Whitney M. Minnich(UR) Producing more Oxygen than trees.

Ame Teaderman (UR) - A Proposal Written in the Sand

Welcome back! It's been a long month for all of us, especially now that the college campus has been closed down due to the virus for the time being, so a lot of our activity has shifted to online courses. I'm not sure if we'll be able to continue past a proposal for our research project, but here is my 5 for 5 scientific project proposal. Five PowerPoint slides, containing details that can be covered in five minutes!

 This slide introduces myself and the scientific project in question.

 This slide covers the known and unknown information relating to this project, which aids in revealing current background research that has been conducted so far as well as details I should research further before, during, or after testing.

 The scientific question can be found on this slide.

 The method and materials are roughly covered in this slide.

The proposed graph, a 100% stacked graph, shows a mock-up of how some of the data collected will be presented, with random data points put in to display how variation in data may appear. This graph serves to show the numbers and percentages of each crab species collected from the traps in both locations, which could be further divided by the biological sex, in order to compare the proportions of native crabs to invasive crabs in these areas. Combined with other simpler bar graphs revealing various details about water quality in these locations, this could serve to help answer the scientific question of how water quality affects the populations of native and invasive crabs.

Lily Lehr (UR) Plastic in the Wrack

Due to unforeseen unfortunate circumstances we have been placed in an online class for the Oceanography Lab. My research project started being about how micro plastics affect our environment. This year my proposal's question was to figure out which area of our beaches was most cluttered in micro plastics. This will give way to make claims and studies of what further can be done.

My first slide introduces my project and me.

My second slide discusses the importance of wrack on the beach and the tourism our area gets.

This third slide asks my scientific question: How is the wrack on the Daytona Beach shores infiltrated by plastic compared to the surrounding beaches? 

The fourth slide discusses my materials and methods. I would be going out collecting wrack and bringing it back to the lab.

My fifth slide is for my data. With the bar graph I compare the different areas on the designated dates I went out into the field.

Ivy Gentry (UR)- Whats the real answer?

I have been looking forward to conducting this research; however, there have been some complications with being able to do so. I am hoping we can get everything figured out so I am able to conduct this research and be able to present the research! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy in these times!

The top photo is a female hatchling and the bottom is a male hatchling!

I wish I was able to conduct more research for the data, but everything just was fighting against us this year. 

Holly Monroe (UR) Information to be Crabby About!

Due to the Unfortunate circumstances of the virus our college decided to close until further notice. In response all courses have become online and in attempts of protecting students further I will not be collecting data in the field this semester. With that, here is my proposal PowerPoint slides of what I would have done posted below. In case it appears difficult to see here it the link to view the powerpoint file:///C:/Users/holly/Desktop/5%20for%205%20Crabs.pdf

 This first slide is just my introduction slide, introducing both me and my project.

In regards to the second slide I would need to conduct further research into the different native species of crabs in Florida. As well, further research would be needed to identify other invasive crab species. Research for both would include the scientific/ common names, population numbers, and preferred weather conditions.

 This third slide is where I have proposed my scientific question.

 This fourth slide is just a short rundown of the materials I would have on hand at both locations. Additionally I have supplied my method(s) to explain my process.

Finally, on this slide I have supplied 2 basic graphs I could use to explain the size, weight, and sex residing in both locations.

Jenna Fairchild (UR) - Are Artificial Reefs the Future of Saving our Reefs?

My graph has a real line in PowerPoint, it is a positive trend

Holly Monroe (UR) the Big Haul

I do not have an update for my crab project this week, but I did go fish seining with my aquatics lab. Our goal within this lab was to see which area had a higher biodiversity between our two points. Our process was measuring out an area for the seining net, then timing how long it took to pull the net from point A to point B. By performing this we were able to quickly identify and count the different fish and crabs we caught. Seeing the crabs have helped me identify one species that I can take into consideration for my project. 

Site 1

Site 2

Additionally, we performed water quality testing, which will aid me when I test my two crabbing locations in the near future. To begin taking water quality samples, we used an instrument called a YSI meter. An YSI meter can take several different reading of the water including; salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and so on. For our lab we only focused on the three I have highlighted. 

Also, we took a pH sample of the water, which is done by taking your sampling cup and filling it with water, closing the cap, shaking, then dumping it away from where you are currently sampling, then again gather a sample. The reason you must shake the sample the first time is because that makes sure everything in that cup is your sample now.

The results for the two sites are as follows;

Site 1:

Salinity: 30.5 parts per thousands (ppt).

Dissolved oxygen: 7.30 milligrams per liter (Mg/L).

Temperature: 18.4 degrees Celsius.

pH: 6.87

Site 2:

Salinity: 33.1 (ppt).

Dissolved oxygen: 7.54 (Mg/L).

Temperature: 18.4 degrees Celsius.

pH: 6.4
 

Holly Monroe (UR) Site Selection Importance

In my various posts I have mentioned my interest in two locations within Volusia County, Dunlawton Bridge, Port Orange and Spruce Creek, Port Orange. This post I want to dive into the full reasons of these two locations. In my past experiences at both locations I have noticed various similarities, but also plenty of differences. These reasons mentioned down below is how I came to the conclusion that these locations would be the best fit for this research. 

