Victoria-UR, "Does this sound Orca-ish?" (Dori)

Today, we fear anything we don't understand. It's common to see that the biggest fears in life are death, aliens, insects, heights, and SHARKS!! OH MY!!

Movie poster for "Jaws" (duh-nuh---duh-nuh--duh-nuh-duh-nuh)

The reason we fear sharks is due to the lack of information we have on these predatory, prehistoric fish. One of the major reasons is also due to the movie "Jaws", or other similar movies like "Deep Blue Sea" and "Sharknado". It is because of this fear that many scientists decided to study the "killers from the deep". It is also the same reason I enjoy studying them so much.



Because of people's fears of these unknown "beasts" I wanted to study them more and help spread the word on why they aren't as scary as most people believe. The whole purpose of this project is to:
Determine what shark species call our local waters home.

The left shark is a male, showing the claspers that hang
 down farther from the anal fin than those on the female shark on the right.

To do this, I am collecting data from anywhere along the beach and intercoastal waterway about the shark species found, as well as their length at the precaudal notch (the little notch before their tail fin), the fork length (the space where the tail fin splits between the top and bottom half), and the total length ( while the tail is in a relaxed position like it would be in the water). Also, if at all possible, I will get the weight of the shark if they are small enough to be weighed, since there are a lot of sharks out there bigger than a person. I will determine if the shark is male or female (found at the anal fins, if the shark is male, there are claspers, which are extensions of the fin that follow down a length of the body after the fin should have ended, which a female does not have). All of this information will be recorded including the date and location caught.


This data will be collected from different locations and will include outside sources if the information can be acquired from Marine Discovery Center, Marine Science Center, the Daytona State Fishing Club, Cape Canaveral, and local fishers. Most of the outside sources will have their own method of catching the sharks and I will record that data as it comes in. Other than that, the specimen I collect will be caught using a fishing rod with circle hooks, and most likely mullet or some other common bait fish. The measurements will be taken using a tape measurer and a fish scale (for weighing).

Although it is completely possible for the biggies on the bottom to "eat" you,
tiger sharks do not attack people as much when they are full grown, and bull sharks are
truly only aggressive when they feel threatened or are juveniles.

Thanks to the Discovery channel's Shark Week, we have been able to learn and understand more as a whole population, not just the people who live near the coast like we do here in Florida. The information we receive helps reduce our fears, which is why I am glad to work with the scary fish that nobody wants to come anywhere near unless behind the thick bulletproof acrylic glass of an aquarium.


If you are interested in sharks, there is a documentary called "Sharkwater" on YouTube that is about the declination of sharks. It is slightly graphic in showing some of the shark killings that humans do, but extremely insightful if you want to change the way we treat these amazing and extremely important animals.

Thank you for your curiosity,
Victoria

Samantha, CUR - We've been fenced off

Hello there ! Saturday, March 12, I received a message from Dr. Woodall saying, "We've been fenced off." As you can see from the picture below, Canal Street Canal, the site I have been monitoring, has in fact been "fenced off."

Picture taken by Dr. Woodall
March 12, 2016

 With this information I started to become curious as to what the reason the "fencing off" of the Canal Street Canal was for.  Wednesday, March 16, I was driving by when I spotted some men working within the grass area between Riverside Drive and the Canal. They seemed to be digging in that area several meters west of the canal.  Eager to know why this area was being fenced off I got out of my car, walked over to the working men and asked them what work they were doing (which looked to me as some sort of work within the piping underground) as well as if their work was effecting the culvert system directly below discharging into the Canal.  "We are updating  4x4 piping which is feeding the Brannon Center, a project that was completed in 1993.  This has nothing to do with the culvert system below," he replied.

