Sunday, June 22, 2014

This Was The Best!

As my 5.5 weeks of this study abroad course comes to an end I cant help but to reflect on everything that I absolutely loved about this journey. To begin with, this course was originally designed to have all universities separate from one another and travelling separately. Luckily for the students, not enough people applied for the course from all 5 universities so we were combined into one group. I have met some of the most amazing and intelligent students on this trip that are so passionate about what they do. And the best part? We are all passionate about the same thing! Learning as much as we can about the earth and its biodiversity to preserve and restore as much as we can in the future.
In our first full week at UWF, I must say that I underestimated the type of landscapes that Florida has. Pensacola has one of the last remaining continuous plots of slash pine forest in the US. I was always so concerned about endangered animal species because that is what is brought up the most, that I never took into account how many plant species are in danger. Plants, forests, these all represent the habitats of animals, and they are disappearing too quickly. I never knew Florida had upland forests so it was a unique learning experience for me. My favorite part about UWF was working with Dr. Wade in the lab to analyze samples that we collected along the river (who wouldn't love working with radioactive chemicals and micro-pipettes).
At UNF I got a real taste of what the FIELD INTENSIVE portion of this course was. The 25 hour study on the river and estuary was definitely a challenging experience. Every hour, we had to record water quality data and take a sample all the way back to the lab to run other tests. Every 3 hours "ten foot seine net sampling time!!!" as my hilarious T.A. Brock would put it. Yup! we had to pull a 10 ft. seine net through the shallows and then catch and identify and measure every little critter in the net (FEISTY CRABS INCLUDED!). The next day, we got a few hours of sleep and then had an "excel party" inputting ALL of the data that we gathered over the 24 hours.  I had so much fun taking all of the data and making all of the graphs from this trip. I made a graph of the changes in water quality data over time, then I made comparison graphs of water quality data from the lake versus the estuary over time. And to top it all off, I made graphs of all of the critters that we caught over time so that you could compare the water data to the correlating fish species that you would find in those specific conditions. Although I complained a lot during this 24 hour exercise (partially because I just wasn't prepared for it) if I was ever asked to do it again I would say YES in a heartbeat. The professors at UNF were amazing and very fun to work with (YOU WILL BE MISSED!!!) but hopefully who knows, I may end up working with them again in the near future for research.
KEY WEST MARINE LAB!!!
Well for starters... ITS THE KEYS! the best place in Florida (when its not hurricane season :p ) My week at the keys was nothing short of extraordinary. Every day we visited a new reef and everyday I learned more and more about biodiversity among reefs. We tried cramming a lot of new knowledge into one week and it was very challenging for me to catch on to the scientific names of all of the coral and algae species that we observed. (Did I mention that I was sea sick every day on the boat? No motion sickness medication would work for me sadly)

 Tiffany and I definitely bonded
My favorite day was definitely free diving out at Looe Key marine preserve. This reef had the most biodiversity out of all of the reefs there. Amazingly enough, I went to this same reef last year and I could see massive changes in the coral abundance and health overall. Many of them were lined with white band disease. On the other hand, I came face to face with more barracudas than I could count and there was a HUGE Goliath grouper that was hanging out underneath the dive boat the entire time.
In my week at FGCU we worked inshore in the estuary so for one I finally didn't get sea sick and we didn't spend the entire time out on the water. Everyday was a completely new topic that we would spend lecture time on in the classroom, then we would get in the boat to go out and collect samples and data, and come back to the classroom to analyze everything that we did during the day. The workload that we got in FGCU was definitely an eye opener on how confusing data can be to organize. It was definitely in my week at FGCU Vester Marine Lab that I became what I consider myself to be a "master of excel". I may not have figured it out in the best of conditions (trying to meet homework deadlines) but it was totally worth it.
My last week at USF was definitely a crazy week wrapping everything up. We spent all day in the classroom on Monday and by Tuesday morning we were on the Weatherbird heading offshore. (I finally got a medicated sea sickness patch and it worked!!!). Just to give a little background, in my three years at USFSP I have always kayaked past this vessel and admired it, wishing I could get the opportunity one day to go out on open ocean and work on this vessel. So when I found out that we were going out on the Weatherbird, needless to say, I was jumping with excitement. I have never worked with any of the equipment that I used on this trip so every week I learned how to use something new. On the Weatherbird I learned how to use 5 completely new pieces of equipment in one day (IT WAS AWESOME!!!!). Even more fun was working with the organisms that we took back to the lab. Looking at phytoplankton and zooplankton underneath a microscope has been one of my favorite after field activities throughout this entire trip in UWF, UNF, and USFSP.  We wrapped up our week at the Florida Aquarium with a scavenger hunt and then an animal behavior activity.

Overall, this Field Studies in Marine Biology course has been nothing short of amazing and I have met some of the most amazing people and professors along the way. I want to thank the Florida Institute of Oceanography for giving me this amazing opportunity to get exposure to possible future career options. I also want to say Dr. Judkins you are an inspiring professor and you have done an amazing job at coordinating this entire course (while being in Puerto Rico for a portion of it with another class) and to let you know that you haven't seen the last of me :) I hope to do a bunch of research studies with you in the future. And last but not least, I would like to thank all of the professors that took the time help us learn all that we have and mostly for just sharing your passions with us as a class.

To all of my CLASSMATES!!!! you already know this isn't the end. Your'e all stuck with me for life now, I Love you all! If you don't keep in touch I will come find you and give you endless amounts of nagging for not calling haha!

To those of you leaving USFSP, I will miss you so much (I do already) and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors (but you better keep in touch :p ) And to Cara, i wish you a smooth transmission between universities. To all of my USFSP peepz, I will see you guys in Fall semester!!! xoxoxo!




I cant say that I'm sad it's over, because tomorrow will be a new day, and now I can continue on with amazing people in my life, and learn from all of my new experiences.




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