few cool computer programming tricks. Since I had to do that in my previous research also, it is not that bad. 

Initially it was related to simulating environmental flows on regulated rivers and now, the topic is more inclined towards the measurement of stream metabolism such as Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Community Respiration (CR) with a software known as BASE (BAyesian Single - Station Estimation) developed by Grace et al*. in 2015 in the rivers of Japan. 

As of now, I, who has never used 'R' programming, am struggling with the installation of OpenBUGS. Since my the OS of my laptop is in Japanese I am finding it difficult to decipher the familiar yet strange Kanji characters on the laptop. 

I have been brushing up my knowledge about stream metabolism and I tend to post articles about it as well as my progress on research activities so far. 


So, here is the map of rivers in Japan. The study involves estimating the stream metabolism by applying the BASE model to long-term Dissolved Oxygen (DO) data in various rivers from North to South areas of Japan.

The study also aims to analyze the trend in GPP (Gross Primary Production) and Community Respiration　(CR) with meteorological, geological and geographical data to examine how stream metabolism respond to local and global environmental changes. 

I will also be measuring stream metabolism directly at upper and lower reaches of Hirose River at Sendai, Japan to evaluate the appropriateness of assessments derived from the simulation model. 

Fortunately, the Hirose River (and almost all rivers of Japan) is clean and I do not have to face the tiny wriggling red chironomids like I did years back in Bagmati River, Nepal. The rivers in the cities would be so dirty and smelly, you wouldn't want to eat anything after collecting the water samples. Here, I can even see the substrates at the bottom of the river from a bridge up above. 

Hirose River
Photo Taken from: http://www.alexforencich.com/blog/
I hope I can hopefully manage the huge datasets and run BASE smoothly!


*Grace M. R., D.P Giling,S. Hiladyz,V Caron, R Thompson and R Nally. 2015. Fast processing of diel oxygen curves: Estimating stream metabolism with BASE (BAyesian Single-Station Estimation). Limol. Oceanogr: Methods 13: 103-114.

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