We arrived here at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Vester Marine and Environmental Science Research Field Station on Sunday night. Before we came I wasn’t too sure what to expect because we hadn’t been given much information prior to arriving and we were told to get there we had to go through a condo complex and down a dirt road! I was a little skeptical at first but after finding it with no trouble I was happily surprised. The research station here is so cozy and a great environment for learning.

 

Monday we went out into the estuary and took core sample of sediments. We went to two separate locations and had to using our brute strength to drive aluminum cores meters into the ground under water. The cores had to be cut open and then the puzzle was ready to be solved. By looking at the differences in the color and composition of the sediment layers we could predict what the areas where the sediment was collected was like and if any major storms had passed through. Our instructor estimated our samples could have been as old as over 2000 years. After staring at dirt for hours I have officially eliminated an area of study that I DO NOT want to go into. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll have a hay day playing around in some mud, but to have to study it that closely for a living, I’ll pass!

 

Today was just a big day of confusion. We went over physical oceanography, which included things like the estuary’s currents and circulation. I learned some interesting things about how freshwater and salt water mix. Since salt water coming from the ocean in denser it will stay at the bottom of the water column and have a higher salinity and a lower temperature than the top of the water where there is freshwater present. We went pretty far up the Imperial River today and used a YSI and a CTD to measure many different things; salinity and temperature were the big ones we needed to find the density gradients in the different locations. We found our hypothesis about the water separation to be true and discovered the river has a partially mixed residual circulation. We also measured currents today by dropping grapefruits into the water and following them for a certain period of time and then calculating their speed. Unfortunately we got kicked out of our classroom fairly early today so we didn’t get to discuss all of our findings with our instructor which made things a little confusing and complicated. After today, I have officially eliminated another area of study off my list! Hopefully I’ll find something that sparks my interest a little more by the end of the week, wish me luck!

GO OSPREYS!!