Angela, CUR-Driftology

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. ;)

Shelby Thomas UR- Algae Biofuels

Algae Bioriactor System

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:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/algae-biodiesel3.htm   I will keep a update when I decide on what spices to use for my project. Also for further exploration and information on algae fuel; also the different species used in research checkout: https://lawofalgae.wiki.zoho.com/Chapter-1----Introduction-to-Algae-Biofuels.html

Algae Fueled Car

Shelby Thomas U.R. - Ideas for Algae Growth Project

    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.

Kristen Ghaffarian U.R. Week in Review and Fountains

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.

Cathy, UR, Information about copper

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.

Valerie Valentine U.R. This week in review...

    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?

Angela, CUR- Regulations

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. 

Jeffery Hall, C.U.R., Update on the CMD

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.

 
Any questions?

Bryton Wolfe, U.R. This Week in Review

This week I began scouting out locations for my independent research project. The official topic is about how frontal boundaries effect oceanic conditions in near coastal waters. At first, I was going to choose Sunglow Pier, latitude 29 degrees 8' and 47." North and Longitude  80 degrees 57' and 52.0" West. Upon further examination, I decided against it, due to a lack of consistency in swell height during different tides. (during low tide the outer sandbar would break much larger than on low tide). This is when my surfers intuition kicked in and decided to travel to one of the most consistent places for surf in the state of Florida is, Ponce Inlet. This location, Latitude 29 degrees 4' and 43" North and Longitude 80 degrees 55' and 6.4" provides the ideal zone for consistent surf due to the lack of an outer bar. Thus, this provides almost near perfect conditions to measure consistent swell height even in different tides. For materials, I can only think of an Anemometer for wind speed, A Compass for direction of wind, and my body for judging the height of the surf, and finally a stopwatch for judging swell period.

An image from my selected location

Skylar Kaminsky U.R. - This weeks suspended solids lab

Before I begin about the lab, I would like to discuss two different things. First off my trip with STEM unfortunately, or fortunately, was canceled due to weather. Had managed to somehow leave we would have been stuck in Atlanta's airport. The second thing I would like to discuss is my project. Dr. Woodall has emailed Hector, the man who's idea to put a GoPro on an ROV (underwater remote operated vehicle), and he seemed very interested in continuing this idea. Now for the lab I took water samples from Gemini Springs Park the day before we were due to test them. My sample was from a spring so it had a salinity of zero. It also had an average turbidity of 2.78 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units). The weight of my filter before I tested it was 2,741.9 mg and it weighed 2,751.6 mg after tested it - a difference of 9.7 mg.

Here is what our filters looked like. 

Shelby Thomas U.R. - Suspended Solids Lab

In lab this week we learned a lot about testing different water samples for suspended solids. Each one of us went out and collected water samples from places of our choosing. I extracted my water sample from the Spruce Creek, which is located off of Williamson. My sample was taken from the west side of the first bridge right at the bank of the water. The water I sampled appeared to be brackish water. Once we brought the samples to the lab we tested for salinity, which my sample was zero. Also we filtered the water through a fine filter that would catch the suspended solids, recording how much water filtered through. We took the filter afterwards and baked it until all water was removed. Through weighing the filter first and filter after it has been baked is how we determined the weight of the suspended solids in the water sample. We also tested the turbidity of the water. Everyones data varied from the different samples, everyone was successful with testing for suspended solids.

Cathy UR, This past week

In the past week I have narrowed down research topic to studying the levels of copper in the tomoka river. I am still working on my scientific question that I will use. Tomorrow is Friday and we are going out on the boat in the tomoka river, I am hoping that when I am out there I will figure more information out.
In class last week we took water samples and tested them in the lab. My water sample showed no salinity, but it did have high turbidity. My sample was also not very heavy after I filtered the water out. I wounder how the other students' samples weighed.

Valerie, U.R., This Week in Review

  This week in review is interesting to say the least. I have decided to change my project idea from The Effects of Dredging to Testing for Iron in the Inter Coastal Waters. I am still thinking of my scientific question on this subject. Such as, is iron abundant in the local waters ways? Is iron an essential mineral for the underwater habitats? I will continue to narrow it down. Any suggestions?
   I am looking forward to our field study this Friday in the Tomoka River. This may help with my topic and the locations I will consider to sample for my iron testings. I would also like to test the amount of iron in a spring fed pond. My next decision is where I am to sample for iron. I may want to sample a variety of location for comparison. I would also like to research the effects of too much iron in the water ways.
   I would like to ask if anyone has any location suggestions for my research?

