CIBOLO PRESERVE

The university of texas at san antonio conducted five studies in 2024, covering a variety of subjects. The surveys were as follows: aquatic ecology, wastewater effluent influence on microbial community structure and function, characterize epikarst springs in cibolo preserve, reproductive lie history analysis of redbreast sunfish in estrogen-contaminated reach in cibolo creek and live oak microbiome and mapping karst features and vegetation using drones. Some were carry over from 2023, but several were new studies in 2024.

Texas commission on environmental quality (tceq). Ths is a continuation of the clean rivers monitoring program that was previosly implemented by the san antonio river authority. Water samples are collected quarterly and analysed for multiple water quality parameters. The data is then entered into the tceq swiqm database.

U.s. Geologi cal l survey this usgs study is looking at synoptic well levels across a two county area. Cibolo preserve has two wells available for sampling that are not impacted by constant use, making them ideal candidates for this research project. Drought conditions have peristed in central texas and often the monitoring wells of the local ground water district are not numerous enough to give a clearer understanding of groundwater levels regionwide. The usgs study will be used to gain a better understanding of long-term trends in groundwater levels in the aquifers, areas of groundwater depletion and recharge, groundwater flow paths, and cross aquifer communication. This study will require sampling of the wells at least two times per year for 2 - 5 years. Upon conclusion of the project a usgs scientific investigations map (sim) will be published online to pubs.usgs-gov summarizing the result of the project which will include maps.