All posts by Alessi

Another Day, Another Sunrise

5.21.2017

I woke up today at 5:30 for the second day in a row. Although the sunrise this morning wasn’t as great as yesterday, it was still worth forgoing a bit of sleep. After standing at the top of the observation deck for about half an hour, I took the best nap on the hammock before breakfast.

Sunrise over Middle Caye

For today’s diversity activity, we headed out to the back reef to collect samples of our taxonomic groups. While I couldn’t bring back any coral, I was still able to participate in the fun. I caught a Coco damsel fish in a conch shell and brought back a purple-tipped Caribbean giant anemone. I also dug up a piece of turtle grass (T. testudinum) and some black mangrove (A. germinans) roots to demonstrate to the class, which is a good introduction for my topic lecture tomorrow.

Turtle grass roots, part 1
Turtle grass leaf
Turtle grass roots, part 2

The absolute best find, however, was a baby Caribbean reef octopus that I lovingly named Squishy. It was so cool to watch Squishy swim through the bin changing color; it was also funny seeing him ink.

Squishy, the baby Caribbean reef octopus

The day ended with a poster presentation of the marine debris activity from yesterday and a short snorkel before dinner. The current was ripping, but we were able to bring back four more lionfish. Yay for conservation and ceviche!

Finding a Shell on an Island… Sounds Easy, Right?

5.20.2017

After a calm day yesterday, I decided to wake up for the sunrise in the morning which was beautiful. The sun was unobstructed by clouds and bathed the small island in orange light. After that, I just napped on a hammock until breakfast time.

Sunrise over Middle Caye

Captain Buck said the wind was too strong to go out on the boat today, so we had lectures and then took a path through the mangroves to the back reef for a study on Christmas tree worms. The current was strong, making it extremely difficult to collect data while simultaneously trying to keep myself from bashing into the reef. On the bright side, I got to see all three species of mangroves in Belize: red mangrove (R. mangle), black mangrove (A. germinans), and white mangrove (L. racemosa). Javi, one of the marine officers, even showed me the salt gland adaptation present on the leaves of the white mangrove.

Salt glands (two black dots on stem) of a leaf from a white mangrove

In the afternoon, the class split up to do trash collection around Middle Caye. I was surprised at the sheer amount of litter we found on such an isolated place like Glover’s. The saddest thing was seeing Trash Crab, a hermit crab, using a piece of plastic as a shell. I tried to find him a real shell on the island (which you would think would be like looking for a drop of water in the ocean), but couldn’t find one.

Trash Crab in his plastic “shell”

The day ended with fresh coconut water and volleyball, then free time to swing on a hammock and sit at the edge of the dock conversing. Just like yesterday, today has been another day of relaxation and I feel energized and ready for hopefully another sunrise tomorrow morning.

Fan Coral Fanatic

5.19.2017

Today was another day of assessing reef health and collecting urchins, but this time in a non-protected area of reef.

Sarah T. holding our quadrat over a sea fan (G. ventalina)

The first thing that struck me about the reef was the abundance of sea grass, specifically turtle grass (T. testudinum), as well as algae. However, there were still many beautiful sections of reef that were packed with soft corals!

Non-protected reef in Glover’s Atol
Sea plume (P. elisabethae)
Swollen-knob candelabra (E. mammosa)

The predominant soft coral I saw while snorkeling through the reef was the common sea fan (G. ventalia). I noted a few interesting observations regarding these sea fans. I saw that a good number of them had white spots indicating that part of the coral had died, as well as some whose holdfasts had become unattached from the reef framework, causing them to fall down. I also saw a couple of animals feeding on the sea fans, including a flamingo tongue snail and (surprisingly to me) a surgeonfish of some sort.

Sea fan with dead areas and unattached holdfast
Flamingo tongue snail on a sea fan

Finding sea urchins to collect was significantly harder on this patch of reef, but I felt as though there were more large fish like angelfish, tang, and snapper swimming through. I also saw a huge porcupine fish and a nurse shark in some crevices of the reef.