Erin Weinreich U.R. - This Past Week

Cabbage Algae 

This past week our class was given information from the Marine Discovery Center about the seagrass levels in the Indian River Lagoon. It was a shock to me to see how much the seagrass counts have dwindled from 1995 to 2013. The numbers were actually very shocking to me because I didn't think that it was even possible for anything to decline that quickly (especially something like sea grass that I though was very common). I was reading in an article that some places in the world where sea grass grew all the time just died off. Luckily scientist are working on transplanting fertile specimens on this barren ocean land to help spark what once grew there. The talk about seagrass sparked my interest into doing my research project on the subject. I have been going back and forth with what I am choosing to do with it. I was leaning more towards the subject of marine life living in the Indian River Lagoon and measuring what type of sea life lives there by the amount of sea grass in the area. My main goal is to be able to achieve what I want to in this class, but also further my research in the near future as well. Nutrients came to mind last lab when we were doing our water samples. I have been looking a little more into sea grass and the type of nutrients are in them such as nutrients in apples and oranges for humans, there are nutrients in sea grass. One thing that Annie did talk about on the boat when we were doing our sea grass transects was how there were different types of algae growing such as the cabbage algae which was caused by drainage in the Indian River Lagoon. The question sparked in my head "Does local runoff/pesticides affect sea grass nutrients?" Looking at the cabbage algae in my hand near the second transit our class did near the shore, just feeling the slimy texture and bright green color didn't seem like it belonged in the area. It also didn't look like it was any benefit for the animals that live their either. Especially if any of the animals were to eat this chemically infested algae confusing it for sea grass, what would it do to them? Questions.. Questions ..

Kristen Ghaffarian U.R. The Big Brain Storm

This past week in class we did what I would call a large brainstorm.  We each went around the room letting our classmates know if we had narrowed something down, or if we were still trying to weed through our ideas.  It was great to hear what others were doing as well as having their input on possible directions we could go with our research.  I was able to jot down some good pointers and it definitely makes you feel motivated knowing the others are interested in your success as well.  We were given some past data from the Indian River Lagoon seagrass transects, and it was shocking to say the least viewing the data.  I chose the summer 1994 and summer 2002 and it was interesting to see the numbers side by side.  Some areas had more in 2002 than in 1994 and vice versa.
    I have pretty much narrowed down where I am headed with my research project.  I will be testing two retention ponds "lakes" in Waters Edge, which is in Port Orange to see if there is an abundance of nutrients, especially the ones that are used commonly in the citrus industry, as well as testing the oxygen levels.  I am testing the oxygen levels more because one of the retention ponds has a fountain in the middle and one does not.  I was given the reason from some neighbors that the one without is placed in such a way that the wind is enough to circulate the water naturally.  I'm not 100% sold, so I would like to know.  I will also be calling the HOA to see if I can get the dimensions of the lakes i.e. area size, and hope to be able to get out into the "lake" to measure the depth as well.
    I missed my chance to collect water today since the rain storm came in with a vengeance.  Tomorrow I will be collecting my samples, and am interested to see what we find on Friday.

Shelby Thomas U.R. - Week in Review

This past week we worked on analyzing the seagrass transects and different ways to graph the data. It was quite interesting to see how the data has changed over the years and how much the sea grass beds have diminished. It makes me wonder what effects will come about from these diminishing seagrass beds and how it will change the eating patterns of the marine life that thrive off it. I designed a graph that shows the change over time from 1998 summer seagrass transect and 2010 summer seagrass transect. There is a drop in seagrass coverage and shoot counts but not nearly as much of a drop that we recorded on our field experience. It was astonishing looking at how much the beds have changed now from then. The seagrass species we recorded from the Indian Lagoon was all Halodule Wrightii. The graph I have bellow shows the comparison in seagrass coverage in 1998 and then in 2010.

Valerie U.R., This week in Review

     This week has been very informative. After reading about the Indian River Lagoon, I feel blessed to live close to such a diverse lagoon. This furthers my drive to work in this field. The plans for restoration are in effect and I hope to play a part in that soon. My project is still looming around dredging and a way to reduce the harmful effects of it. I would like to come up with an alternative method or and instrument to help reduce the interruption of sediment. Any ideas??
     I also feel like I am getting more comfortable with graphs and creating them. I hope I can become fluent by the time midterms arrive. I am still trying to think of my scientific question for my midterm power point. Does anyone know their question yet?

