Whale, the end has come.... Sarah Sullivan

The end has come. These five weeks went by way too fast, and although I’m so happy to be home with my family, I miss my friends and all the places we got to experience. UWF was a great end to the 5 weeks, and learning about the watersheds that make up that area, it gives a first hand look at just how connected we really are to the waters we rely on. We started at the head waters in the more urban Pensacola area and traveled down to where they empty into Bayou Texar, collecting water samples for chlorophyll a, nitrates, microplastics, and general water quality for the areas. Day two was a visit to the EPA field site where we got to tour their facilities and got to hear about some of the projects and research their doing. I never knew the EPA was involved in so many different areas of marine science until that tour! Another awesome site we visited was Navel Live Oaks on Santa Rosa Sound. The history behind the protected area is amazing, the trees were used to build the USS Constitution. While we were there we also did some sea grass transect surveys, and assisted with a grad students pour survey samples and collected water below the sediment. This sounds easier than it is… Once back at the lab we took all of collected microplastic samples from around the state and began draining them for analyzing. My sample was from Vilano Beach, and was a rather sandy sample. At first glance I was beginning to think I had a sample with no microplastic (which wasn’t a bad thing!), but once I found my first microbead, the count began. I counted approximately 8 microbeads, and a few microfragmented pieces, and microfibers. It was crazy in such a small sample, there could be so many tiny pieces of plastic. Hopefully the more awareness that is brought to this global problem, the more we will begin to tackle it at the source and as a society, break our relationship with single use plastics as a start. This week also meant preparing for our final presentations, and my group was given chlorophyll a and nitrates to present on. We had some great data on chlorophyll a from all around the state, nitrate levels were only examined in Pensacola. A few long nights, and early mornings and we were rushing to the building to present! We made it with minutes to spare, and gave what I would say, was a decent presentation. That was the end of the trip, and afterwards everyone parted ways and went on separate paths.

This trip was eye opening in so many ways. I thought I knew my state and all of its wonders, but I haven’t even scratched surface. But, what stuck out to me the most, was at every place, whether below the waters in a coral reef, or on a mangrove island, a rocky beach inlet, or even just a frequented beach, the human impact was there, not just subtly, but profoundly. The trash was everywhere, and in some cases wasn’t even the worst part. Being able to see how nitrates drain straight into a watershed and accumulate along the way was mind blowing. It only confirmed that I really need to get more involved with my local government and as the saying goes, “think globally, act locally.” Thank you to all of the amazing professors along this journey for your endless wisdom and support, it was invaluable. I hope to apply all this endless knowledge to a future in marine science and change the way we look at our planet. Until next time…

UWF-Chris Kurtz

So after 1,273 miles, long sweaty days, and sleepless nights we've made it to the last stop. For our last week we arrived to our typical weather we've experienced the past month, a nice thunderstorm! We would start our week off by checking out the Pensacola water shed and taking copious amounts of water quality samples.
Monday we started off taking water samples in a highly urbanized area throughout different locations of Carpenters Creek. This little creek system ran right behind many of the business that make up the city surrounding UWF. After Carpenters Creek we then headed to Bayou Texar and took samples there which was surrounded by a suburban neighborhood. After the sampling we were able to take a tour of the Gulf Ecology Division of the EPA. I found this to be one of the highlights of the week. We took a tour with Alex and it showed me how many opportunities are really out there as long as you apply yourself. Then to top of this day we finished with a shrimp boil hosted by Dr. Caffrey that was DELICIOUS!
Tuesday the weather struck again and instead of heading out in our kayaks it was another day on foot taking water quality samples. The only difference was instead of taking samples from a highly urbanized area, we took samples from Indian Bayou. This location was a much more rural area. After taking samples at what seemed like every puddle we encountered we headed back to the lab to analyze our findings. This is also when our groups were informed what we would have to give a presentation on. My group was selected to present on micro plastics. So after drying and filtering our samples we spent the next two days looking for microscopic pieces of plastic.
Thursday we went out to the beach and attempted to find some nesting shore birds to which we had no luck in. We then went through different methods of tracking such as telemetry. We had a version of hide and go seek where we had to find the receivers using their equipment. I can tell you it was not as easy as it looked especially when everyone in your group wants to head in completely different directions. After that was wrapped up we had time to work on our presentation before our final day on Friday. Thanks to my amazing group our presentation went rather smooth. I am lucky to have spent the past five weeks with 15 outgoing, caring, and intelligent people. I am very thankful that I was able to learn something from each and every one of them and I hope our paths cross again in our future career and endeavors.

