Its over already? by Michelle Burklund

For the final week of the course, we headed to UWF in Pensacola.

Headwaters of Carpenter Creek Photo: Amanda Schaaf

Our week started with a trip around the local watershed. We travelled from the headwaters of Carpenter Creek all the way to where it empties into the bay. At each location, we took water quality measurements for later comparison. We reached the bay at Bayshore Park, where we had a picnic and discussed the changes in water quality throughout the creek system, from the clear waters of the headwaters to the murky waters that enter the bay, and the natural and man-made reasons for these changes.

EPA Lab Sign Photo: Amanda Schaaf

After lunch, headed over to the EPA Gulf Ecology Division for a tour. We got to see all of the research facilities and learned about job opportunities with the EPA. The tour was amazing and informative. Thank you to all the people who gave us this special opportunity.

Collecting Water Quality Photo: Amanda Schaaf

The next day, we headed out early in the morning to look around the Indian River Bayou. This is a more rural bayou that is less influenced by people. Again, we took water quality at every place we stopped and compared the different locations with the places we looked at the day before. 

Filtering the Microplastic Samples Photo: Amanda Schaaf

Around lunchtime, we headed back to the campus to work in the lab. Throughout this course, we have taken microplastics samples at every place we visited. Today, we analyzed them. This involved filtering the samples and looking at the filters under a microscope. We counted each of the microplastic bits on each filter and recorded what type they were. There are three types of microplastics: microbeads (small plastic spheres that are found in some cosmetics and toys), microfibers (strands found in synthetic clothing), and microfragments (plastic that has been worn down to microscopic size). We recorded how many of each type we found on the filter paper. Though I don’t like looking through microscopes, this was an interesting thing to see. I was startled and disturbed by the number of microplastic pieces that we found.

Seagrasses at Naval Live Oaks Photo: Barbara Albrecht

On Wednesday, we headed to the Naval Live Oaks seashore to survey seagrasses. We used the same techniques we had used during our week at Vester Marine Field Station to survey the seagrasses that were just offshore. Today, we weren’t the only researchers there. There were a group of researchers looking at the effects of groundwater inputs on the seagrass beds. There was a large seep of groundwater right near the seagrass bed and the researchers were looking at how it effects the growth and distribution of the seagrasses. We also collected pore water for a water quality analysis. Porewater is the water that seeps into the sediment. In this case, we collected it from the middle of the seagrass bed.

Preparing the Nitrate Samples for Analysis Photo: Barbara Albrecht

After eating lunch at the park shelters, we headed back to the lab to analyze our water samples for nitrate, chlorophyll, and suspended solids. When we were in the field, we had put 60 mL of water through a filter at each location we went to and collected the water in several vials. Back in the lab, we put this filter into a centrifuge tube and started soaking it in acetone. This would extract the chlorophyll for us to analyze. The water we collected was to be analyzed for nitrates, essential nutrients for plants. We put a solution in the samples that would turn it purple if nitrates were present. This reaction and the chlorophyll extraction both take 24 hours, so we would continue our lab analysis the next day.

Santa Rosa Beach Photo: Michelle Burklund

                Thursday morning, we headed out to Santa Rosa island to learn how shorebird surveys are done. We met up with a few shorebird researchers on the beach and learned how to use scopes and how to identify some common species of shorebirds. The researchers also had a fun activity set up for us. Shorebirds are often monitored using small radio tags that can be located using a signal finder. The researchers had hidden three of them along the dunes, and it was our task to find them. We split up into three groups, each looking for one of the tags. My group quickly located their tag, and we had a lot of fun doing so.

                Back in the lab that afternoon, we finished up our chlorophyll and nitrate analysis. We found the concentration of chlorophyll in our samples using a fluorometer, a device that measures the fluorescence of a sample. The nitrate samples were run through a spectrometer, which measures the absorbance of a sample to determine the concentration of nitrate. It was awesome to see some of the laboratory methods used to analyze water quality.

Our Presentation Photo: Amanda Schaaf

                All of this lab work was to get data for our activity on Friday: a group presentation analyzing various aspects of water quality around the state and within the Pensacola area. My group was tasked with looking at the differences in chlorophyll and nitrate levels. It was a tight schedule to get the presentation done, and we were working all the way up to the last minute, but I think our presentation went great. It was a great end to an amazing five weeks that I will never forget.

Special thanks to the Florida Institute of Oceanography for creating this amazing opportunity, and to all the institutions and professors that made this an experience I will never forget.

Michelle