Weeks 1 & 2: UWF and USFSP

Where do I even begin? This trip has already been absolutely amazing to say the least! I cannot believe it has already been two weeks. Every day I feel like I am exposed to so many new things, most of which I have never even heard of before. I am so thankful for this class! We started at my home base at the University of West Florida in Pensacola and have since gone through USFSP and today we arrived at FGCU!! Even during the first full week at UWF, I learned so much every single day - probably more than I have learned in many of my traditional classes over a whole semester. It’s hard to choose what to write about because for me, everything was new and exciting and I could probably write an entire essay about just the first week.

At UWF, we focused our attention on working our way through the water systems of the area. Starting from streams and working our way to the gulf, we compared and contrasted each water system and discovered how human influences impact each one. I loved being able to tie in my love for learning about the environment and how humans impact it with learning all of this new information about marine environments! Starting with the rivers and streams, I was shocked to see just how heavily development has affected these areas. Ferry Pass Creek had pretty much no biodiversity left and was so overrun by sedimentation that there was hardly any creek to see! It was really sad to see that… I wish that our school would not develop on these areas. It hurts me to see so much life being destroyed, but I know that my new found knowledge is going to take me on the path towards reversing this damage. Seeing how extreme the impact was is pushing me even harder to keep learning so that I can make a difference.

On a brighter note, we were broken into small groups at the beginning of the week and each group was assigned a different subject area that we were to make a presentation about on the last day. The subject areas included stream ecology, sea turtles, seagrasses and more.  I worked with Emily, and our project was on bacteria production. At first, I was not that excited to work with bacteria, but since all of the topics were new to me I was okay with taking any of them! Plus, Emily made me excited about it by telling me how cool it was going to be to work with Dr. Jeffrey.

It turns out bacteria is much more interesting than I anticipated and working with Dr. Jeffrey was definitely awesome. He really knows how to explain things in a way that is both very interesting and easy to understand, even if the subject does not at first seem interesting or easy to understand. To acquire the data for our presentation, we collected water samples at each site we visited, including four sites going down Perdido Bay, one on the Gulf of Mexico, and one on the sound. We treated these samples on site, and brought them back to the lab on Friday to complete treating them and to analyze them. Along the way, I was exposed to several different lab techniques that I had never seen before. My favorite was treating the bacteria samples with a blue dye and looking at them under a microscope hooked up to a computer software that counted the number of bacteria on each prepared slide to compare the bacteria levels at each site that we visited. It was really interesting to be able to work with that equipment and to be able to work with Dr. Jeffrey, who was incredibly knowledgeable about this subject. He made sure that we really appreciated the importance of bacteria - without it we would be up to our eyeballs in decaying matter!! I was happy to be able to share these techniques and knowledge with the class during our presentation.

Although I had a blast at UWF, I was super excited to travel somewhere new! Our next stop was the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. This city was beautiful and the campus was amazing! We did a good portion of our studying indoors, but that did not mean that there was a lack of hands on experiences! I was filling my brain up with so much new material every day and it has been making me so happy and excited to continue on! The most exciting part of the trip was definitely going on the R/V Weatherbird for a 14 hour day! I have never been on a research vessel before so this is an experience I will certainly never forget. We got to experience so many different sampling techniques and we were exposed to so much biodiversity that I did not fully appreciate until that day. Pulling up the dredges and the Otter Trawl was absolutely incredible. We saw all sorts of fascinating marine life like crabs and starfish and squids and so many different species of fish! Identifying these creatures was no easy task, but we worked as a team and got the job done. I feel like a whole new person already with all of these experiences under my belt! I guess I never really thought about how truly diverse the marine life is in the Gulf of Mexico. We must have caught at least 30 different species of critters in just a few net pulls and dredges. The only part that I did not enjoy about our trip on the Weatherbird was the fact that so many lives were lost in the process of collecting these samples. I do not like to see animals suffer or die, so that part was very hard for me and I don’t think that I will be doing much more of that. However, I am so glad that I got the experience and being able to see all of the diverse marine life and actually hold most of it in my hands was incredible. Another amazing part about being on the Weatherbird was when I was standing on one of the decks towards the front of the vessel and a whole family of spotted dolphins came by and swam alongside the vessel. I have never seen dolphins that close up; it was really a magical experience. I still cannot believe that happened! They are such beautiful and intelligent animals; I know that they came up to us just to show off and we were all freaking out! I think I may have even got a little teary eyed when I saw that one of the dolphins had her baby on her side and they were swimming in unison together.

