Today is the 3rd of June, as well as the first day of the anxiously awaited research projects. Over the last few days we have grouped together by similar interests and worked on formulating our research questions. Some of the groups traveled back to Snap Shot Reef, Snap Shot Shallows, and North Point, while we traveled to the south end of the island to take on an estuary known as Pigeon Creek. An estuary is an enclosure where a body of fresh water meets a body of salt water, creating a gradient of salinity values. This difference in salinity is the basis of our research project at Pigeon Creek as we are studying the variety of species that are present in areas of high salinity vs. areas of similar salinity to the ocean. We began by using a transect to quantify the number of different species of fish in a 20x2 meter area of mangrove roots and sea grass beds. Today we surveyed in an area of normal ocean salinity and found that many species of juvenile fish inhabit the roots of the mangrove in order to gain protection. Over the past two weeks as a class we have seen many species of adult fish, for example sergeant majors and parrotfish, so it was really exciting to learn to identify the juveniles of these species. On our next trip out, we plan to explore areas of hypersalinity within Pigeon Creek. Here the salinity reaches 45 parts per thousand, which is well above typical salinity, causing a reverse estuary to form.
While we were concentrated on fish today, other groups focused their efforts on collecting parrotfish or snail feces to compare the quality of sand grains, or examining the relationship between the presence of Christmas tree worms in relation to fire coral. It will be very interesting to see how these projects turn out when we finish them up in the fall as we return to Wittenberg.
For one of the first times on our trip the sun was nowhere to be seen, so the water was very cold. Everyone was more than eager to return the GRC to have a nice warm shower. A second birthday surprise occurred today as well during dinner as the entire dining hall sang happy birthday to Dani and myself. A delicious chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was made for us by the wonderful kitchen staff at the GRC. It was much appreciated and very thoughtful of our group to help celebrate our birthdays while being so far away from home.
Tonight in class, we learned about and how to identify many of the species of birds found on San Salvador. We related the adaptations of these species to resource partitioning which we learned about in a previous lecture. We will finish our night by studying for our second exam tomorrow evening. Wish us luck!
Taylor Hurl ’15 and Lauren Arona ‘16