I can't believe its over!
We spent our final week of the FIO course at the University of West Florida. This week we learned from Dr.Caffrey and Barbara Albrecht (who are a great tag team) the different aspects of the water shed in the Pensacola area. Through out the week we traveled to different parts of the bayou and compared water quality at each of the sites.
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| Class at a bridge overlooking Indian Bayou Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
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| Taking water quality with a YSI. Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
The class also had the chance of taking a tour at the EPA lab, where we got to talk to student contractors and researchers on how they go to where they are now. It was also really neat learning about all the different divisions within the EPA.
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| Alex showing the class the dive equipment room Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
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| Welcome sign at the EPA |
We also spent a day at the Naval live Oaks beach and conducted sea grass monitoring. We also had the opportunity to work with Dr.Schwartz graduate students who's projects are looking at submerge groundwater detection and impacts.
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| Dr.Caffrey explaining to us how to work the equipment to take water samples Photo Credit: Barbara Albrecht |
We also had a opportunity to work with a few of Dr.Darby graduate students as we worked to identify shore birds at Pensacola beach. Friday we had our group presentations. My group was tasked with presenting our data on Chlorophyll a levels around the state of Florida and Chlorophyll a and Nitrate levels in the Pensacola bay area's. Doing Chlorophyll and Nitrate lab analysis with my group members was fun, it was awesome seeing that some our samples definitely had nitrate in them! Our overall results supported our basic knowledge on Chlorophyll and Nitrates, that we would see more nitrates in the urban area versus rural and see higher chlorophyll concentrations in an open non shading system.
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| Nitrate samples! the really 2 purple samples are what we like to see! Photo Credit: Myself :) |
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| Group presentation! Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
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| Dr.Darby student Cody assisting Daniel Photo Credit: Barbara Albrecht |
It's crazy how fast these 5 weeks flew by, I feel like I only just left for this course. I'm really glad I took this class. It really exposed me to the many fields within marine/coastal biology. Taking this class also gave me great exposure to different types of research being conducted at other universities and field stations. I'm really happy I made a new set of life long friends and I can't wait to see what career paths everyone will be taking! I know for sure Shannon will not pick a career with boats - ha! I Here are some of my favorite photos from this class!
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| First day in the Field at UNF! Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
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| Last day of class, last group photo! Photo Credit: Kat Smyth |
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| Lina and I holding Delanie over to grab samples in the Keys Photo Credit: Amanda Schaaf |
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| World Ocean Day at USF St. Pete Photo Credit: I honestly can't remember :( |
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| Selfie with my moral support buddy Megan at Vester field station |
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| Sitting on fossilized coral Photo Credit: Hannah Schwaiger |
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| Most southern point of the United States! Photo Credit: Hannah Schwaiger |
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| Keys Marine Lab! Photo Credit:Hannah Schwaiger |
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| Cold and wet bouncing from snorkel site to snorkel site in the Keys Photo Credit: Sarah Sullivan |
- Special thank you to FIO for offering this class, the different universities and field stations for hosting us, Dr.Caffrey for encouraging me to take up this great opportunity and my family for financially supporting me!
Signing off,
Beija Gore
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