We began our journey in the Blackwater State Forest which is 210,000 acres of long-leaf and slash pine forest. It is very possibly the longest continuous plot of pine forest in the USA. The park ranger Ian Stone took time out of his day to walk the group through various habitats within the forest and educate us on all of the processes going on. We learned about different management techniques that the forest division does to maintain the forest such as prescribed burns (the most famous method of choice). The prescribed burns are important because many plants in the forest need the fire to germinate seeds, clear underbrush to limit competition between the plant species, and if left for too long without being burned the forest can store up years worth of fuel and if an accidental fire is started then the fire will burn extremely hot and it will kill everything in its path. We walked through a forest wetland that was made possible because of the raised water table in this area (perched aquifers). Pitcher plants are an obligate species that were indicators we were in a wetland.
The Red Cockaded Woodpecker is one of the two communal nesting birds in Florida that is endangered. The park rangers brought in 5 different species of the RCWs from Appalachee Cola and transplanted them into the forest with a 5/5 success rate.
The next site we went to was the Krul Lake boardwalk and we hiked the trails while Ian Stone identified many of the native plant species of the area along with endangered amphibians such as the skink. We also took the time to learn about how the sediment from the Blackwater River majorly came from the silica rich quartz of the Appalachian mountains and the sediments were transported and distributed over hundreds of years. We also learned about the different levels of energy that occur within the stream that affects where sediment is deposited and where sediment is carved from.
We then made our way down to the Garcon Point Water Management Area which was 60,000 acres dedicated to the protection of water resources and restoration of natural environment. The AVALON Wet Prairie Restoration is a project taking place in this area that started in 1961 and is still going on today. The Garcon Point Area used to be a wet prairie but the lands were bought and drained because the area was going to be used for real estate. The land ended up being turned into a pine forest for lumbering. Now the forest administration is working to restore the wet prairie to its natural state but due to its closeness to the interstate, prescribed burns cant be held and the area is 2 years overdue.
The last site of the day was the Gulf Islands National Seashore where we met the superintendent of the parks and recreation division he took a small amount of time to explain the national parks service mission which is to preserve and protect the national parks while letting people be able to use it recreationally while leaving it unimpaired. This mission is a great mission to live by but the park rangers have many obstacles that hinder them from completing this mission. The biggest challenge for the park rangers are ironically people. Failing to follow the park rules set in place just to help the preservation of the biodiversity, historical and cultural aspects of the parks.
We ended the long day with a shrimp boil party and everyone had a chance to bond.
The sun was way too bright in this picture. Everyone ran away covering their eyes.
Day 2:
Our second day began bright and early with us being picked up at 8 am then driving to Opal Beach along the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
We were trying so hard to stay awake... But Dana had coffee^^^ haha!
At the beach we met with two of the park rangers and learned about endangered species that take residence on the beach. Shorebirds such as the least tern, snowy plover, black skimmers, are endangered species on the beach. Mostly loggerhead sea turtles nest along the seashore but occasionally green sea turtles, and on very rare occasion leatherbacks. The biggest issue hindering the park officials from protecting the shorebirds is that the birds nest right on the ground so people and pets are a big problem. The least terns are preyed upon heavily by coyotes, raccoon, and even ghost crabs. Gull billed terns will nest with least tern colonies and predate on the eggs in nests. The biggest problem that the sea turtles face with survival is that the hatchlings are led away from the ocean by city light pollution and then preyed upon by the same mentioned predators.
The biggest factor that all of the endangered species have to face are people. 90 birds were documented as killed by people speeding through the national park, other birds that were killed could have been scavenged and others end up on peoples grills. There is a solution to this problem and it is to just follow the park rules that are set in place to preserve and protect the national park.
We then moved over to santa rosa island and used a sand rake to catch organisms living in the wave crash zone such as bivalves, sand fleas. The students also got a chance to run nets through the shallow zone and we caught baby mullet, and pompano.
sand fleas are filter feeders.
We also learned about the plant species that contribute to the formation of sand dunes along with special adaptations the plants have to survive the harsh salty environment.
We also ran a series of tests to measure the ratio of phytoplankton undergoing photosynthesis creating oxygen to bacteria consuming oxygen through respiration. And finally we collected samples of water from the gulf and from the sound.
We ran the nets in the bay and Wally and I caught a big spade fish along with many juvenile mullet, silver sides, pompano, grunt, pinfish, goby, and many more.
For the remainder of the week we navigated the Perdido Bay via pontoon boats that we loaded with equipment to measure the various biotic and abiotic factors that affect the biodiversity of an area.
The CTD measured conductivity, temperature, and depth. The Fluorometer measured the levels of color dissolved organic matter in the water. The secchi disk was used to measure the levels of turbidity in the water column. The Profiling Underwater Radiometer was a neat device but it broke down at the first site so that data wasn't fully used. The YSI measured the levels of light in the water column. The vandorn bottle collected samples of water from the surface and bottom layer of each of the 5 zones. The ponar was used to grab sediment samples from the surface of the benthic layer of the lake.
We then analyzed all of the samples back in the lab that same night to get all of the data into spreadsheets for class the next day. By Friday, as a class we analyzed all of the numbers and created graphs with trendlines to calculate the total levels of biodiversity, photosynthesis, respiration, etc.
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