IMES
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Jenna Westfall (UR)- Suck Like Glue
So I am kind of stuck in a hot mess right now. At first I was interested in doing research on plastics in sea turtles but it turns out that it might not work out which is totally okay. I'm not one to make a big deal out of anything but now I am just concerned that I might not be able to find a topic. If any of you guys have suggestions as to topics I could maybe consider, please let me know! I love marine life, I thought about doing something maybe with jellyfish but I have no idea what. PLEASE HELP!!! Here is a brutal video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose :(.
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suggestion: redtide causes may be an interesting topic
ReplyDeleteJenna--not sure what happened to my original comment but just a FYI--I LOVE your post today! I've reached out to your classmates as well as posted your request on our facebook page. I see you've already received one comment from that effort. Let's keep looking and thinking! We'll find it...
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could look into the types of Fish that the rising water temperatures are pushing out and what uncommon fish are entering our ecosystem that were previously not there.
ReplyDeleteMaybe something involving growing global temperatures and how they're effecting birthrates of sea turtles, because sea turtle gender is based on the temperature during incubation so you would think there would be more females born recently than males which could impact sea turtles overall population as it becomes harder to find a male to reproduce?
Not a bad idea. If Jenna wants to learn more about sea turtles--how about beach sand temperatures? I'm not sure how to measure sand temps but maybe Jenna could find out and see how those temps change over the semester. Same locations/depths...different depths. Changes over time--wonder what sort of graph that would be??
DeleteI’m always interested in anything related to the IRL. You could research recent turtle or porpoise population rise or decline, overall health or water conditions impacts. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteJody B.
Would you prefer more of a research-based project or a more hands-on type project?
ReplyDeleteI guess it sort of depends on the topic. If it’s a difficult topic, there may not be much hands-on that could be done so in that case research would be fine! I am okay with either one. Just stuck in a rut right now.
ReplyDeleteHave you done any internet searches to see what is known about sea turtle issues? There are some good ideas here and on the IMES facebook page. It would be helpful if you talked more about your thoughts and interests so that we can help you develop those into a project.
DeleteThe past two hurricanes in combination with a nasty Noreastern storm have eroded several feet of dunes, exposing nets that were buried to support dune stabilization and help anchor vegetation. I recently found two man o war jellyfish entangled in these nets, probably as a result of high tide and all of these nets, are exposed in historical sea turtle nesting sites in Ormond Beach. With sea turtle nesting season opening in March, you can collect location data of new nests and see if these nests are located near exposed dune nets to determine if there is risk of sea turtle hatching entanglement/mortality at these sites. This information can also be relayed to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) who are responsible for rebuilding the dunes :)
ReplyDeleteAlso you can collect plastic data at these nesting sites! There's a ton in the Ormond Beach area, I actually have a picture of my hand holding 5 straws I picked up with a sea turtle nest in the background from last nesting season
DeleteExcellent ideas--both of them. Seems like you need to be an IMES mentor! :) All of this information would be useful. We are getting ready to work with FDOT on another student project--the impact of sound/noise on turtle nesting sites.
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