Cathy UR, The Past Week

So the past week has been an exciting one for me, I believe I have decided what my undergraduate research will be about, I plain on placing a ball with a tracker in it at one location inland and tracking its way out to sea. By doing this I hope to show how what we do in our own back yards effects the ocean. But I have come across a problem I can not seem to find a map of the water ways. Being new to the area is not helping much either. I plain on going to Port Orange city hall tomorrow and asking someone there for help finding a map. If anyone knows of one or where else I could find one I would greatly appreciated it.

On another note my graphing seems to be improving, below is my latest graph it shows a spike in drift algae cover between the years 1997 and 1998.

 

When we were out in the lagoon on Friday January 31, I noticed that there is not much algae in the area as the experienced these two years. I wondered why there was so much growth in these two years, I did some research on it but I was unable to find out to much for these years. there must have been some kind of massive runoff or plant fertilizer runoff to support this data. I wish I could find out more I will look into it some more in the upcoming week and let you know what I find out!

Skylar Kaminsky, U.R. - Learning how to take water samples

This week we are supposed to take water samples and test them for the amount of suspended solids they contain. Unfortunately this week I'll be heading up to Chicago for a S.T.E.M. seminar and will have to make this up at a later date. I have decided what my project shall be however. My project will be building a ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) with a GoPro attached to it. My hope is to be able to help other researchers with their projects and to try using it to survey the seagrass we did earlier.

A seemingly simple ROV design

Erin Weinreich, U.R. - Indian River Seagrass Excursion

Whats down there?

On Friday, January 31st, 2014, our oceanography class at Daytona State College went into the Indian River Lagoon helping the local discovery center monitor the sea grass growth that they have been tracking for many years.
The trip started off pretty well, although the weather wasn't what we expected we made the best of it. While putting the boat into the water, Kristen realized that there was water coming out of the bottom of it. Luckily she caught it just in time for Annie (the representative from the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach, Florida) to pull it out of the water to fix the issue. While Annie was fixing that issue, Dr. Woodall realized that we didn't have enough life jackets just in case we got pulled over  by the coast guard, so she ran to the closest bait shop that Bob (the volunteer that let our class use his boat) recommended to her. After about 30 minutes off schedule we made our way to the first spot. The area wasn't anything I expected it to be. I was expecting really tall and long sea grass, but when we got there I was quickly proven wrong. The water, like I expected, was freezing. Thankfully all of us had our wetsuits so the water wouldn't affect our ability to take the data down correctly.

Annie and I on the boat

We were all split up into groups of 2 and 3 placed 20 meters apart to cover the whole 100m that we needed to take the data down. We used specially made quadrats that were helpful in plotting the data correctly. There were a few falls, a few accidental sand shuffles, and a lot of cringing faces with shaking hands but we made it through the first transect. Ate a little lunch then proceeded on our way.

The next and last transect was a little easier because I got the hang of it because we took our time in the first one and really made sure my group did it right. The current was a lot stronger at the second transect, but thankfully my team was closer to the shore while the other teams had to fight the current a little more than we did (sorry guys). But one thing that I did notice was the water temperature felt like it dropped about 10 degrees from where we were before doing the first transect, which was not fun when the water seeped through the back of the wet suit which was supposed to keep me warm.
On the way back, I jotted down in my Rite in the Rain Field Notebook a sketch of the place we did our transects so I will be able to look back at it one day, and remember the amazing experience I had doing it.

The Group

The way algae affects the sea grass beds, and how they are slowly dying off really sparked my interest in a research project based around what we did that day. Whatever I decide to do, it was an interesting experience to say at the least, and I would not hesitate to ever do it again.

Skylar Kaminsky, U.R. - First experience in the field

My first experience in the field was at the Indian River Lagoon in Oak Hill. It was January 31st, 2014. Though it was raining even before I arrived at the boat, I knew Dr. Woodall would not cancel our survey of the seagrass over a little drizzle. Even before we left to arrive at where we would do our survey we ran into a few small delays. One such delay was when we didn't have enough life jackets and had to wait a few minutes while Dr. Woodall acquired more. When we finally left the dock to our designated location, I was a little anxious to see how everything would go. Would it go smoothly or a bit more on the rough side? Fortunately everything went very smoothly and relaxing. The water might have been cold, but with the wetsuit I warmed quickly. Fortunately I purchased scuba booties the day before and was able to break them in, keeping my feet warm also. Taking the data down was much easier than I thought it would be. After we finished our first location, ate lunch, and started to travel to our second location, we saw many dolphins. It was interesting to see so many of them everywhere, just swimming around minding their own business. Even though it was overcast, raining, windy, and the water was cold, I would go back tomorrow.

This is what the seagrass we were surveying looks like.
It is known as Halodule Wrightii.

Kristen Ghaffarian, U.R. Adventures in Counting Seagrass

Wow, what an adventure I had on January 31, 2014 at 9am.  We went to survey seagrass in The Indian River Lagoon in Oak Hill.  It started off with me checking my email to find, despite the rain and weather we were scientists and we would be out in the field.  I packed up warm clothes and off to The Riverbreeze Park I went and somehow suctioned into my wetsuit.  There were a few delays to start with, but nothing we couldn't handle.  It rained the entire time we were out there, and I tell you the work that these scientists do for The Marine Science Center is amazing, the conditions that they could possibly be put in are not always ideal.  The work is tedious going under the water measuring seagrass with your fingers and making sure you have recorded accurately; this is data for a government organization.  Once we got into the water and were becoming acclimated we were all ready for some work.  We split into groups and began our quadrat measurements.  We worked in 3's so that one person was able to record the data and the other two were able to dive under the water to count the seagrass, or check algae for our quadrat half.  The currents were pretty strong that day and not only was it somewhat difficult holding onto our position to record the data under the water, but when measuring the floating algae it was difficult when huge clumps came floating in.  Needless to say it was exciting, invigorating, challenging, and inspiring.  During our research we noticed that the seagrass was pretty bare and not thriving.  It is very disheartening, knowing that this is food for manatees and hiding places for baby shrimp and squirts; which we found during our time out.    We did seagrass counts for 2 locations and by the end of the trip we were definitely exhausted.  Being out in the field was an experience that I am happy I can say I've done, and would be happy to do again; maybe just a little warmer though.

The Many Dolphins We Came Across :)

Valerie, U.R. My week in Review

      I am happy to announce the direction I am going for my project. I am thinking about focusing on the effects of dredging on the coastal and inter-coastal waters. I'm am also looking over the laws that are in place for environmental protection if any. So far I see more laws in place to regulate the vast "need" for dredging. The need is there because of big business and human consumption.
      Last week I was able to go out on the waters of Rose Bay in Port Orange. I purchased a Groupon for the Hydro bikes. It was a blast! My boyfriend, Anthony and I rode around the mangroves for about an hour. The weather was clear with some winds ranging from10-15 mph. The water was chilly, so I remained seated on the bike. 
     Below is a picture of the mangroves we passed by. This little adventure was a preview of what was to come the following week counting sea grass on Jan 31. The preparation I thought I did was not enough for the weather we endured counting sea grass. The weather was cold and rainy, but we were going to get wet anyway. So we trudged on. There were a few delays but before long we were heading to our sea-grass site. It saddens me to say that the amount of sea-grass is diminishing all too fast. This may be a direct result from dredging along the waterways,  so that the big luxury boats can maneuver through the small canals. The grass is vital to our marine life. I will get to the bottom of this dredging business...literally!
     I am happy to say that the sea grass experience has fueled my desire to stand up for the environment. We have a home to protect. The evidence of destruction is clear and I am learning from theses classes that the world really isn't as big as I thought. I may be able to make a difference, we may be able to make a difference. Therefore, by helping with this data collection we have already started to make a difference.


                               

Shelby Thomas U.R. - Seagrass Transects

This past week was quite of an interesting experience for our first field work. We all went to record data and measurements for the seagrass beds in the Indian Lagoon located in Oak Hill.  We recorded data from two sites in the lagoon. All of the data goes collectively to a government runned marine program, where they have recorded theses same sites over several years to observe the change and population of seagrass overtime.

Things didn't start off to optimistically, the plug for the boat was not placed in so once the boat was released into the water, water started to pour through the whole and filling the boat. We had to rush the boat back on the trailer and let the water drain, meanwhile it was raining and had a constant rain from start to end. The water was very cold so it was a good thing we were prepared with wet suits.

In the End we collected good data and it was a successful first day and was a good learning experience.  We learned a lot of different measuring techniques, we used the quadrats to section off the seagrass and use the measured off squares to help collect data.