In addition to being able to travel on the Weatherbird and visit those gorgeous dolphins, we also got to do some hands on lab work. We took a close look at some water samples that we gathered on the Weatherbird using two different types of plankton nets - the bongo nets and the neuston net. Seeing all of these tiny microscopic creatures that we swim with every time we go to the beach was fascinating. I almost couldn’t believe how much diversity can be found in just 5 mL of sea water! There was everything from copepods to tiny fish larvae to itty bitty eggs and other plankton. My least favorite lab work was looking at the vase sponge that we collected using the dredge.. That thing smelled AWFUL! It was probably the worst smell I have ever experienced and I will definitely never do that again! I love marine plants and animals but keep me far away from dying sea sponges! I am sure there is plenty of fascinating material to learn about sea sponges but if researching them involves that putrid smell every day, I will definitely opt out of that one and focus my attention on something else.

Over all, these past two weeks have been unbelievable. I have met so many amazing people and working alongside students that love marine life has been a blast!! Every day I learn so many new things that I think I’m gonna be a whole new person by the end of this journey! The professors that I have met so far have taught me so much - even beyond what we have been learning in the field. I feel so privileged to be able to work with them so closely and learn about how they got where they are today. Before this class, I was so unsure of what I wanted to do and I felt like I was stuck in a strange place in my life. I knew I wanted to make a positive impact on our planet, but I was nowhere near being sure of what exactly that impact was going to be. Seeing how all of the instructors and professionals that we have met got where they are today has really opened my eyes. I know that I just need to work hard and share my excitement for the environment and I am going to be able to do great things. I have met a lot of other people on this trip that I feel will do the same. It has been awesome to be able to share this experience with my classmates, who seem to be just as excited as I am to be on this trip! Being exposed to so many brilliant people has certainly relit the fire in my heart to work hard and make a difference! I cannot wait to keep meeting more people and experiencing new things. This is the best summer ever (and I promise I am not just saying that to get a good grade on my blog!)

Week 2 - USFSP

Wow, I really cannot believe how quickly this class is flying by. I wish that I could slow down time and stay on this trip forever. How am I supposed to go back to living a normal life after this is over?? I'm just not going to think about it and pretend that it won't end.

We are now at the start of week 3... basically the midway point. Our last week took place in St. Petersburg, a city that I had never been to before. Not only was the campus absolutely beautiful, but the city was so interesting to me. However, the most interesting part was obviously all the amazing activities we took part in this week.

First of all, the Weatherbird. What an experience. Even though I spent a few of my hours laying on the concrete, drifting in and out of consciousness, all while using a lifejacket as a pillow trying to fight off the dreaded sea sickness, it was still one of the best experiences of my life. I could write a book on all the reasons why I loved the research vessel. My chapters would probably follow this outline:

1. The food - Thomas, you are awesome
2. Guideline to every possible way to prevent sea sickness
3. Methods used for sampling and water quality - includes CTD, dredge, otter trawl
4. Sea animals and all it's inhabitants - must include dolphins that ride the waves with the boat
5. Crew life - it truly is like a family because everyone has to watch each others back
6. The sunset out on sea - yes, this gets it's own chapter, trust me
7. How you will never want to dock because that means it's over

The Weatherbird is now the first research vessel I ever went on, but hopefully not my last. As soon as I find a cure to my motion sickness, I will be on one again ASAP. Clearly, this was the highlight of the week, but I loved absolutely everything else that we did (except the scent of the sponge). Looking at the plankton we collected under the microscope really was eye-opening because I had no idea how diverse the micro-world actually is. 

However, as classroom activities goes, my favorite part was forming a question relating to our research trip and using the data that we collected to try and answer that question the best we could in 2 hours. Although the question my partner and I chose did not work out at all because of several data errors, I really enjoyed just brainstorming on the whiteboard and really working like a scientist. I probably learned the most from this activity because I had several issues that I had to address and work through, which is a crucial skill to have in this major. 

I love every minute of this class and I cannot wait for this next week at FGCU. I have only been here for a few hours, but it already exceeded my expectations with the water front bedrooms and relaxed atmosphere. 

P.S. Dr. Judkins, you're great and inspiring and I am really glad we got to work with you. 

UNF

Fiddler crabs were abundant in Jacksonville

 

 

Coquina rock formations at Marineland Beach

UNF was beautiful. We started by traveling to different beach habitats looking at inlet differences and coquina rock formations. We all loved the coquina. The main part of the week was the 24 hour tidal survey at GTMNERR. My group was great, we worked well together and had a lot of fun. However, it was exhausting and we were pretty gross by the end of it. During the survey we looked at species richness and diversity between the lake and the river, as well as water quality. I did learn a lot and we saw some cool creatures but I'll wait a while before I do that again. The next day we compiled our data and made graphs. On Thursday we went on a boat ride on the St. John's river to see how water quality changes from the estuary region to towards the ocean. We saw dolphins and manatees which was a nice treat! Overall it was an exhausting week but it was rewarding as well .

