Carly, UR - Fin-tastic news everyone!

(If you can't tell by now, I really love puns)

Happy Valentine's day week everyone!  Hope you were able to share some time with loved ones or some time for yourself!  Now, let's get something that I love: making a decision!

Last week I was deciding between a few ideas, after said blog I discussed with Dr. Woodall what direction I should head, and finally decided on something to research.

Is there a correlation between sharks and sea surface temperatures (SST)?

That is a simplified version of what I'll be independently researching.  It will be done online with the lovely Ocearch (shark tagging masters) and Windytv (sea surface temperature map).  Check out Ocearch tagging a shark, Miss Costa, to the right. -->

Something I am still deciding is how many species I want to focus on, and from that, how many individuals from each.  The reason I'll need a few individuals is because the tags they have only "ping" when they surface, which won't happen all the time, so the more individuals the better the data.


I've done some research seeing if anything like this has been done in the past, and I'm really not finding a whole lot.  Primarily what I'm seeing is sea surface temperature being one calculation recorded among 10 other factors with one specific species, and usually in one particular area. For example, in 2014 there was a study done on whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) and their largely unknown reproductive ecology.  The focus was their habitat use at darwin island, galapagos marine reserve.  There was a negative correlation between the SST and the whale shark presence (1).

In fact, there are several articles on the whale shark, but not many other species.  Looks like I have some work to do.

Fins and grins,
Carly Magnus

1. Acuña-Marrero D, Jiménez J, Smith F, et al. Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) Seasonal Presence, Residence Time and Habitat Use at Darwin Island, Galapagos Marine Reserve. Klimley AP, ed. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(12):e115946. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115946.

Garth, UR - So, is Global Warming just another episode of the Twlight Zone?

             So, global warming does exist? Hmm, Well… native Alaskans seem to be arguing, much less. Alaska Meltdown, the frontlines of climate change: Is the article I have chosen to depict key points of environmental and temperature shift occurring throughout our globe. What happens when we turn up the heat?
             So, good question and how exactly is this connected? Global warming in turn is responsible for global climate change, which is simply the increase of temperature throughout the world. One aspect of this I believe is important, is the effect that warming temperatures have on our environment. What does this mean and how does this affect us?
            Alaska is a pivotal point, for a stark contrast to those non-believers. If seeing is believing, then Alaska has found their god. In this case enlightenment in an unfortunate occurrence.

                       Located on a barrier island just outside Bering Land Bridge National Preserve

Global temperature has increased on average about 1 degree Centigrade. Apparently, in the Artic temperatures during winter has risen as much as 7 degrees to 9 degrees Fahrenheit in some locations. Icepack is retreating affecting Inupiat villagers hunting grounds and as solar radiation builds, new ground is exposed and permafrost retreats. Hot spots are created melting even larger areas as time passes. Cariboo migration patterns are beginning to shift, forests are beginning to appear where arctic tundra once was and polar bear hunting grounds are beginning to dwindle as ice retreats. Even the oil industries in this area are losing headway as winters cold embrace, warms giving them once a 200-day exploration, to a now 100-day exploration time period.
Most of rising sea levels are directly created from thermal expansion. Apparently as much as 10 percent can be attributed to melting glaciers, much of which is from Alaska.
One fact I would like to build upon is the cyclical affect temperature and weather has on our world. As the weather, wind and temperature change so does the landscape which was molded by its inevitable consistency. So, what happens when that changes?

                                                             Food for thought…..