Picture of the beginning of the canal, discharge point shown
in the lower right hand side, while piles of sediment are shown
(top left) that have been stirred up due to construction 

The Brannon center, is a community building located southeast of the canal (which according to google maps is 148 feet {45.1m} within distance of each other) and is currently being remodeled. Today I decided to take a look around the canal, specifically the fenced off area.  Using iMeasurer 6.3 part of Markelsoft, Inc (an application on my iPhone which measures walking distance between two locations using the GPS on my device), I was able to measure the length and width of the fenced off area as well as how much is fenced off of the Canal.  The Canal is ~ 128.75x9.00m, the "fenced" off covering 14.8m(East to West) in length of the Canal and the whole width of the canal (South to North) and goes on even further, with the "fence" being 46.30m in length.  When walking around the Canal today I noted that it was a pretty hot day, with 95% cloud coverage and noting a light rain for the first two minutes of being outside, next to the Canal.  According to Underground Weather (New Smyrna Beach{NSB}) there is an 80% chance of rain within the NSB area with a total of 31in precipitation within the next 24 hours.

The construction going on at the Brannon Center
on a slant downward with a storm drain at the bottom of the slant.
This storm drain is most likely within the Watershed discharging into the Canal Street Canal.

 With this being said, I have some concerns that although the project under construction is not effecting the culvert system specifically, the digging in the area (especially being so close) is stirring up the soil in the area, most likely releasing nutrients, which eventually may make it's way into the canal due to "runoff" caused from the expected rain.

To the right, start of one of the ditches dug within the
Canal area noting the flowers to the left
which are possibly grown with fertilizer
containing Nitrogen and Phosphate

 Although there is still a lot more work that would have to be done in order to determine the effects this construction may have on the water quality of this canal, I would like to measure the water quality possibly during this "fenced off" and compare it to my previous data(taken when no construction was disturbing the land within the canal area to see if there is a correlation between the two.

Works Cited 

• Markelsoft.com. (2008-2015). iMeasurer. Retrieved from https://launchkit.io/websites/wQBt16jsVbo/
• Weather Station ID: KFLNEWSM13 Station Name: Venetian Bay-Savona North. (2016). Forecast for New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Retrieved from https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KFLNEWSM13#history

Emily UR- Pesty pesticides

Eutrophication at its finest.

As the research on varying nutrient pollution between a rural water body and a more urbanized water body continues, I seem to have become involved in various games of "phone tag" in which I call someone, leave a voicemail, they call me, leave a voicemail then I call them back and it goes to voicemail. It hasn't been very fun but I have been able to get some interesting new information. First and foremost, the Tuscawilla Park Stormwater Management Pond (SMP) is currently experiencing an algae bloom, pictured to the right. I spoke with the grounds manager for the city of Daytona Beach who informed me that fertilizers have never been applied at Tuscawilla Park. They do however spray the trees with pesticides for mosquitoes. I can't imagine this would effect the levels of the nutrients in the water though, so I've turned to poor sewage management as the source of the algae. Earlier this year, more north in the park near the bathrooms, a sewage containment issue occurred and the city stepped in to resolve it. What exactly they did, I'm not sure but I can make some calls to find out. But in light of the information that fertilizers are not applied, I've turned to poor sewage management as the likely source of the eutrophication of the Tuscawilla Park water.

Seen on the lawn of the house furthest from the
SMP at the Halifax Plantation

Now as far as the Halifax Plantation SMP is concerned, I have been unable to get in touch with the "greens supervisor" which is the man who maintains all the golf courses, as he is on vacation until Tuesday, March 15th, so information regarding fertilizers on the golf course will be added to this blog in a future update. Meanwhile, I knocked on three doors, the doors to the houses that surround the SMP opposite of the golf course. Over the two days, I was unable to get someone to answer the door at two houses but one, really kind man answered the door on day one and told me that he has a landscaping company come once a month and that they apply fertilizers no more than twice, maybe three times a year. I thanked him for his help and moved on. It is important to note that there are actually four houses that line the SMP but one of these houses was currently being constructed and there was no grass except for the tall grass that acted as a buffer for the water body in my previous post. I also noted that the house furthest away from the pond, had a pesticide application marker, pictured left. Again, I can't imagine it would impact the levels of nutrients in the water but it's worth a note since Tuscawilla Park applies pesticides as well.
Updates soon to come!


