Independent Research Projects Conducted by Undergraduate Researchers (UR) and Continuing Undergraduate Researchers (CUR) Enrolled in the Accelerated OCE1001, OCE2013 and OCE3014 Labs at Daytona State College
Last week was a very exciting week for me, in last weeks lab we went out to Ponce Inlet Beach and measured the height and movement of the sand dunes. We also took 1/2 cup samples of the dunes and sieved them. The purpose of us sieving the samples of sand was to analyze the sands partial sizes. We determined that the particle sizes our sieve measured were 6.3mm pebble size, 236mm gravel size, 425um medium sand size, 150um fine sand size and the last sieved we called <150um silt and clay size. As we were examining the different sieves from our west site 3 sample, we notice something that was unnatural to the sand formation process. We found a tiny plastic bead as you can see in the picture below.
This is the plastic bead.
I was quit shocked about this find, because site west 3 is located on the back side of a sand dune that is proctored and we humans are not supposed to go in this area unless given permission. So this implies that the bead had to travel with the sand in part of the natural dune movement. Who really knows were this bead started its journey and how far it traveled.
On another note, I have been studying up on the methods for using the copper ampules for my research project. I will be using the Hach 890 which will be able to tell me how much copper is in the sample with the range of 0.00-5.00mg/L. Its great that it has such a wide range because the EPA says that there should not be more than 1.3mg/L in our water. I can not wait to get out in the field and take my samples to see what the copper levels in the Tomoka river are!
After speaking to Project Engineer for the Army Corp of Engineers, Paul Cotter, my angle for my project has slightly changed. He informed me that the current dredging in progress in Brevard County is off shore dredging. The sand and sediments are being dredged and then transferred from 5 miles off shore by a tube that runs along the sea floor. The amount of sediment being placed on shore is 312 truck loads an hour. This process is called beach re-nourishment. I would like to compare the beach sediments. I will collect the sediments from before the re-nourishment and then after the deep water sediment has been replaced onshore. Some questions I am posing are how do theses sediments differ? How could this impact the shore as well as the ocean floor? Once I travel to the site just south of the Port of Canaveral, I will assess the magnitude of this operation. Mr. Cotter and I spoke for a long time about the costs and restrictions that may make the operation difficult to proceed at times; such as machine maintenance, environmental protest, and limited time as turtle season approaches. But the cost of this production is $24 million per day. The crew works 24/7 and will complete a little over 20 miles of Brevards Beach re-nourishment. How many truck loads would that be? Mr. Cotter's argument is that we are avoiding the harmful effects of thousands of truck loads, which was the old way of bringing the sand in for the beach. I am excited to get to the site this week and assess this for myself.
On a side note, below is a link to the info about the St. Johns River Clean up....
This past week was pretty fun, we got to get into a different kind of research. We surveyed the sand dunes in Ponce Inlet, got to know some new instruments and methods. It was challenging with the wind, but the weather was perfect and we had a good time.
As far as my research project is concerned, I am getting my outline for what I will need, procedures and making sure I have everything I need to secure a day with Dr. Woodall to come and help me with the expensive instruments. I have been practicing with my mac excel and powerpoint so that I am familiar with the programs. The graphs are easy to comprehend, you know which one you want to use and how it should look, it is the process of telling the computer how to do it. This week was pretty quiet for me, planning for the research project and getting ready for the seining this coming Friday.
Continuing upon my research as to how frontal boundaries affect swells in the region I followed this week quite in detail. With the massive front that drove through our region the passed few days I have noticed a distinct correlation with how a front really affects the ocean around it. At the leading edge of the front in which it becomes quite rainy I noticed that there wasn't much of a swell to begin with. Ranging in the 2-3 foot range with extremely short periods of approximately 8 seconds. It wasn't until after the rain subsided and the wind picked up to about the 15-20mph range was when I noticed a distinct build in the surf. For instance, Today, Thursday March 20th, there is a swell height of 3-5 feet at a period of 12 seconds! One piece of evidence that I found fascinating was that it is actually after primary frontal boundary (where all the rain is) that the swell is affected rather than the boundary itself. I will continue research into this with the next front expected to hit Tuesday of next week.
Wind Speed March 20th
Swell Period March 20th
Attached are a couple of pictures that show satellite images of swell period, height, and wind speed. Using the equations in class I am able to determine wave speed and wavelength Which could be used to predict how good the surf is expected to be as well as an the height at which the wave will break.
The above research states that seagrass needs 15-25% surface irradiance
(energy from the sun) which is noted to be a high light requirement
compared to the needs of other marine growth. The effects ofhuman
activities within the Indian River Lagoon affected the seagrass
growth. The most significant of these are the fluctuation of
salinity, water runoff, dredging and chemical pollutants. Sea grass
is used as an indicator to the estuary's health condition. If the sea
grass is diminishing then the water is unwell.
