After an afternoon of learning about coastal processes in the classroom, we took off on a short canoe trip on Guana Lake, in the GTM NERR. The weather was great - a little breeze kept the bugs away!
Kenneth, our intrepid guide, led us around the lake (which is brackish), and we were able to observe some of the topics we had discussed in class.
The GTM staff are active in oyster restoration. Oyster reefs have many roles in estuarine environments - food source, habitat, water filtration, ecosystem engineers... It's pretty cool that larval oysters prefer to settle on adult oyster shell. There is active research along the southeast coast attempting to identify the cues these larvae are using. I know of labs focused on both chemical cues and aural cues given off by existing reefs. As we move through this course, I encourage you to delve into topics of interest more deeply. Many of you have indicated that you would like to continue your education in the field beyond a bachelor's degree, and this field course should be an excellent opportunity to see what other scientists do on a daily basis and how they go about their work. As you think about the topics covered in this course and experience them in the field, start noticing patterns and question what you see and hear. Think about how you might go about answering these questions. This type of thinking is the basis of biological research and is often a skill that takes time to refine.
Some of my favorite marsh critters are fiddler crabs. Their mating dances are entertaining to watch, and are cool because they are species-specific. Besides this, they can process massive amounts of sediment over the course of a tidal cycle. And, as an added bonus, their burrows increase the area of the oxic zone of marsh sediments. If you're interested in any aspect of fiddler biology, I suggest looking up John Christy (STRI) and R. Tankersley's (FIT) work.
Hey girl, heyyy.
Nice picture Breanna! We should send Kenneth the link to the Blog.
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