Childress Lab Summer 2013

The Childress lab spent this past summer back in the middle Florida Keys. We started the summer out with a new course in Marine Ecology, where 6 undergraduate students from Clemson made the long drive to the Keys while towing our 18’ Parker. Each day in the field the class set out on the water to learn about a new ecosystem.

 

We started out with a snorkeling journey through the mangroves where we identified algae, sponges, fish, and other organisms. We also did plankton tows from the Everglades National Park in the Florida Bay across to the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way we took water samples, visibility information and substrate composition data. From the data collected, we tracked changes in water quality, plankton abundance and substrate composition over several miles.

During this course, the undergraduate students picked a topic to study as an independent project. Sarah and Katherine decide to study the distribution of queen conch off Indian Key State Park. With the help of the class, they set up transects in the water and marked the location of each conch. They also noted the substrate composition near each conch. Their results showed that conch distribution is best predicted by the presence of other conch.

 
While snorkeling off Indian Key, I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a large, dark object coming towards me. Panic filled me as I thought of bull sharks but once I focused, my fear became joy as the manatee swam past me. The animal glided past not being slowed by the presence of observers. 

For the next project we rented kayaks from the Long Key State Park and paddled our way around Long Key Lake. We stopped at different stations to take water quality data and estimate the abundance of upside down jellyfish at each station. Teams of two paddled their way down a 25 M transect line, attempting to keep the kayak straight. Rachel and Justyn found that upside down jelly fish distribution can be predicted by higher salinity and lower pH.

The third project for the Marine Ecology class was studying lobster behavior in a salinity gradient. Juvenile lobsters collected from sites in Florida Bay were used to determine the salinity preferences and tolerances of the Caribbean spiny lobsters. Kelsey and Alex found that juvenile lobsters preferred the higher salinity water no matter the gender or presence of another lobster.

 

During the Marine Ecology class we found time to play hard as well as work hard. We took a day off the water and toured the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. We learned about how they take turtles in, provide treatment and homes for them, and how they release the turtles back to the wild.  After the tour, we headed to Key West to show the class members the Key West aquarium, historic restaurants, and even stopped at Margaritaville for dinner. At sunset, we made our way to Mallory Square to watch street performers, a Key West tradition.

We wrapped up the Marine Ecology course by celebrating with another Keys tradition, the Full Moon Party at Morada Bay. Great food, music and dancers filled the evening followed by fireworks. At the end of June, the Marine Ecology course traveled back to Clemson with Dr. Childress. I stayed behind with two undergrad assistants, Brandt and Sarah, to conduct my own research.

This summer marked the second field season for a new project in the Childress Lab. We are observing parrotfish grazing behavior to study their impacts on coral species in the Florida Keys. We started the month of July off by conducting surveys of patch reefs to collect data on parrotfish abundance, parrotfish behavior, and substrate composition. Each reef was swarming with colorful reef fish, barracuda, turtles, and even sharks. Brandt and even saw a pod of dolphins swim past. Every day we got in the water, we never knew what we would see.

Just like the Marine Ecology class, not every day was all work. We headed to Key West for a day of fun diving, sightseeing and shopping! We also took a day to visit The Theatre of the Sea to watch the dolphin and sea lion shows.

In July, Dr. Childress came back to the Keys to help us install cages on the reef. These cages will allow us to monitor the impacts of parrotfish grazing on specific coral fragments that we transplanted. They will also allow us to monitor the impacts of macroalgae competition on coral growth. Every day we loaded the boat down with cages, diving equipment, and hammers to install the cages. Dr. Childress hammered in four rebar stakes for each cage and I affixed the coral fragments to the reef. Brandt and Sarah, an extremely helpful part of our team, came behind to install the cages made of vexar mesh and PVC pipe to the rebar. We photographed the corals once they were installed in the cages to monitor the condition of each fragment. It is our hope to visit the cages in October to collect additional data.

 

The summer was an incredibly productive field season and I owe it to the many assistants that helped. The members of the Childress lab and Marine Ecology course were an incredible asset in the field helping to collect algae, build cages, swim cages to divers, install the cages, and many other tasks.  We look forward to returning back to the Keys in October.