Week 5: The End of an Era

UWF and Wrapping Up

What a nice last minute touch

This week was filled with a whole lot of "where the heck am I?" moments. Namely when we pulled up to a ditch on the side of the road and were told we were taking water samples. As incredibly weird as I found it, it really highlighted just what a difference sediment, location, and water quality make. I'm not going to lie, a lot of this week was a blur, lots of driving and water samples but with such diverse habitats. Of course snorkeling in the seagrass was probably my favourite, even though that technically wasn't a part of what we were doing out there. It was nice to see a relatively pristine bed that was surrounded by development. Getting to go to the EPA was also an amazing opportunity since I'm kinda interested in policy and things of that nature. I will say though that having to present something in front of every professor I looked up to that we made in a night fueled by caffeine and panic was not a great experience. It came out better than expected, but I want to showcase my actual research and presentation skills and I did not feel like I did any of that justice.

What you can't see if both of us shivering
at this exact moment

Felt pretty proud at being able to
name the species

I'm still unsure about how to spell secchi disk
Sechi? Secki?

Overall this trip gave me lots of direction in what I want to do in life, and simultaneously none at all. The love that I harbour for the environment just shot through the roof even though I thought it was at capacity. I want to do everything at once (except open ocean research cruises, please God). It did however increase the drive I have for wanting to share the knowledge and passion I have with others, you can't save the planet if no one cares.

Dang again with the hand angling and
graphs, such a pro move

When this trip began I really wasn't sure how I would feel about it ending. And I gotta say, I'm way more confused that I ever thought I would be. I'm exhausted, slightly sunburned and not at all tanned, and broke as can be, and yet I would do it all over again. I have learned so many things these past weeks, not only science wise, but personal wise. I expected the sand, the sun, the taxonomy, but didn't expect the people. I live with an English major, so meeting all these science nerds was incredible and I could probably write a paragraph for each one but that's an awful lot of typing. Either way, I feel like a brand new person and I'm happier than I ever would've imagined having found my people. My vibe attracted my tribe and I'm thankful for each and everyone of them and the opportunities that lie ahead of all of us.

Thank you to every single person who made this possible. I kinda hate that I'm getting almost emotional making this post, but this trip was truly a turning point in my life that I won't forget. So thank you again for everything.

-Shannon Brauer

I love all of y'all, even if I refuse to hug people. Stay awesome

Week 5 at UWF - Hannah Schwaiger

This week was our last week of the FIO Marine Field Studies course. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, and it was sort of bitter sweet that the last week was back home for me at UWF. For the UWF week, we focused mostly on water quality in the Pensacola water shed. We looked at Indian Bayou, Carpenter Creek, and Bayou Texar, taking water samples from each to look at back in the lab and making note of any vegetation and wildlife in the areas.

Monday, we started by observing the headwaters that led into Indian Bayou toward the Milton area and worked our way south to Pensacola Beach in order to get an idea of how water travels from inland areas toward the Gulf of Mexico in our area. Everyone got a chance to take water quality samples and record data along the way, which was good practice for all of us before the course ended. We observed many factors that changed throughout the system as we traveled south, from vegetation to sediment composition.

Pitcher plants we observed on Monday toward the headwaters that lead into the Pensacola watershed

Tuesday, we monitored seagrass beds in the Santa Rosa Sound and learned how ground water discharge affects seawater. It was really fun looking at transects of seagrass in the area and learning how to take pore water samples. We also learned a little bit about the geology involved in tracking pore water through certain chemicals that are found in it, which was super interesting.

Wednesday, we stopped at Pensacola beach to learn about some of the methods of tracking shorebird nesting and visited the Pensacola EPA lab to learn about their research taking place currently. I haven’t been very good with spotting or IDing birds in the past, so this was actually a pretty interesting day for me because it was out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed learning the basics of how to track a bird using a tracking tag and how difficult it is to spot eggs on the beach or bands on the leg of a little shorebird. The EPA lab was also a blast – we learned about so many projects, from effects of excess chemicals in the water on amphibians to effects of coral eating microplastics.

Left: Looking for fake shorebird eggs in the sand dunes

Center: Juvenile amphibian used in studies at the EPA lab

Right: Coral being used in studies at the EPA lab

Thursday was mostly lab work, and since we were the turbidity group, we filtered all of our samples for analysis. Once the samples were filtered, we dried them and weighed them to compare the turbidity of the water at various locations across the Pensacola watershed. We spent the rest of the day putting together a presentation for Friday.

Friday, we took our skills test and wrapped up the course with our water quality symposium. My group was composed of myself, Daniel, Micaiala, and Jessica, and we looked at turbidity of water samples taken from various sites around Florida. We found that the most turbid water was located in Jacksonville and the least turbid water was found in the Florida Keys from our samples.

It was rough having to say goodbye to so many amazing friends at once, but hopefully we’ll cross paths in the future. This course has opened up so many opportunities for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful for every single experience that I’ve gained from this experience. To those of you who help put this course together, I cannot thank you enough for everything I’ve experienced in the past five weeks.