Dunlawton Bridge, Port Orange:

Dunlawton Bridge (2)

As mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I am very familiar with this bridge, fishing off of it multiple times and catching a varity of salt water marine life. A handful of times I had seen decent size crabs floating across the surfaces, leading me to believe if I deploy a trap I could catch an abundance. Additionally, due to this location being just of the shore of the ocean, the salinity will contrast to my next location.  The oceans salinity is 35ppt. Female crabs tend to like higher salinities, causing me to believe there will be more females here vs. Spruce Creek. I could see the male to female relationship between the two locations.

Spruce Creek, Port Orange:

Spruce Creek (1)

Similarly to Dunlawton, I am familiar with the Spruce Creek park. I have been on multiple field trips to this location alone because of its environment. As previously mentioned last week when I explained the water quality testing kit, Spruce Creek is an estuary. Simply put, an estuary is an environment where fresh and salt water mix, providing a hypothesized lower salinity level than the ocean. Additionally, when visiting this location a few years back, I had seen crabs hiding in the mangrove roots. Mostly they have been smaller crabs compared to Dunlawton, but this will add a variety of species to my experiment. Also, because the crabs are using the mangrove roots as housing, I hypothesize that there will be more present then the above location. As of the salinity last year in my Ecology lab we tested salinity of about 19ppt. Causing me to believe more male crabs will be found within this location.

Spruce Creek Results from September 11, 2019

Also, when looking back at my Ecology field notebook I have an entry from when we compared ocean water. I have attached it to show the contrast in the temperature (F) as well as the percentage of dissolved Oxygen. The entry in the notebook is from Grace K. Brack Park, but I do believe it would be roughly similar to Dunlawton because both are the ocean.

Grace K. Barck Park Results August 8, 2019

References:

Retrieved from https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0f/d0/86/5c/spruce-creek-park.jpg

2012. Retrieved from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/4d/1e/4b4d1e72abf54d6d04d54cade30505bb.jpg

Lily Lehr (UR) Wrack my brain...

Searching for information online about shoreline wrack has lead me to many strong sites dealing with its importance. Birds, fish, and crabs all depend on the wrack for various reasons.

Seaweed decomposes into the soil which helps the lizards living in the wrack and the plants that use the soil to grow. "In the study, the growth rate of land-based plants near seaweed-subsidized plots was 70 percent higher than in non-seaweed-subsidized plots." (Dybas, 2012) Seagrass or sargassum grows in the sargassum sea. The seaweed is actually an algae.

Wrack on the Beach

 To understand the importance of wrack on the beach I needed to perform further research. The wrack on the beach is important to the wildlife and keeping the ecosystem the way we know it. While in future studies I can find ways to keep wrack safe from plastic entirely, we need to assess the actual damage this plastic infiltration is causing.

Dybas, C. (2012). All washed up and nowhere to go. National Science Foundation. https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124910&org=NSF

UF. N.d. Beach Wrack. Florida Sea Grant. https://www.volusia.org/core/fileparse.php/6127/urlt/Beach-wrack.pdf

Jenna Fairchild (UR) - You Cannot Protect a Place Unless You Understand it

"You cannot protect a place unless you understand it. You can't love it until you know it." -Kristine Tompkins

Coral reefs are declining globally and climate change is accelerating, with climate related disasters piling up season after season. Coral, specifically, are at risk of bleaching. Since you cannot protect what you do not understand, I hope to teach others about the threats to Oculina varicosa and the importance of protecting them here in Volusia County.

Dredging increases coral habitat degradation and increases the amounts of total suspended sediment concentration on the animal

I have experienced challenges in my research so far that I feel are actually important in order to develop a strong foundation for research. The challenges I've experienced have consisted of deciding what my measurable research question will be based off of the data I've collected. I've also had a challenging time finding a mentor to help with locating the species I'm interested in and choosing the best fit materials and methods that are also feasible for a research beginner.

By regrouping with a mentor who is also an Oculina coral expert, Chad Macfie, I was able to develop a specific point of research which easily led to the materials and methods I'll be using. I learned how valuable mentorship is in research after I had clarity and direction after meeting with Macfie. As an expert in my area of research, I recognized the importance of having assistance in the beginning stages which lay the foundation for my entire research. Macfie informed me how difficult it would be to regularly collect data on shallow water Oculina because of the currents and poor visibility of their habitat on the jetty. Despite my original research and methods plan to SCUBA dive on the jetty was not practical, I still wanted to learn more about and teach others how to protect this species. Macfie had years of information collected by SCUBA divers of deep water Oculina on artificial reefs! This was encouraging to me, because I know that with climate change accelerating, artificial reefs may be the future to protecting and understanding the functioning of our coral ecosystems.

Coral restoration efforts leveraging the SCUBA system. This is uncommon for Oculina since it lives in deep water past recreational SCUBA diving limits 

The data that Macfie gave me is documentation of which substrates and which artificial sites offshore of Volusia County Oculina prefer to grow on. With this data I can answer the scientific question:

What substrate do Oculina varicosa prefer to grow on at artificial Reefs? What factors contribute to this? Height of artificial reef? Time the reef has been there? The substrate? Site location?

The materials and methods I will be using are:

• Artificial reef surveys taken by the Volusia County Reef Research Dive Team 
• Excel to document my variables 

In order to demonstrate the importance of understanding and protecting Oculina, I will also include photos of shallow water Oculina that live in the Indian River Lagoon to show that this is a very local problem. I will use snorkeling gear and my GoPro Hero 7 to take the photos at the Ponce Inlet Jetty.

Jenna Fairchild