Our group at the GTMNERR

Counting Fish at the Lake

UNF

This week at University of North Florida we did a lot of activities in so little time. It was intense but we learned a lot of good information about human impacts on rivers, biodiversity of a lake compared to a river, and water quality. This whole week we used the YSI meter to test water quality. The values we were measuring and comparing were dissolved oxygen, salinity and temperature. We also compared turbidity by using the secchi disk and the secchi tube. The secchi tube was a lot more accurate because the water is still in the tube, but the visibility of the disk in the water was hard to see in the shade and when the waves were coming in. When we went along the St. John's river we saw many things that could affect the water such as power plants, houses that have fertilizer runoff, a cruise ship and many more. We also did a 24 hour tidal study to see what changes with the different tides. In high tide the fish are more spread out and harder to catch with a ten foot seine net, but when the tide is low the fish are more concentrated in one area and are easier to catch. We did not catch anything big other than the blue crab because larger fish are faster and are hard to catch with a small net. This week was difficult with the lack of sleep but it was totally worth it.

Week 3: UNF

This week was definitely the most intense so far. On Monday we started the week with a drive along the Jacksonville coastline comparing natural and altered inlets. On Tuesday is when the real fun began, we started a 24 hour experiment comparing the abundance and species richness of two locations along a time gradient. We all started out strong, but by around 11 p.m. you could tell we were exhausted! We returned to campus around 1 p.m. Wednesday and everyone passed out.

Our data was very interesting showing that the river system had a higher species richness and abundance was highest during low tides. Thursday was quite relaxing with a boat ride approximately 70 miles long! We got lots of practice using the YSI Sonde, secchi disk, seine nets, and some new instruments including the trilogy spectrophotometer and the pH meter. After our skills test on Friday some of our group went on a ghost tour in St. Augustine and then the Jacksonville Zoo on Saturday. It's awesome getting to experience the other things Florida has to offer while we're traveling around.

UNF Coastal Work

This week at UNF was our toughest yet. After getting to our destination, we sat through an informative lecture on invasive species. We talked about our week and i had no idea what to expect during our days around Jacksonville and St. Augustine. It was so cool to learn about the watersheds that can be changed by the simplest variation in tide or weather, or human activity. After van rides through the coastal highways, it was cool to see the environment of a coquina beach, which became our groups favorite word for sure! Coquina coquina coquina. The workload for this part of the trip caught most of us by surprise. I learned a lot from Courtney and Kelly, and even got to enjoy fishinf with the both of them. I caught my first ever jack and three large trout while hanging out with Courtney at 4 in the morning. It wasn't all laid back though. For me, the 24 hour sampling was the hardest mentally and emotionally. Most of the cohort felt the effects of the long day and night and we didn't know how to handle it as a group. For most of the group, it was the first time we had done work that was so intense and demanding, although rewarding. My grouchiness was hard to control at times, but I have learned how I should handle those situations better. My group seined the slimy depths of the lake and river, and we couldn't have functioned without everyone's help. We made it through and were greeted by an amazing sunrise. I wouldn't say it was the best time of my life, but it was rewarding in ways that I hadn't thought of. Now that we are in the Keys, I hope the whole cohort can enjoy every second we have because it is beautiful and for some of us, it is our first up close and personal look at the environment. I'm ready to snorkel my face off!

Week 3!

This week was exhausting but exciting! I will admit I was very nervous to do the 24 hour sampling but it was definitely rewarding. It was a nice glimpse into what would be expected of us in the field. From Day 1 we were out in the field with our hands in the water collecting samples and running tests. It was nice to start out on the dunes and coquina rocks before our long night switching between murky, muddy lake water and rushing river water filled with critters. (Definitely use the fish cam at night in the dam! So many critters!) Ending the week on the boat in the St. John's River was a nice way to wind down after our caffeine induced adventure at the park. (I never want to see another Red Bull can again now!) Although we were slightly stressed and sleep-deprived our last night on UNF's campus, I definitely feel that our time has made this group closer. I'm excited to revisit the Keys Marine Lab and see what's in store for our little FIO family there. So far within the first five minutes of us arriving we have seen spiny lobsters, puffer fish, parrot fish, barracuda, and my favorite the nurse shark! This next week will be just as rewarding as lasts!

