UWF - Week 2

Cara McCann - Week 2, Blog 1

This past week has informed, humbled, and inspired me more than I ever expected and it’s still only week two!!

Day One began with a rigorous field day not on water, but in the forest. The Black Water and Yellow Water River State Forests are maintained by some pretty amazing park rangers that really know their stuff. Ian Stone, one of the rangers, was kind enough to give us the grand tour (or as much as we could fit in in 8 hours) of the beautiful ecosystem. We saw how prescribed burns are necessary to remove old growth and maintain the fertile, nutrient rich soils that allow for such diversity to flourish.

Life flourishing 2 months after a prescribed burn

Dr. Snyder, one of the professors from UWF, asked us to count how many species we saw in a small area at different time intervals at the different forest sites. We plotted our results on Friday and saw that in these forests where prescribed burns occur every 1-3 years (and particularly at a site that had been burned only 2 months ago) the longer you look around, you can spot up to almost 30 different species just standing still for a minute!

 We followed the forest down towards where the streams and rivers emptied into the ocean and saw how sediments and other things are picked up and taken along for the ride.

The pitcher plant field in the wetland prairie where the water column was ever so slightly above the land was one of the most beautiful sites of the day.

To wrap up the day, we went to Gulf Island National Sea Shore where the superintendent of the park explained the difficult missions of national parks – to protect and preserve the natural beautiful habitats that surround us while also keeping it available for the public to enjoy. The professors hosted a generous shrimp boil and the night ended with the most beautiful sunset.

Day 2 took place on the beach learning about collection methods, such as various types of netting, the types of environments on the beach (which are incredibly diverse!), and the different plants and critters that call these beaches home. As cute as the turtles are, we also learned how important shorebirds are and how many problems they face - not to mention the headaches the rangers face trying to protect them.

A large dune, clearly showing the two sides, with a live oak growing on the right side - how amazing!!!

One of the most amazing things I remember from that day was seeing such a magnificent maritime forest. When a small plant is sticking up out of the ground, it begins to collect sand which causes a dune to begin to form and then the plant is able to grow bigger. The plants make the dunes and the dunes make the plants and the plants make the dunes :) !! Sort of like a mountain range, large dunes have a dry side that receives salt spray so only salt tolerant plants grow there, and the the other side is then able to host larger, less salt tolerant plant-life.

Netting for fish and other critters in the sound near the end of the day

Dana and I volunteered to run some tests on our phytoplankton and water bacteria samples, after our day in the field, with Dr. Wade who showed us his awesome radiology lab! For one of the experiments, we added radioactive leucine, an amino acid, to the water bacteria samples because the bacteria will incorporate the radioactive amino acid into its structure when assembling proteins to create new and bigger cells. We were then able to look at the amount of radioactive leucine present and therefore see how much production/activity was occurring.

Day 3 was spent on boats in glassy Perdido Bay collecting water, phytoplankton and sediment samples. We were introduced to all sorts of new equipment, like the CTD that measured the Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth of the water (conductivity will help in measuring salinity).

Collecting water samples from the bottle to be tested later for bacterial production

Dr. Caffery showing the metal messenger that will close the open ends of the bottle when released 

At one point, I helped collect a water sample with the Van Dorn Bottle, which is used in shallow water to get a horizontal sample without collecting any mud from the bottom. With the ends open, the tube is lowered into the water, and then a piece of metal is sent down to a trip wire type of set-up that pulls the ends shut and collects water from a specific horizontal depth.

Still so much more to come!