“A
lagoon-wide seagrass monitoring program led by scientists from the
St. Johns River Water Management District is responsible for
monitoring long-term trends in IRL seagrass population status,
health, and coverage trends. Data from this program and associated
water quality monitoring programs indicates that the amount of light
reaching the benthic habitat is the primary factor limiting seagrass
coverage in the lagoon. Water column turbidity, chlorophyll a
concentration, and color are the principal determinants of water
clarity in the lagoon, with turbidity being by far the most
important” (Christian and Shang 2003). and
http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/IRL_seagrasstrends.htm
Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce.
My
scientific efforts will show how much turbidity and for how long does
the increased turbidity linger due to maintenance dredging in the
Brevard County section of IRL. Also, noting how much light is needed
for the seagrass to survive. In the past week I have contacted the
Army Corp of Engineers and was informed of the scheduled maintenance
dredging occurring at this time in Brevard. My projected plan is to
test the turbidity very near the dredging site. I will then return
for samples every two weeks until the water clears or my lab time has
ended with a decreased level records.
After unfortunately forgetting my flash drive I still have yet to give my mid term presentation, which I will present this tuesday prior oceanography class fortunately. I have come to decide to test with four different tanks with four different temperatures. I will need four growth lights of at least 13 watts to grow algae but I choose to have a 60 watt growth light. Certainly a change of light intensity
could change the growth of algae as well which could be its own experiment within itself. I will be measuring the growth with a measuring scale and measure the weight of the algae as well as comparing it visually. I will be using water heaters set to a specific temperature. I will be using 60, 70, 80, 90 degree fahrenheit increments. Allowing algae to grow for two weeks. I think algae growth will be most productive at 80 degrees. I am eager to start this experiment hopefully within the next week or two. Time to grow some Algae!
This past week has been a disheartening disappointment. As some of you might be well aware, I was in a car accident last Thursday thus resulting in a broken nose and severely bruised knee. However, aside from that set back it led to not having any transportation in order to continue my field work in person. However, with today's technology I was still able to observe what conditions were with the frontal boundary that had just moved in this week. Using this webcam I was able to observe the approximate conditions of the surf at Ponce Inlet. Furthermore using near shore buoys I was able to get an approximate swell height, along with periods and wind speeds. As a result, my accident wasn't a total loss and I was capable of continuing my research in the field.
This image shows two man applying copper pesticides/fungicides to a canal.
This past week I have spent many hours reading information of the effects of copper in the water on the ecosystem and humans. Most of what I read was about humans, I have learned this week that we need very small amounts of copper for our body's to function. But that anything above 1.3mg/L is consider toxic and can has harmful effects on our bodies. There are natural and human sources of copper but the most common source is copper pesticides. The main way copper pesticides are used in Florida is when they are applied to Florida's waterways to control aquatic plants and algae growth. I am very eager to get out there and test my samples to see what the copper levels are. I am hoping that they are low and there is little to action needed to take place.
You know that expression "Can't see the forest for the
trees"? During my research regarding plastic on Florida's beaches I was so
focused on types of plastic and East versus West coast, I didn't seem to notice
an obvious detail in my debris map:
At the open house for the new IMES facility, Chad Macfie from the
Marine Science Center noted that the majority of my plastic on the East Coast was
towards the South. In all honesty, there could be a discrepancy in my data
because I had not fully established my research methods and protocol, yet, when
I started collecting plastic in the North. Also, if (during my project) I had collected plastic in a
touristy area such as Daytona Beach I would've added a northern location with
hundreds of pieces of plastic. However, of the hundreds of pieces I've come
across on Daytona Beach's shores after the completion of my project, there weren't many I considered to be
"ocean plastic" but mainly items left behind by visitors.
The majority of "ocean plastic" seems to have
washed on to the East coast's southern shores and this may be due to, as Chad pointed
out, the Gulf Stream's vicinity to the beaches in the south. To test whether the Gulf Stream and surface
currents are washing debris onto Florida's beaches, a long-term drift bottle research project could shed some light on the matter. Just need several hundred
bottles and a ship that would take us out to the Gulf Stream somewhere between
the Keys and South America. ;)
I have been researching what type of algae I should use for
my experiment. The good thing about algae is it will grow. Algae is among the
fastest growing plants, it also can be grown year round unlike
seasonal crops.
The worlds fastest growing algae is called Microalgae which is very small. With
all the species of algae out there it is tough to pick which will work best. It
would also be time consuming to
Algae Pond Harvesting
test them all. Certain strains of algae are
more suitable for biofuels. So it important to be very selective on what to
test and use for biofuels. For the most
part species such as Meredithia has been used in research. Through studies it
has shown that algae grows faster in warm to hot water with sunlight. There are
several different ways to extract the oil used for the biofuel from algae as
well as ways to grow algae such as vertical growth and compression, closed tank
bioreactor, etc. If you are interested on how algae biodiesel is grown, processed,
and made check out:
Unfortunately I was unable to attend the lab from the past week due to a track meet for my high school. I have come do decide my project for this class will be based on the growth of algae. I would like to see conduct a experiment that yields the most algae growth. I will be setting up a few tanks in which I will have the same algae and will have the same light on each tank. What I plan to change is the water temperature and see which temperature will produce the most algae. I believe a warmer temperature will produce more algae at a faster rate than a cold temperature. I have not decided on what type of algae to grow and going to research what kind is most beneficial. I am certainly open to suggestions on what spicies of algae and what temperatures I should test.
We went out onto the Tomoka River and took some water samples at different locations along the river. The locations were important because out data directly related to whether it was extremely windy, not windy, high ph or high salinity. The instruments got me excited to say the least and I can't wait to get out and start researching.
For my project I have reached out to my hoa to try and am waiting for the lake blueprints for measurements of the two lakes. Many of the variables I will be measuring will be oxygen at the surface and deep by using the YSI, and measuring PH. The purpose of measuring the oxygen is to see if there is a correlation between a lake with a fountain or a lake that relies on the natural wind. I will also be measuring for an organic nutrient; copper. With the orange industry using this as a fungicide, I want to know how much is becoming runoff into these lakes. So my research question will be, Do lakes with fountains help to oxygenate the water, are they necessary over lakes that use natural wind? Are an abundance of nutrient causing low oxygen from algae blooms? I haven't nailed down my question just yet but hopefully I will get there soon.
This past week I have spent some time on my project about copper. From what I have found out so far is that anything above 0.05mg/L of copper is not naturally occurring in our ground water. Also that over 1.3mg/L is considered harmful to people by the EPA. The EPA say that this level of copper can cause gastrointestinal distress in the short term, the long effects can be liver or kidney damage. These are the effects on humans, the effects on some fish and plant life occur at much lower levels. There are treatment options to lower the amount of copper in the water, but from what I have studied the best way to reduce the amount of copper in the water is by not using copper based fungicides that end up in water run off. I know that copper fungicides work great in our Florida ecosystem on the orange trees. But they maybe something less harmful out there that could be used instead. I am looking forward to going out and collecting the data to see what the copper levels in the Tomoka River. I am still lost on my scientific question for my project tho. So far this is what I have: Is inland copper transported to coastal areas via the Tomoka river? Or I was thinking: Are copper levels higher inland waterways vs coastal? Hopefully as I continue to learn more about copper in our ecosystem my question will improve.
This week has been an eye opener for me. I am doing some research to try and tie the negative effects that are occurring in the Indian River Lagoon to the dredging being performed. The effects I speak of are the deaths of many manatees, dolphins and pelicans since 2012. The cause is said to be unknown. A few possibilities are mentioned. What do you think? Check out this article. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345938/Florida-lagoon-animal-mass-murder-mystery-46-dolphins-111-manatees-300-pelicans-die-unknown-cause.html
This article doesn't mention dredging but it could be an effect of past dredging that they are not speaking of. The algae bloom is affecting the lagoon on a critical level.
Check out this article on how they are planning to use the option to dredge to help move the "black mayonnaise" from the lagoon floor. http://news.wfsu.org/post/lawmakers-consider-dredging-deal-black-mayonnaise-indian-river-lagoon
This brings up the concerns of dredging in my mind. Like stirring up the age old sediment full of toxins. I guess it is all about removing the lesser of 2 evils. I will investigate this plan in more depth to find out the future plans for dredging in the IRL. What do you see happening if this process is carried out?
The other day at the open house for the new IMES
facility, after my presentation on "Ocean Plastic on Florida's Beaches",
someone asked me if I think stricter (or maybe they said "more"?) regulations
would prevent ships from dumping garbage out at sea. I've been pondering this
as I've been watching my fellow earth inhabitants and even though - probably
because I've basically been born and raised a military "brat"- I have this strong need to abide by rules and regulations, it seems not every person
shares these feelings, especially when time, money, or some other gain is
involved.
So, I've come to the conclusion that stricter or
more regulations would not solve the problem because who will pay to have them
enforced out in international waters? If caught, will the financial slap on the
hand be big enough to make an impact? Based on research I did for a
presentation on cruise ship pollution, the fines incurred for not abiding by
regulations seemed minimal in comparison to the profits. Will ports employ
"waste accountants" that keep journals on plastic materials brought
on and taken off the ship to ensure none was disposed of at sea?
Instead, if every ship had something comparable to
the plastic-to-oil machine featured in the video below, the
owners/captains/proprietors may have a profitable incentive to keep plastic
waste out of the ocean. As a long-term
goal, however, we need to address and eliminate the source of the problem:
disposable plastic.
Deanna and I took on the task of designing and building an instrument that collects tidal energy data. Deanna named it the current measuring device (CMD).
CMD
Our end goal is to collect data for NASA to determine if they can light their causeway using renewable energy. The CMD utilizes an accelorometer to collect data: the HOBO accelorometer collects data, angular displacement, in three axes. We have been using the Hach 950 Flowmeter to measure the current speed. We then compare the two data sets. The graph shows the HOBO's collected data.
These are the areas of data that we will compare to the flowmeter data. The spikes in the data lead us to believe that turbulent flow processes are occurring. Because our design incorporates buoyancy we will have to streamline the carrier unit of the CMD.
carrier unit
Once we make the modification we will go back to the Lazy River for more testing and calibrating. Below is a graph from our last data collecting adventure. We took high and low data at each site and plotted the results.
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April 12, 2014