To answer Dr. Woodall's Question: "Do you know how deep your water is and is it circulated?"

 According to the woman who oversees a great deal of the environmental concerns at the Halifax Plantation, the retention ponds are connected to the main pond, known as the "ribbon pond" from which water is taken and used to water the golf courses. I suppose that counts as a sort of circulation but other than that, the wind is the only other known source of circulation. This same woman told me that the ponds vary in depth from 5-10ft. I recall her mentioning 30ft about a water body, possibly the ribbon pond.
 As far as circulation of water is concerned, the Tuscawilla Park waters are connected to one another via drainage basin and small culverts such as the one pictured to the left and possibly have a weak current influenced by marine life. Mixing of surface and deep waters is certainly influenced by winds here.
The picture to the left is an opening of one culvert into the pond of interest being studied at Tuscawilla Park.

Note all the algae.
 Picture to the right is the body of water connected to the pond I'm studying via that same culvert pictured above. Much more green and polluted with algae and to my surprise has a much stronger vegetation buffer than the cleaner waters of the neighboring pond and of the Halifax Plantation pond.
The ponds at Tuscawilla park are an estimated 5-10ft maximum depth.

Pedro UR;Slowly but surely

In the past week the progress on my research project has been moving forward slowly. However, it is moving forward as more information accumulates. The most exciting thing I've done so far was learn that getting specific information on an area is not always so specific. The recent data I have acquired is helpful once  I use a converter to calculate the difference in measurements. It is criteria limits and annual geometric means (AGM) for most  of the waterways in central Florida. It also has lots of information that as of right now is not useful but, I feel in the future could be very helpful for depending on my career path. I can't to get out in the field and really make some progress with this!

Renee; UR: Lets switch it up a bit

This week I am going to start with the questions I received in my last blog because they are important concerns that I felt I should elaborate on more than I usually would at the end of an epic blog.

Q&A
Q: Angela Boney
My question: How does rain affect the measurements? E.g., could there be differences, deficiencies in some samples, due to rain the day of or before sampling?

A: I am honored by your question! And it is a great question which I asked myself in the beginning but have not brought up with you guys. 

After much pondering I decided that rain's affect on the nutrients is something I will focus on in the future after I have taken several rounds of samples. I simply do not have the time frame with which to do that question justice right now.

Right now the forecast is looking hot
and dry immediately preceding our
sample day.

Next week I will be taking my ten samples (five samples in close proximity to S. minor and five at a contrasting distance) with 

Dr. Emmett at Longleaf Pine Preserve. I will be taking note of the weather conditions for the area in the days leading up to our site visit along with plenty of observational notes about the site condition while we are out there.

I plan to continue this research for as long as Dr. Emmett and Dr. Woodall will put up with me. So hopefully next fall there will be an opportunity to take another round of samples and contrast them with the first round. I will again keep good documentation on the weather and site conditions so that I can draw some useful conclusions. If I'm extra lucky I will be able to take more samples next spring perhaps after a rain to see how those samples differ from dry spring time samples. That might be extra interesting since spring is generally a dry season. 

Q: Deb n' Paul (Dr. Woodall)
On a different note--what about soil bulk density. Have you and Dr. Emmett ever talked about sampling for this??

A: I talked to Dr. Emmett this afternoon and we are going to go ahead and do soil bulk density tests. It is simple and doesn't take much time so we might as well. The information could prove useful in the long run.

I do not project it to be a great concern as the organic, sphagnum moss heavy soil is hydric (VERY wet) most of the year and doesn't compact like sand; however, it could prove to be an issue. Dr. Emmett has described the roots to be loose and not very far reaching and in my experience from re-potting my exotic babies they are very sensitive to the "fluffiness" of the soil or lack thereof. 

Thank you so much for the suggestion!

My other reason for leading with the blog questions is because between being sick and not having much else but paper work and sampling prep left to do it has been fairly boring...Important happenings are going on but they are not particularly exciting. Meeting with Dr. Emmett today was probably the most exciting thing I've done besides meeting with Dr.Woodall and printing out the paperwork for sending my soil samples to be tested. 

