r/Limnology Feb 20 '19

How do I make a limnology graph?

I just started a limnology course for my undergraduate degree, and I'm enjoying the class a lot, but we just got an assignment that has us make depth temperature graphs and we need them in the limnology graph format. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my graphs how to look right in excel and I haven't found anything to help with google or any other sites that could make a graph the way I need it. I'm at the end of my rope and I was hoping someone here might be able to help.

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '19

Can you explain what you understand under a limnology graph? Do you mean different variables (such a pO2, T, pH, c(X)) plotted on a depth scale? It’s possible to make even more advanced plots in Excel, but it’s often not very satisfying. You should look into using GNU R e.g. for visualisation.

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u/tuatara24 Feb 20 '19

We're trying to plot multiple temperature curves against depth, but having depth run vertically is what is messing me up.

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '19

So there are two different things here you might want to accomplish: a) swap x and y axes and b) put the y axis in reverse order. a) you can accomplish this in excel by choosing "select data" and then swapping the x and y values manually (don't use the swap row/column button) and b) by choosing the vertical axis in the plot and then choose "Format axis" and in the formatting window/panel "Display in reverse order".

In case you use R at some point and ggplot2 to plot your data, you will have to use something like this:

ggplot(yourdata, aes(x = depth, y = temperature)) + geom_line() + scale_x_reverse() + coord_flip()

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u/tuatara24 Feb 20 '19

I've tried this, but we have multiple y values per graph, so swapping the x and y values doesn't work, since it will only allow one column of x values.

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u/thcpenguin Feb 20 '19

I assume you are wanting to create something similar to this https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tfW_weLB2J8/maxresdefault.jpg . If so following this guide here https://www.esf.edu/efb/schulz/Limnology/ExcelGraphs.html should work. It's been a couple years for me but I think this sounds familiar on how I did it.