Angela-Mistakes to Avoid

As my search for plastic on Florida's beaches comes to an end (for the semester), I can definitely confirm that, to my surprise, some of our beaches are littered with plastic fragments ranging in size smaller than 1cm to larger than 10cm. Additionally, the east coast wins the plastic content contest with four and half two-quart jars filled versus not even a quarter of a jar of plastic found on the west coast. 

Originally I thought it was a good idea to collect all my plastic and then go over my findings, however, it is taking me about three to four hours to catalog the content of each jar. This is my current separation method:

- "Ocean Plastic" & "Unsure", then

- "Small Fragments", "Large Fragments", and "Identifiable Pieces" (which are further broken down into bottle caps, pen caps, straws, etc), then

- color, then

- finally separate by sizes: less than 1cm, 1-2cm, 2-3cm, 3-5cm, 5-10cm, and 10cm or more

If anyone else ever wants to repeat or do similar research the following are my recommendations:

- If you decide to have categories, e.g. "Ocean Plastic", "Unsure", separate the pieces into different jars as you are finding them on the beach. Initially I only separated resin pellets from the rest of the contents and even added sediment to the jars for microbead inspection; however, most of my jars have over 200 pieces that I am now examining and separating one by one.

- To weigh my plastic I made aluminum foil "beakers" that I wasn't quite content with and ended up getting an aluminum camping mug (which I immerse in boiling water after each jar of plastic). However, all the weighing I'm doing is significantly impacted by sediment sticking to the plastic. I would recommend to let it air out for a week in order to shake off as much dry sediment as possible in order to get more accurate measurements. I didn't want to rinse my plastic pieces since I plan on doing additional experiments on them.

- Turns out white shell pieces can look an awful lot like plastic. White pieces are taking me an extra long time since I am trying to make 100% sure I'm not mistaking shell for plastic (can't do a float test since I don't want to wash away any chemicals off the actual plastic pieces).

- If you are putting everything in one jar, examine and separate the content as soon as possible. Some of the biogenous material, the identifier I'm using for ocean plastic, has decomposed or unattached from the plastic, thus some of my pieces that could have been identified as ocean plastic are probably ending up in the "Unsure" pile.

Collecting Water Samples- Seaira

Today I went to two sites in the Indian River Lagoon to collect water samples for analysis in the lab tomorrow. While I did not find any "true" seagrass beds, I did stumble upon a large amount of Widgeon Grass,Ruppia maritima. This species is a seagrass, however it differs because it does not grow well in environments with elevated saline levels.

Widgeon Grass prefers saline levels of less than 25ppt, and is typically found in shallow waters. This particular species is the only species that pollinates with hydrophobic (water-fearing) pollen that floats across the waters surface.

 The locations of my samplings included Parrish Park in Titusville, and Scottsmoor Landing in Mims. I chose these locations because the have access to large open portions of the lagoon. I also wanted compare nutrient levels in these sites with previous ones because they are in close proximity to agricultural, residential, and industrial sites. I am curious to see if my results will show that there could be sources of runoff pollution in the area. 
While I was sampling I also noticed that there was a large amount of white foam at the shoreline and dock area at Scottsmoor Landing.

When I got home I decided to do some research about what the sea foam was exactly, and why there was so much of it in the area. I discovered that sea foam is made up of organic matter including dissolved salts, proteins, and you guessed it dead algae. I read on the NOAA website that sea foam can become thick and copious during times of algae blooms. I found this very interesting, and I wonder if my testing in the lab will support this theory of present algae blooms due to nutrient runoff.

Thoughts on My Presentation - Seaira

I have a little more water sampling to do this week in the lab so I can analyze all my data but I wanted to put up an abstract of what I will be covering in my presentation. I am looking for feedback, is there anything that I should cover that is not listed? All suggestions are welcome.

·         What is seagrass? How is it important to the Indian River Lagoon?

·         What is an algae bloom? How does it affect seagrass, and the lagoon ecosystem?

·         How are dissolved phosphates and nitrates incorporated into an estuary ecosystem? What are the effects when these nutrient levels are imbalanced?

·         How does turbidity and light attenuation in general affect seagrass communities?

·         How do saline levels in an estuary system affect plant growth?

·         What was the purpose of my water sampling, and how did I go about testing? How did I determine the locations of testing? Are there any organizations that do similar testing?

·         How did my sampling results compare to those of “optimum” water conditions, and those during times of severe algae blooms?

·         Blooms in recent years, and effect on the lagoon.

·         What you can do to get involved, and keep updated with current research regarding seagrass health.