Oh but guess what I'll be doing this weekend? I'll give you a hint: Yay paper work! ;) 

Chris Browne, UR - Tentative BacteriaMembrane Filter, glass,

      Alright, per Dr. Woodall, let’s discuss my methods more closely, and when we have set up the research itself. So were going to be taking a nearly identical approach to the filtration system, just like total suspended solids. It all starts with canal street, New Smyrna Beach. Scheduling with the college's main lab, and Dr. Woodall puts the majority of my research in the beginning of April.

Glass Filter, 0.45 microns

     

     Once I have collected the sample, I would follow the USEPA Membrane Filtration Method, as outlined and with the appropriate professor’s assistance. A minimum of two samples will be used to compare conditions for bacteria. My paper will have some background research of other studies with similar experiments.

Filter Assembly

1         .       Bring entire set up to Dr. Sandra M. Horikami for Autoclave use,                   ahead of sample and keep isolated until it has cooled and I have                     samples prepared.

2         .       Set up Petri-dish and broth prepared for filtered sample

3         .       Membrane assembly

4         .       Using the vacuum, and appropriate sample size, filter through,                       including washing sides of  membrane assembly with distilled water

5         .       Using the filter itself, carefully apply the filter to the petri dish, and               incubate at 44.5®C for 26 hours.

6         .       After that, it’s time for the microscope, identification, and/or counting           the bacteria that has been cultured for research.

          

Prepared / Cultured Petri Dish

 ~CMB

Deanna, UR- And the Research Continues...

As I continued my research I focused on the questions from Professor Woodall on my last blog post. The questions were whether red drum are tidally influenced, influenced by water temperature and when is the best time of day to fish for them. I have found a website explaining the best ways and times to sight-fish for red drum in Florida. Sight-fishing, as it sounds, is when you visually see the fish or signs of the fish and cast your bait or net in that area. The website mentions that the best time to actually fish for red drum, to my surprise, is actually in winter. More specifically late January through early March are the best time of the year to actually sight-fish. This is due to the fact that red drum are easier to see when the water is clearer and shallower. As we all know living in Florida it rains a lot during the warmer months of the year, with the rain the water level rises and it also clouds the water more.

This is a red drum "tailing", this is commonly what
 fishermen look for when sight-fishing.

As far as specific time of the day, the red drum are food motivated. Meaning if bait fish are out, so are red drum. During these colder months of January to March, the water temperature is colder and many fish species become lethargic and find deeper, warmer holes. However, red drum tightly school during this time and these schools can easily exceed one hundred fish. These schools continue to move around in search for food. Bait fish typically are not really active during this time of year until afternoon until the evening when the sun starts setting. This is due to the water temperature rising a few degrees during this time of day, especially in shallower waters where the temperature will be even higher.
But that doesn't mean this is the only time of day and year that red drum are active because they are even more active in the summer months than they are in winter. Although, sight-fishing for red drum is easier in the winter.

Red drum

As far as my scientific question goes, it will be "how appropriate are the current rules and regulations for harvesting red drum in Flagler County?". By catching red drum and recording the number of fish I catch and their length measurements (since that is what the law is based on), I will hopefully be able to determine if they current rules and regulations should be adjusted. For example, (let's say) I catch 40 red drum and of those 40, only 12 are within the legal size of 18-27  inches I will feel as though maybe they are becoming over-harvested and perhaps the bag limit should be dropped from 2 per person per day, down to 1. Or (let's say) I catch 40 fish and of the 40, maybe 37 are within the legal size limit I would feel as though perhaps the laws should be adjusted in favor of the fishermen. By in favor of the fishermen I mean maybe increasing the bag limit to 3 or 4 per person per day for a year or so.
Thanks for the questions Professor Woodall.

Reference:
Florida Sportsman. (2012). Hot redfishing in winter. Retrieved from http://www.floridasportsman.com/2012/01/28/sportfish_redfish_0312_red/

Samantha, CUR Be precise in the lab !