Me holding a long-spined sea urchin

After returning to Glover’s, the afternoon was quite relaxing. As a class, we analyzed the data we collected in the past two days then made a poster presentation of our results and findings. I played a game of soccer (my team won!) before dinner, and had lecture for a couple hours. I even had time after class to swing on the hammocks and talk to Dale and John, two researchers here at Glover’s. All in all, today has been a nice, relaxing change of pace. So much so that I think I’ll have enough energy to wake up early and see the sunrise from the observation deck tomorrow.

The Quad(rat) Pack

5.18.2017

I finally got to use my quadrat today on land and in water. We started the day looking at crab density on Middle Caye and then snorkeled through the seagrass beds surrounding the island to determine the diversity of life in that particular ecosystem. Success was limited. I saw zero crabs or crab holes in my sampling area on land, and I only saw a couple of small snails and one anemone in my sampling area in the water. On the bright side, I got to closely analyze the seagrass bed which is one of my taxonomic groups. I noticed a lot of juvenile snapper and other small fish roaming around the sea bed, which is indicative of the ecosystem’s importance as a nursery.

Sun anemone in seagrass bed

The best part of the day was by far the patch reef – I’m pretty sure I died and came back to life in soft coral heaven. Although I didn’t bring my clipboard and identification sheet with me into the water, I was able to recognize a variety of groups including sea fans (G. ventalina), sea plumes (Pseudopterogorgia spp.), and sea rods (Plexaura spp.). The reef was absolutely stunning and I found myself constantly looking around amazed while working with my quadrat.

Patch reef by Southwest Caye in Glover’s Atol
Sea rod (Plexaura sp.)

While on the reef, we were also tasked with collected sea urchins to bring back to the wet lab for further data collection. One of the urchins I was able to find and successfully retrieve was a beautifully patterned pencil urchin. I also saw a long-spined urchin but got a bit too excited trying to pry it off the rock and ended up with a souvenir spine in my fingertip. The excitement didn’t end with a prick of my finger, though. I also got squirted by the aptly named Donkey Dung sea cucumber.

Me holding a Donkey Dung sea cucumber

The day ended late with a guest lecture by Alex Tewfik of the Wildlife Conservation Society, two 15 minute taxon briefings on sponges and soft corals (the former given by yours truly), and another 30 minute topic lecture on microbes. All in all, it’s been a really productive day but I’m most definitely ready to head to bed.

I Don’t Mind the Atol At All

5.17.2017

Today has been another long day in Belize, but I have no complaints. Kenneth, the manager at Glover’s Reef, called this “paradise” and I couldn’t agree more. Middle Caye definitely could make for a good stock photo.

Home of Glover’s Reef manager, Kenneth

I’m also happy to report that it has been another great day for my taxa! On the boat ride to Glover’s, we passed a bunch of islands of red mangroves (R. mangle) with their characteristic stilt roots extending out above the water. I also spotted some smaller ones on the edge of Middle Caye which are growing strong.

Red mangrove propagules off the shore of Glover’s Reef

The shallow waters leading to and surrounding the dock at Glover’s are seagrass beds consisting of the thin blades of manatee grass and the wide blades of turtle grass. While I did see a huge green turtle in the open ocean on the way to Glover’s, I didn’t see one in the turtle seagrass. No need to be sad, though, because I saw some other really cool organisms like barracudas, schools of snapper, some conch, a Southern stingray, and a juvenile nurse shark.

Turtle seagrass (T. testudinum) bed

The patch reef we swam out to was a complete sensory overload with abundant coral cover and fish darting to and fro. My main focus was trying to find all of the items on the scavenger hunt list, but in the process I was able to identify the unmistakable corky sea finger (B. asbestinum) and the common sea fan (G. ventalina). I also saw examples of sea rods (Plexaura spp.) and sea plumes (Pseudopterogorgia spp.).

Patch reef with the common sea fan in the forefront

After a couple of hours of snorkeling, we got out of the water only to look at more corals (because you can never see too many, am I right?). At first glance, the “coral graveyard” appears to be just a pile of rubble, but upon closer observation you can see that it is actually a collection of the calcium carbonate skeletons of stony corals. I learned how to identify some of the main reef-building coral species, and even found a token dried sea fan as well as some unidentified ants!

