Thursday, June 12, 2014

I'm on a boat!



Tuesday morning, we all gathered at 8:30 am to get ready for a day of seagrasses. We were doing quadrant surveys of seagrass beds at three different locations. In Estero Bay, each of the three sites we went to were different. The first site, near the FGCU campus, had water depths up to my waist. The water was pretty murky to me, there was a lot of particulate matter in the water column due to wave, wind, and human action (boats, walking, etc.). I believe these factors explain the low levels of seagrass on the bay floor, but because the water was shallow it allowed enough light to penetrate and allow some seagrass to grow. The second location was much further out and in much further water. My head barely breached the surface. The location was also out of the major boating traffic ways and had much better visibility. These factors are what influenced the abundant amounts of seagrass and macroalgae. The last location was closer to boating traffic and slightly shallower than the last location. With the added factors of depth, suspended particulate matter, and regular boat traffic it does not surprise me to find the least amount of seagrass of all three locations.

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