News: I found out some significant information this week Thursday, March 3 within my data I have been representing over the past several months.  I spoke in past blogs about a source of Copper that we were finding in our samples within the canal street canal.  Well Monday, February 29 during high tide (~12:30) Dr. Woodall gathered water samples within the canal, then analyzed them in the lab.  In doing so, Dr. Woodall was extra careful with her sampling and precise on the cleanliness of her sample bottles as well as contributing instruments when analyzing the data, surprised when each time she measured for copper a reading of 0 mg/L was continuously showing up.  That did not work for Dr. Woodall, thus she went further to determine why this could be happening.  Over the past months of myself conducting this data I have been finding copper almost every time with measurements up to 4 mg/L. 

Victoria and I measuring
Phosphate in the lab
using the same instrument
(HACH DR/890)
used to measure Copper

 Dr. Woodall came to the conclusion that our lab (being older) could possibly have Copper within our tap water system. Due to cleansing of sample bottles, instruments etc, this could in fact be the reason as to why I was receiving Copper measurements within my canal.  In conclusion this information needs to be analyzed further when doing my research several times.

 I have learned from this that when working in the lab you need to be extra careful when taking samples as well as analyzing them and this is a perfect example as to myself representing invalid data.  Thank you again Dr. Woodall and ca not wait to get back in the field and discover more !

Pedro UR, Wrapped in a web

Well everyone it has been a while and I'm not too happy about that. Unfortunately living in a world flooding with information, in a country with the freedom to access that in formation, and a state that allows all records to be shared it's still difficult to find out a thing or two. Thanks to some help from Dr. Woodall and her connections in the environmental field I was able narrow down my search with a classification of  Smith Creek, the water body in question.

Mr. Faulkner's residence and canals 

It seems that the only concern with the canals I'm researching come from the current residents one being Mr. Charlie Faulkner, and myself. I did however, have a breakthrough early this morning in the thousands of formal, uninteresting, governmental straight forward documents listed by the Department of Environmental Protection. I found the criteria given for this class of water body in Flagler county. This criteria will allow me to continue onto the next step in my research. I know it doesn't seem like much but, it's a about time I made some progress.

Class three criteria

Emily UR - Policies and Prisoners, a hypothesis

This past Thursday, March 3rd, 2016, I took advantage of the opportunity to shadow a woman, Catherine Bowman, as she used water level data collected throughout the year to study and report the impact of irrigation on two wetlands in the Halifax Plantation. While interviewing one another, she learned of my IRP and suggested a possible cause for one stormwater management pond (SMP) being more polluted with nutrients than another. I had completely overlooked the fine detail of what she called a vegetation buffer. Basically, a vegetation buffer is a line of vegetation that surrounds the entire edge of a water body and acts as a sort of net for catching nutrient runoff before it gets to the water. In the Halifax Plantation, where one of my focus SMP is located, she told me that "each water body must maintain a vegetation buffer 1ft-2ft above the surface of the water". It's part of a policy that Halifax has taken upon themselves in an attempt to "catch" nutrient runoff from overwhelming the water and creating an algae bloom, which would be an eye sore on the people who live near the water body.
Now, in light of this new information I began to think about the other SMP located in Tuscawilla Park and how the city of Daytona Beach, which manages the landscaping here, probably hasn't implemented the same kind of policy. Suddenly I remembered that even if the regular city landscapers have taken a vegetation buffer into consideration, the state prisoners may not have. I can explain. Every now and then, maybe every 3rd or 4th landscaping of the park, state prisoners will be sent to do what the city workers do, with the exception of mowing the grass. Some of them have weed-whackers though which enable them to trim away any kind of vegetation buffer that surrounds the SMP. Cutting away the vegetation buffer would cause all the dying organic matter of said cut vegetation to fall into the water body and as a result, the next rainstorm would flush a greater amount of nutrients into the SMP, creating an algae bloom!
This is strictly a hypothesis formed from newly gathered information. The vegetation buffer is something I would have completely overlooked had Catherine not suggested it to me, so thank you Catherine!
UPDATE:

Halifax Plantation SMP being studied. Note the vegetation buffer
which surrounds ~40% of the water. The remaining 60% consists
of grass and bald cypress knees.

