Objectives: High energy beach habitats, barrier islands and inlets
Site 1: Guana Reserve, Ponte Verde
This was one of my favorite sites of the whole day! Here, the sand dunes are an incredible 35 feet tall! They are totally covered with scrub plants on the front and back side of the dune: I found this interesting because the dunes in Pensacola where only totally covered on the back side. This reserve is a very neat area because its a rare opportunity to see how natural dunes look and form. Far too often these dunes are dozed down for development. Another topic we discussed was how imperiled the scrub habitats are due to sea level rise and development. Many of the scrub plants are uniquely adapted the specific coastal conditions and are not found elsewhere.
At this site, we took a look at an inlet. We learned about how the longshore current moves sediment and constantly fills in inlets. To combat this, we have to constantly dredge which is harmful to the environment in many different ways. This inlet is fitted with a jetty; when an inlet is not natural, it takes a lot to keep it open.
Coquina outcrops are rarely found at the surface or even just exposed. Here, the entire beach is filled with slabs of coquina rock; this makes an opportunity for a unique ecosystem. We visited the coquina outcrops during low tide so that the rocks were exposed and we could check out the tide pool critters. We found limpets, oysters, barnacles, periwinkles, algae (red and green), sponges, fish, mussels, anemones, shrimp and more. It was so awesome to see these unique formations and their diversity!
Site 4: Summer Haven
This site was nuts! Here we took a look at another project that backfired. This site consisted of an inlet; a SAND inlet. This inlet totally filled in with sand as a result of the deepening and widening of the St. Augustine inlet. We walked along the inlet and past big beautiful houses that used to have ocean access, now their docks meet nothing but sand.
Site 5: Matanza Inlet
Finally, we visited a natural inlet. This inlet is the last until Daytona. We learned all about how the channel changes different times of the year or due to storms. Boaters have to be careful because the channels can literally change over night! Over this inlet was built a huge overpass. This problem is that natural inlets move and the inlet is moving closer and closer to the end of the bridge. It will likely soon close up completely, starving the marsh and inter coastal of water exchange. This poses a huge threat for this entire ecosystem.
Day 10 (Tuesday, May 27):
Objectives: Determining changes throughout the river
Boat day! Today consisted of boating up and down the lower St. Johns river. We did a wide variety of sampling including Van Dorn samples, YSI, Secchi disk and plankton tows. We wanted to determine the actual differences in the water from further north (closer to the ocean) to further upstream (more freshwater influence). We made sure to observe the surrounding areas and consider how this might influence the water quality. Much of the area surrounding the river was industrial shipping related or hugely developed. Even downtown Jacksonville is located directly on the St. Johns river; the proximity of the development has a lot of impact on the river. We determined a great deal of change in salinity, turbidity and stratification. We pulled plankton tows and viewed them under the microscope in the lab later that night. We observed a huge deal of diversity and abundance. We conducted further water testing such as chlorophyll a and color using a fluorometer and colorimeter.
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