UNF

The work at UNF was intense, to start off as soon we arrived on the campus we had to sit through a 40min lecture on invasive species which mainly focused on the lion finish and green muscle. This was a good and informative lecture but I would have preferred if the lecture was done on Monday instead giving us a day to rest. Even on Monday we spent the day visiting beaches and inlets, we saw how human interference not only affects the habitat of the fauna living near sand dunes or rocky inlets  but also how it influences human construction.
Our instructors Dr.Smith and Dr.Hackney were very knowledgeable and at times very funny making our experience more entertaining. Our 24hr sampling was an extreme eye opener to what we could possibly expect from studying coastal biology. It was amazing how just a simple thing as the tied could effect the abundance and activity of fauna and flora living in within that specific habitat. The group I was in consisted of Nat, Johanna, and myself we were a person short but we made the best of what we could do, which included  using the seine net for sampling, and YSI for water quality, and spectrophotometer, colorimeter,  pH, and made good use of the turbidity tube. This trip made me realize that I have an interest in the field of coastal biology and the human impact on habitats.

Week two at USF St. Pete!

This week our cohort was at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. The campus was extremely nice and was in the middle of downtown St. Pete so we got to do lots of exploring when we were not in class. The focus of this week was deep water so majority of the classes were held on campus learning about the diversity of organisms and the different zones that make up deep water. Wednesday was by far my favorite day. We had the opportunity to go on the Weatherbird research vessel for fourteen hours to collect data on water quality, nutrients, and species abundance in deep waters. We went twenty-seven miles off shore to collect our first round of data and then about eight miles off shore to collect our second round of data to compare the differences. We used a CTD to collect water samples at different depths, bongoes to collect plankton in the water column, Neuston nets to collect plankton samples at the top of the water, a dredge to collect samples of organisms living at the bottom of the ocean, and a Otter trawl to collects samples at the different levels in the water column and at the bottom. It was so amazing to see all the different organisms living down there. My favorite was a crab the spit water out of its mouth like a fountain. 

                                                   

The next two days we were in the classroom and lab identifying and counting our samples that we were not able to identify when on the ship. The identify process could be very aggravating at times when it took a long time to identify the species, but when you finally figured it out it was a great feeling! We also dissected a sponge that we had collected when we were on the ship that was by far the worst thing I have ever smelt in my entire life. However, we did find some cool barnacles and worms inside the sponge. This weekend some of us from the cohort went to Universal Studios to see the new Harry Potter world and ride roller coasters! It was so much fun and was nice getting to know some of the people in my group outside of the school week. Im excited to start our week at Florida Gulf Coat University, especially since I heard well be staying right next to the water!

Week 2: USF St. Pete

This week at USF St. Pete was spent learning about biodiversity and the open ocean. We spent most days in the classroom doing lectures and dissections and one day on the Weatherbird, a research vessel. The day on the boat was obviously my favorite day because all we did was field work. We took plankton samples, did an otter trawl and dredge and took some water quality measurements.  The best and worst part was sorting all of the organisms. It was so stressful to try to identify everything before the organisms died, but so cool to see new animals and algaes that I would never get to see on a normal day at the beach. We saw differences between day and night and surface and bottom waters at our two sampling stations. It was a great experience and kind of a rare one because research vessels are so expensive to use.

This is a picture of a teeny tiny red rock urchin that was scooped up in the offshore dredge pull. Everything tiny is adorable. 

This trip has been so much fun so far and I really couldn't be more thankful to be able to get all of these experiences packed into 5 weeks. I'm so excited to see what FGCU and Vester Field Station have in store this week!

Week 2: USFSP

What an awesome time at USFSP! This week’s focus was the open ocean and biodiversity. We got to spend a full day on The Weatherbird research vessel. I really enjoyed being on the boat. It was a completely different experience for me. My favorite part was doing the otter trawl and the dredge. It was so exciting waiting to see what was going to come up. Sorting through all of the different organisms was really fun. It was great to see all of the different ones that we got. It was also very interesting to see the difference in species between the dredge and the trawl and the different locations. Trying to identify each organism was very challenging. But it was very rewarding once we finally got it. On our way out to the first site we saw 4 spotted dolphins that swam with the ship. It was so cool. They played in the waves and swam with us for quite a while. Some of the group saw a hammerhead shark swimming next to the ship. But unfortunately I didn’t get to see it L While we were headed to our second site we got to see an amazing sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. It was absolutely breathtaking and relaxing. Back in the lab we spent our time dissecting and analyzing our data. We had to cut open a vase sponge and it was very stinky! We stunk up the entire floor of the building. I definitely don’t think I plan to work with sponges out of the water! I was pretty amazed that we caught some of the things that we did. 

I learned a lot about the ocean open. It definitely made me look at my career options in a different way. I had a great time on the ship and I don’t get seasick so data collection could definitely be an option for me! The USFSP campus was absolutely gorgeous and right on the water. I really enjoyed spending my breaks out by the marina. There are still a couple weeks left and I can’t wait to see what is coming our way!!