 

Tuscawilla Park SMP being studied. I would say that there is very little
signs of a vegetation buffer here. Only maybe 20-30% of vegetation surrounding
the water here is greater than 2in. in height and maybe 1ft from the surface
of the water.

Some tall grass in the vegetation buffer surrounding
the Tuscawilla Park SMP.

Chris Browne, UR - The Latest Regulation

Colorized scanning electron micro-graph of E. coli 

     The search for bacteria continues. Where is it, how much is there, and what kind of bacteria is beneficial or harmful to the environment. Two examples are the ever-changing understanding of bacteria and its environment, as well as the human environment in which it can found. Genetically modified bacteria can effect a natural environment, and there are new experiments to try to do this in a beneficial way. Nutrient-Control for GM Bacteria, is a recent and current attempt to use GM bacteria to correct an environment in the positive way. Genetically modified bacteria that don’t survive unless given an unnatural amino acid could serve 

as a new control measure to protect wild organisms 

and ecosystems against accidental release.

     Genetic switches have made headlines recently, as researchers engineer ways to prevent organisms built or modified in the lab from escaping to the wild. Limiting the growth of a genetically modified (GM) E. coli strain when the environment lacks unnatural, or no canonical, animal acids (NCAAs). NCAAs have been used to expand or alter the genetic code of various organisms. But by re-engineering the antibiotic resistance gene TEM-1 β-lactamase to only produce a protein. When provided with the necessary NCAA, however, the E. coli can live for hundreds of generations.

Human blood prepared on a slide 

     So how much bacteria is on and in us? How important is this bacteria, and what does that mean for the average person? Microbiologist Thomas Luckey, who in 1972 estimated that the number of microbial cells in and on the human body outnumbers those carrying the human genome by 10 to 1, was wrong: people are not more microbe than human, scientists now suggest. “The numbers are similar enough that each defecation event may flip the ratio to favor human cells over bacteria,” “One-to-one is pretty impressive,” Judah Rosner, a molecular biologist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digest,                                                                                          “There’s as much of them as there is of us.”

     Of course, the new estimate could be off, the researchers noted, as it’s based on existing experimental data that could inform an assessment of human and microbial cell counts, such as estimates of bacteria in 1 gram of feces and data on the length of the human colon. Moreover, the team only considered bacteria; virus, fungi, and other microbes could push that ratio up. So with so much bacteria where does it all go? and how might humans impact the local environment? All questions to research in my project on the bacteria found in Canal Street Outlet. On to the experiment.

~CMB

Ellington, A. (2016, Jan). Nutrient-Control for GM Bacteria. Retrieved from Scientist: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45130/title/Nutrient-Control-for-GM-Bacteria/

Luchey, T. (2016, Jan). Counting Cells. Retrieved from Scientist: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45039/title/Counting-Cells/

Lilli -- UR, And the Search Continues....

I have been doing lots of research on the topic of micro plastics this past week and the few prior, and it seems like there is some misunderstanding going on, myself included. I originally misunderstood the micro beads and micro plastics for the same thing and it seems like I was/am not the only one. I have read a few articles that I found on the web and the authors as well as some of the people commenting and asking questions of the authors were using the two terms (micro beads and micro plastics) interchangeably, though they are very different.  I continue to refer back to Dr. Maya McGuires website for information and clarification though I have found some other resources that I have been using such as this article Plastic Pollution that goes into a lot of depth in explaining the differences between types  of plastics as well as detailing the different sizes as well which I believe will be indispensable to me moving forward.
Dr. Woodall suggested to me this past week that instead of collecting my own samples and analyzing them that I work with Mallory at the Marine Discovery Center and volunteer to analyze their volunteer collected samples, which I thought was a wonderful idea. Their samples have been collected from a variety of sampling locations, although they do have specific requirements that must be met such as collected during a slack tide on a particular day and at a certain time, however as mentioned by Dr. Woodall I will be able to have a much larger sampling area available to me which I would expect to increase the accuracy of my data.
I am looking forward to learning from Mallory and am hoping to begin my studies with her this coming week and possibly a few days during spring break if it is possible.