Dried common sea fan I found in the coral graveyard

Later in the evening, a spectacular sunset fell over the water while I ate too much guava jam and cake for dessert. The day concluded with some entertaining lectures from Jordan on hard corals and Mikey on echinoderms, as well as an arts and crafts quadrat making session.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store but for now I’ll just revel in the little victory of having warm water to shower in tonight. 🙂

Warm (Make that *Hot) Welcome from My Taxonomic Group

5.16.2017

Today started bright and early at 4:00 am to catch a flight from Miami to Houston without much of a break since. Needless to say, the lack of sleep and full day of traveling has left me completely exhausted. That’s why I am excited to report that I get to sleep in until 5:30 am tomorrow when breakfast starts! Note the hint of sarcasm?

All jokes aside, today has been really incredible. I am usually a proponent of aisle seating on planes, but I decided to take the window seat and I’m glad I did. I got a beautiful bird’s eye view of Belize and all the tree canopies that blanket its terrain.

After landing, we swiftly made it through customs and our driver met us outside to take us to the Tropical Education Center (TEC) where we are staying for the night. On the way, we stopped at a small store where I bought some snacks (I’m super excited that they had mariquitas, aka plantain chips) and much needed shampoo and conditioner. I do not need to come out of this trip sporting dreadlocks.

Spotting and identifying species of my taxonomic group has been quite challenging today as you can see from the picture below.

“Leaf Cutter Ants Crossing” sign at TEC

It was really neat that within minutes, I was able to come across members of a key species of my taxonomic group, leaf cutter ants (A. cephalotes),  doing what they do best –  foraging for leaves to take to the fungi in their nest. It was also nice that the type of ant was pointed out and identified for me. Can that be the case at Las Cuevas too, please?

Leafcutter ants (A. cephalotes) carrying leaves

Another key find while walking to dinner was a juvenile green iguana up in the branches of a tree alongside the gravel pathway. I hope that all these sightings in such a short amount of time are an indication of the diversity I will get to see in the rainforest part of the course.

Green iguana hungrily eyeing some leaves

For now, I am extremely excited to be making the boat ride to Glover’s Reef tomorrow. Time to rest up for an early wake up call and another busy (but hopefully incredible) day in Belize!

 

T-1 Day From Crossing Belize Off My Travel Bucket List

This morning, I went out fishing on my boat in Miami and it suddenly hit me that the next boat I’ll be on will be headed for Glover’s Reef Research Station. It’s crazy how fast these past two weeks have gone but I am so excited to finally visit Belize. It was on my list of the top two destinations for my high school graduation trip, but I ultimately visited Costa Rica. Now I’ll finally get to go.

These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of catching up with family and friends, and ultimately procrastinating on my assignments for this course. As deadlines approached, I mustered the motivation to read the textbook, make sense of jargon in about 10 different research papers on mangroves, cringe my way through magnified photographs of ants, and put together three presentations.

Speaking of my presentations, I am kind of nervous to give them. My public speaking skills aren’t too great but I’m hoping that all the preparation I’ve done will carry me through my awkwardness.

Ultimately, the presentations are just a fraction of the course and I absolutely cannot wait to get out into the field. I hope I get to learn more about two ecosystems that have fascinated me: coral reefs and rainforests. Living in South Florida and being just a stone’s throw from the Bahamas has given me the opportunity to snorkel and scuba dive, awestruck at the beauty of reefs. And just the previous summer, as I briefly mentioned, I got to visit the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica which gave me my first immersive experience in a rainforest.

With this trip, I am hoping to see these two ecosystems through the lens of a researcher and gain some practical knowledge about them that I can carry with me when I go diving or on future vacations. I’m also interested to compare what I see in Belize to the reefs of home and the wet season in Costa Rica. If I’m going to be ready, I should probably go finish packing.

No way… next time I post I’ll be in Belize!

P.S. I’m also hoping to take some great pictures like the ones I got from Costa Rica for memories 🙂