Pensacola!!!

My first experience a UWF was a little bit frustrating because I got lost due to the large campus. It was a huge change coming from my small campus at USFSP on the water to the large beautiful wooden area with hills at UWF.  Once I settled into my dorms I quickly realized that the dorm rooms didn’t have a kitchen but a huge main kitchen. This worked out for the best and made our group closer as we shared stories about ourselves and bonded while sitting down as a family at dinner.

Our first day at UWF was a long day of beautiful woods and sunshine. We were taken to the Black Water state forest where we meet up with a Park Ranger Ian Stone who was very educated and knowledgeable on the area. He gave us a tour around the park and taught us about the local wildlife as well as plant species even included a few scientific names from memory. One of the popular topics of conversation was he use of both wild and controlled burns to maintain a healthy ecosystem. While going through the upland habitats we saw some indicator species of a wetland habitat such as, pitcher plants or Nepentheceae. These are a special species of carnivorous plants that trap insects to gain the nutrients that are unavailable in soil. These species contain a wide variety of colors and are extremely cool.

Day two we headed for the beach at Santa Rosa Island were we met up with Mark Nicholas who talked to us about the importance of management of sea birds and some of the struggles that come with the job. Some of these struggles included protecting the birds from predators such as, red fox, coyotes, and people. Next we met up with professor Dick Snyder and Alexis Janosik who took us through the importance of sand Dunes and how they are created. They are created by fine sand made of quartz that is blown by the wind and trapped and accumulated by beach vegetation until a dune is formed.    

Day three we all got up early for a day on the boat and more data. We jumped on the pontoon boat fiesta and toured the tea colored Perdido bay and use a wide range of interments that allowed us to look turbidity, collect soil samples, measure light, and ect.  The last two days we spent in the lab analyzing all of the samples were had gathered earlier in the week. We also looked at phytoplankton under microscopes, which we identified and sketched in our notebooks. This experience was a great educational and invaluable experience.

This is my FIO family and I love every one of them.