Resources:
Reisser, J., Ryan, P. G., Galgani, F., Borerro, J. C., Moore, C. J., Thiel, M., . . . Eriksen, M.                 (2014, December 10). Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. Retrieved March 03, 2016, from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913

Victoria Czupta- UR "Just keep swimming..."

To start things off with a bang:

Earlier this week, there were numerous shark sightings in the waters of New Smyrna Beach. The sharks here are said to be migrating north as the waters get warmer and that they are merely here to eat on the way. The species has not been 100% ID'd, but they are believed to be Lemon Sharks. Some girls were interviewed since they were surfing when the sharks came around and bumped their boards. They said they started screaming and noticed that the sharks swam away, like they were more afraid of the girls than the girls were of them.

Sharks in NSB

There is a video in this hyperlink for anyone who wants to see them swimming, taken via drone camera above the water.

Sharks in waters less than a foot deep in NSB.

I wish that I could have had the opportunity to see these sharks and tried to use a few of them for my IRP. Also, I wish I knew for a fact what species they were.

As of my project, the tagging process has been determined to be done if we can get the tags. Otherwise, we will just be fishing for sharks at a few different locations off the beach shoreline and the intercoastal off piers. The recorded data will be species, location, gender, lengths, weights if possible (since some of them might be really big), and any other information we can acquire. Still determining if circle hooks or J hooks are the best bet, and if we can catch some decent specimens with hooks that don't have barbs.

My basic scientific question is What species of sharks call our local waters home?

Some of the specimens can easily be identified with a general age, while others won't.

Different Shark species and their relative size to each other and a scuba diver.

Dave, UR: Small victories are still victories

 Big news! Two out of the three necessary hydrophones for my research are secure! I am now exceptionally glad that I have developed strong and confident social skills over the years. Thanks to Dr. Hong Liu over at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, we have two Sparton PHOD-1 hydrophones on loan, for the low-low price of sharing my research data (which I'm cool with anyway).

On a campus visit with DSC's STEM Community Scholars Program last semester, I met Dr. Liu as he displayed his Eco-Dolphin project. You can bet your last penny that we talked all about dolphins, and he offered his assistance in my research. After doing some window shopping of research-grade hydrophones, we found them to be prohibitively expensive, and decided to call in a favor. If you would like to follow Dr. Liu's team as they work on their Eco Dolphin, I would encourage you to swing by the website at: http://www.eco-dolphin.org/ 

The PHOD-1's are close enough to the Cetacean Research CR1's that we were looking at, and we still have to find one more hydrophone. For the sake of this experiment, keeping the identical PHOD-1's on the bottom of the array will be sufficient. Whatever our other hydrophone ends up being, will remain at the top (zero degree) position, and will be observed for performance differences during the first baseline collection. That baseline collection will be conducted with flat collector plates, so that changes in performance of collector dishes can be observed as the dishes tighten in angle.

Hydrophones are clamped in by the component that the collector dishes mount to.

The objectives of this phase of development are direct, and future developments will be shared on the Team's blog after I transfer when the semester ends. These goals are:

• Verify structural materials in a non-laboratory environment 
• Determine optimal shape and angle of collector dishes for acute sound collection
• Determine optimal array radius for acute collection while minimizing interference

A well-constructed hydrophone array will open research opportunities!

On to structural materials. We wanted to use something for our initial structural prototypes that would be cheap to 3d-print, but could be strong enough to handle the added density of water. Remember how I told you that water is more than 800 times more dense than air? Structural materials decisions become more complicated when you add water. So, for cheap and durable, we opted for plastic.