A sample graph I made:

Ryan Dail - Project Update

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, the sagittal otolith can provide an accurate age of a fish by the rings (2 rings per year) located at the core of the calcified structure. After looking into how the otoliths are cut to be able to see the rings, I found out there is an otolith sectioning process. In most cases, there is a slow speed saw with 4 thin blades to cut the otolith into 3 sections. For consistency, scientists compare the 3 sections and if consistent they will take one of the sections for further research and store the others as an archive.

As I am now finishing up researching otoliths and what they are used for. I am going to spend the rest of the time we have to look into Florida's coastal fisheries. A fishery is defined as a person raising or harvesting a species or type of fish. Since I am doing this project on if there is a relationship between fish otoliths and  the regulations set for Florida's coastal fisheries, I will be looking at some of the fish commercially caught just off of Florida's coastline.

Deanna - Project Testing

Tomoka River Deployment

Last Friday, we were able to deploy our CMD (Current Measuring Device) in the Tomoka River via the college boat and Dr. Woodall. We learned a lot about how we need to tweak it. Specifically, a way to keep it stable at a good distance from the boat.

The CMD and me.

Doc Woodall and I using the current meter.

Oh, and one other thing we learned: how to turn on the HOBO (accelerometer); however, we didn't learn that until we got home and we had no data because we didn't really have it turned on. Go ahead and laugh. It is funny...now.

Deployment at the Oceanwalk

The Wyndym Oceanwalk was kind enough to grant us access at 7:30 in the morning to use their lazy river so we could conduct a controlled test. This deployment was a success; We now have real data to analyze and it is going to be very tedious. We have about a half hour at one second intervals to go over. So you see, we have a lot of data and we are planning on going out on the river again to try it again.

Jeff re-positioning the CMD.

Dr.Woodall and Jeff at the next location.

Jeff with the CMD and current meter.

Check back to see how our next trip went.

Grace Curtin Project Progress

For my project dealing with fish otoliths, I went fishing with my father on Friday in hopes of catching many fish including a Redfish. It turns out, fishing takes a lot of patience and cooperation with the fish. While fishing by Hammock Dunes Resort, I caught a sciaenops ocellatus, whose common name is Red Drum. The Red Drum is a species of Redfish; however, it was not large enough in length to legally keep. Luckily, my father caught a paralichthys dentatus, whose common name is a summer flounder. 

Neither of us were happy about
his arrival because of his size. However,
he was put back.

Red Drum compared to a hand
(not legal size for keeping)

Flounder
(it was flopping around, sorry for the blurriness)

I am in the process of extracting its otoliths still. I have done the research on how to carry out this task and I will be cutting into the left side under the gill of the flounder. After puncturing through the fish's epidermis and removing the otic capsule and then obtain the flounder's otolith.

I will be fishing this time at the beach in Ormond to hopefully have more of a chance at catching fish during high tide at 4:30am.

MORE TO COME AFTER FISHING....AGAIN!

Calibrating the CMD and project update by Jeffrey

For those of you checking in for the first time; De and I are working on an unmanned instrument that will collect tidal energy data, current 
measuring device (CMD). Based on our data we will determine if tidal energy is a viable alternative and renewable source of electricity.  

The accelerometer ( aka Hobo) fits into the center swing arm; which, after deployed measures the tilt in degrees.

Water current was measured using the Hack 950 Flowmeter.
The flow rate at this location was 0.63 m/s.

We tried a variety of locations; flow rate varied from 0.63 to 0.57 m/s. 








The next step was to bring the Hobo home and download the data...........For this experiment I set the data logger to record ever second. Yes! I have a lot of data for De and I to go through.

Angela - Another Realization

When I was 14 years old, I was fortunate enough to be taken out of the German school system and put into a Department of Defense Dependent School (DoDDS). One of the "disadvantages" to this is that students scatter all over the world after graduation and we don't really have high school reunions. 

Fortunately, through my project, I managed to meet up with one of my old classmates last weekend while searching for plastic on the west coast. I didn't know Reanna very well in high school, but through facebook I've come to learn she is this amazingly versatile person. It also turned out she is a living encyclopedia of life because as we were combing the beach for plastic she kept pointing out the names of different tests and identifying coral. Apparently, she likes to research plants, animals, etc. that she comes across in nature to find out what they are. During our organism identification lab I thought "weeeell, maybe if I get paid well, I could do this", but after witnessing Reanna's interest and vast knowledge I've come to realize, and am a little embarrassed to admit it, that I don't really have any interest in identifying organisms. I prefer asking someone like her than having to do such research....so I don't see being a biologist in my future.

Speaking of identifying organisms, at Naples Beach I thought I came across a bunch of large plastic pieces scattered along the beach, but upon further inspection I believe the "plastic" actually is some type of marine organism:

 

Plastic looking side

Organism looking side