Sherwonit, Bill. "Alaskan meltdown: on the frontlines of climate change: Alaska and the national              park sites in our northern-most state are showing dramatic signs of global climate change. Melting permafrost and glaciers, eroding coastlines, and insect invasions all point to warming temperature trends." National Parks, Summer 2004, p. 24+. Academic OneFile, db06.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.db06.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE

Stephanie Guyotte, UR- Fishy business

Gambierdiscus dinoflagellates ( from google)

Gambierdiscus dinoflagellates (from google)

After searching our Daytona State library one article titled "Epidemiology of Ciguatera in Florida" stood out. In this article the authors discuss their methods and results of searching out ciguatera cases in Florida. Their methods included sending out surveys to fishermen and people who could have had possible cases of ciguatera poisoning. From the study they gathered the following information from the people who could have had ciguatera; county of residence, age, gender, race and ethnicity, origin of fish, and case notes on fish meal. Then asked if they experienced any of the following symptoms during their bout with possible food poisoning (I say food poisoning because people commonly think that they only have food poisoning when it could really be ciguatera poisoning); “Have you ever experienced vomiting and/or diarrhea combined with numbness around the mouth or hands, or weakness in the legs, or reversal of hot and cold sensations after eating saltwater fish?” (and other questions).  From this they were able to categorize the ciguatera Vs. the food poisoning cases and where the fish may have come from and what type of fish it was. The article also mentions the link between Gambierdiscus dinoflagellates and how growth rates might be expected as water temperatures increase. While this article takes a different scientific approach of a survey then what I plan on doing with a collect and sample method, this article proves that the Gambierdiscus dinoflagellates are in Florida (and provides ample amounts of information). So now its up to me to try and find them!

Most common three fish types consumed in ciguatera outbreaks reported to FDOH by ethnicity

Type of fish	Confirmed outbreaks* (FDOH reports)		Likely and possible cases (fishermen survey)
	Hispanic n (%)	Non-Hispanic n (%)	Hispanic n (%)	Non-Hispanic n (%)
Barracuda	29 (76)	3 (7)	10 (24)	19 (9)
Grouper	4 (11)	26 (58)	6 (14)	70 (34)
Amberjack	0	7 (16)	4 (10)	12 (6)
Other	5 (13)	9 (20)	22 (52)	102 (50)
P value	< 0.0001		0.007

Reference:    
Radke, E. G., Reich, A., & Morris, J. G. (2015). Epidemiology of Ciguatera in Florida. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 93(2), 425–432. http://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0400  

Kelly-Ann UR - Making the Right Choices

     When preforming any kind of quantitative analysis, it is important to know how precise you need your data to be, as well as any time and cost constraints that you may have.  Ideally, you would always want to be precise as possible.  However, generally speaking, more precise methods tend to cost more and take more time.  
     Fortunately, my research revolves around nitrate in freshwater bodies.  Determining the level of nitrate in water is something that multiple analytical techniques can accomplish.  I will have the luxury of choosing one that best fits my precision needs while staying within my constraints for this project.
     Nitrate levels can be determined rather quickly, in less than ten minutes after the sample has been prepared, using voltammetry.  This process uses a copper-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE).  To prepare the sample for this method the sample should be filtered if there is a high level of turbidity and the pH should be adjusted to 1 using sulfuric acid.  Reagents of potassium chloride and copper (II) sulfate are added to the sample as well.  This method has a detection range of 10 to 300 μM.
     Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy can also be used to determine nitrate levels in a water sample.  Spectroscopy looks at absorption patters in a series of dilutions of a single sample.  Samples must be thoroughly filtered before analysis.  This method requires more equipment than the GCE, however, it has a longer range of detection (1-00mg/L).

The Ion-Exchange Method

     Yet another method for analyzing nitrate levels in freshwater is the ion-exchange method.  This is one of the most widely used methods due to its high level of reliability and accuracy.  There are six steps to this method: pretreatment, extraction, elution, neutralization, removal of interfering ions, and drying for stable isotope analysis.  Although precise, this process is both lengthy and costly.
     The methods I have covered for quantitative nitrate analysis in freshwater samples are only three of many.  Before I make a decision on which method I am going to use for my analysis I need to determine if any of the equipment I will need is already available for me.  

Works Cited

• Gajaraj, S., Fan, C., Lin, M., & Hu, Z. (2013). Quantitative detection of nitrate in water and wastewater by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Environ Monit Assess. doi:10.1007/s10661-012-2975-4
• Li, W., Song, Y., Xu, H., Chen, L., Dai, W., & Dong, M. (2015). Ion-exchange method in the collection of nitrate from freshwater ecosystems for nitrogen and oxygen isotope analysis. Enviornmental Science and Pollution Research, 2213, 9575-9588. doi:10.1007/s11356-015-4522-7
• Luo, X., Wu, J., & Ying, Y. (2013). Voltammetric detection of nitrate in water sample based on in situ copper-modified electrode. Ionics, 19(8), 1171-1177. doi:10.1007/s11581-012-0839-0

Christian Vinciquerra UR, Seining 101

I hope everyone had a great week and found some sort of water source to take a sample from! On February 10th, our lab was lucky to have the Marine Science Center's, Special Projects Coordinator, Chad Macfie. Chad went over what our lab on February 17th will basically cover and the procedures of completing it. He showed us what a seine net is, what are its purposes, and how to use one. He also taught us how to use a dichotomous key for fish identification. The way it works is it asks you a question with two choices and depending on your previous answers, the key will narrow down the fish until you find the one you’re looking for. Luckily for me I had the opportunity to use both seine nets and dichotomous keys at Seacamp over the summer for experiments so I have some basic knowledge of the expectations to come Friday morning. Along with showing us fish seining methods, we were given some important terminology that is often used in marine biology such as fish stock, population, recruitment, maximum sustainable yield, optimal yield, catch per unit effort, and catch per unit area. All the terms having an important meaning that help scientists monitor the fish populations and allow them to regulate species numbers for fisherman.  With the terminology came the numbers that must be recorded along with the research we’re collecting. Much of the data we are recording is math based and will take some time to analyze and calculate.

Relationship between CPUE and CPUA
            from recent lab experiments in Ponce Inlet

          Our assignment this week was to create a graph from the data that recent labs collected doing the same exact experiment in the same locations. For mine I chose to see if there was a correlation between the CPUE and CPUA. As you can see in my graph, there is a positive relationship between the two with a R² value of 0.88967.  This graph shows that as more fish are caught per minute, there are more fish in one squared meter. There are two outliers. One is 524 CPUE with a CPUA of 2.4. The other is 273 CPUE and 2.1 CPUA.

Casie UR - Good, Bad and Ugly

After doing some research on the Water Hyacinth I have discovered several disturbing and unusual facts.  The first thing is that this weed is on the quarantine list. The second is that though it is rather harmful to the environment it can be used for some incredible things. I would first like to tell you about the negative impacts that the Water Hyacinth has on the environment. The Water Hyacinth threatens biodiversity by out-competing other indigenous plants and by doing this it disrupts the natural ecosystem of the area that it is effecting. With global temperatures on the rise it allows this weed to grow more rapidly. The Water Hyacinth also causes oxygen depletion in the water that it lives in. When the weed dies, it decomposes and therefore decreases oxygen. This weed clogs water ways and can cause floods. It can also disrupt any recreational activities in the area. There have been many attempts to get rid of this invasive weed. Environmentalist and other individuals have tried pulling out the weed by using machinery, chemicals have been used and biological methods were implemented. All the no avail. The weed grows so rapidly that we simply cannot keep up with its propagation. The seeds are viable for up to 20 years (Patel, S. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol (2012)).

Researchers have instead shifted their idea of how to get rid of this weed to what can it be used for. There are many things that this weed can do for the water. The Water Hyacinth has an affinity toward heavy metals and it will decrease the amount of heavy metal in the water. It can be used to filter and treat waste water and can be used in dye removal. The Water Hyacinth can be used as a food source and to create bio-fuel.  There have been studies using the Water Hyacinth in domestic water purification (Patel, S. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol (2012)).

Although this weed is encroaching on the environment and causing many disturbing problems there are ways in which we can use it to help our own economic concerns. 

(Patel, S. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol (2012))

 Patel, Seema. "Threats, Management and Envisaged Utilizations of Aquatic Weed Eichhornia Crassipes: An Overview." Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology 11.3 (2012): 249-59. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.