Now hold onto your trees, hippies! Not all plastics are evil! We chose to prototype with PLA Plastic because it is cheap, strong, found in most 3d-printing labs in bulk, and also...biodegradable. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is a thermoplastic aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch, tapioca roots, and sugarcane.  For the chemists in the crowd that would like to know more about how good science paved the road for biodegradable structural materials, the Wikipedia entry on Polylactic Acid is very comprehensive.

We still have more work to do before the first dive, so as we approach dive time, I will explain the in-pool specifics of what we want to achieve in the water, and how we plan to do it.

Get a grip! Grips on the rear were angled to be more ergonomic for the diver holding the array.

Renee; UR: Live from the Quarantine Zone

Lesson of the week: There is such a thing as too much sharing. Germs, for instance, should be kept to ones self.

Now, moving on to what science my fever ridden brain can manage. Luckily I wrote a lot of this over the weekend so it shouldn't be too terribly disjointed ;)....

Good news everyone! We (Dr. Woodall, Dr. Emmett and I) have finally ironed out getting my soil samples tested by UF/IFAS Analytical Services! (ANSERV Labs)

Thanks to ANSERV Labs all 10 of my soil samples will be tested for NO3-N (nitrate) and NO2-N (nitrite), as well as P (phospherous), K (potassium), Ca (calcium), Mg (magnesium), Zn (zinc), Mn (manganese), Cu (copper), and pH! 

The nitrogen cycle! Yay!

We have discussed the importance of nitrogen to plants previously in class and that nitrite (NO₂) must be 'fixed' to be used by plants. 

This 'fixing' can be done by a variety of bacteria in soil and while all of this 'fixing' is going on electrons are being moved around between various component chemicals in the soil. This movement of electrons is what the Redox meter from my previous post measures. 

When soil conditions are anaerobic (lacking oxygen) the bacteria living there will use alternative sources of oxygen such as the oxygen associated with nitrogen molecules which is common in swamps and other molecules such as manganese depending on availability. Based on the redox measurements what alternative source of oxygen is being used can be determined. This knowledge will hopefully help me draw some informed conclusions about how nutrient levels that ANSERV Labs will provide me might be effecting S. minor's(Sarracenia minor) successful sprouting in one place but not another despite the soil conditions appearing to be the same.

The trick here I think will be carefully determining what deficiency is most likely responsible for the lack of pitcher plants. Poor soul nutrition can already be inferred thanks to S. minor's carnivorous nature and that this adaptation likely occurred because of the naturally poor soil nutrition but how little is too little of what minerals cannot be substituted by an insectivorous diet? 

These poor raspberries are actually exhibiting a poor reaction to
herbicides; however, the effect is nearly identical to nutrient burn
with the one on the left a severe case and the yellowing one on
the right exhibiting early symptoms.

Or yet more exciting is the possibility that there is an over abundance of one mineral or another preventing seedlings from surviving! This over availability can result in "nutrient burn" called such because when this happens to adult plants they often exhibit yellowing, curling and then browning leaves that give a burnt appearance to the plant. In seeds this over abundance can prevent sprouting of any kind or quickly overwhelm any roots which try to take hold in the soil.

Q&A

Q: Deb n' Paul (Dr. Woodall)

Wow--that Dr. Woodall looks so mean! ;-)
Question about your method--should you take the Redox measurement before you disturb the soil?

A: You are NOT mean! I love that picture of you because it makes me smile when I remember you gave me that awful look and then told me to get the box for the turbidity doo-hicky away from the edge of the boat. I think you said something about it being our luck that day it would fall over into the water. Or maybe I said that? Either way I love that picture!

Anyway, you are totally right!! I went and corrected my procedure in my lab journal the moment I saw your comment. I don't know what I was thinking tacking the redox measurements on at the end, silly me! 

Q (or rather C for Comment): Several sources

Your blog is too long!!

A: I'm sorry!! I realize I get carried away, last blog particularly, and could have put some of that procedure mess in this blog or only skimmed the more repetitive stuff. My bad y'all, I'll be more careful and just so you know I still love you(and because I have a need to include one fun picture per a blog) here is a sciency cat meme: