All posts by sz34

Belize Adventure Reflections: Wrap-Up

What an adventure. So many miles traveled, wisdom gained, and personal growth has taken place during these past two weeks. I can vividly recall everyone sitting outside KWG 100 that first morning, eagerly awaiting what was to come and the cleanest we ever were. I have learned so much since then, and in the past hours as I have struggled to figure out how to sum up everything I want to say about this experience, I have realized that it’s almost impossible to put it all into words without writing a novel or two, but I will do my best here.

We were fortunate enough to visit two of the most beautiful and biologically diverse ecosystems in the world during our time in Belize: the tropical rainforest and the coral reef. Though these two ecosystems appeared very different to me at first, a closer examination revealed that they share many similarities. From the many layers of the rainforest canopy and the abundance of leaf litter canvasing the rainforest floor to the shallow sea grass beds and the wide range of coral structures in the reef, both ecosystems contain countless diverse niches and microhabitats that have the capabilities for a myriad of organisms and species flourish.

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The coral reef
A glimpse up into the canopy of the Chiquibul Rainforest
A glimpse up into the canopy of the Chiquibul Rainforest

Along the same lines, the complexity and depth of both of these ecosystems are things that I feel I had an idea of before but didn’t truly grasp until I was totally immersed in them for the two weeks. For example, looking carefully at what appears to be a simple leaf-covered path in the forest can reveal several termites and beetle species under a log, a variety of arachnids skittering along the surface of the leaves, and snakes hidden just under them. Similarly, studying a mound of coral colonies might show Christmas tree worms burrowed into the polyps, sea urchins wedged into the crevices, and macroalgae growing in patches.

Experiencing it all firsthand really helped me understand how the numerous things living in both of those ecosystems are interconnected. Each species contributed something crucial to the ecosystem that they inhabited, and an environmental change that impacts one species undoubtedly impacts countless others as well. Learning about my two taxa played a role in this, with the beetles being important decomposers in the rainforest and the echinoderms being important prey and predators in the reef. Also interestingly and unexpectedly (for me at least) given the structural and organismal diversity present in these ecosystems, both of these ecosystems are fairly nutrient poor yet have managed to efficiently recycle nutrients to support their inhabitants.

In addition to the obvious species differences in these ecosystems, I noticed that the behaviors of the ‘dangerous’ species in each varied. While in the rainforest I was very wary of snakes and spiders, it turned out that most creatures would avoid you and we only saw one snake and few large mammals during our trip. On the other hand, the reefs were filled with things that simply hovered about unafraid of your presence (such as the jellyfish and lionfish).

The coral snake we saw during our night hike
The coral snake slinking around during the night hike
An upside-down jellyfish swimming around the mangroves
An upside-down jellyfish swimming around the mangroves

Throughout the course, I particularly enjoyed hearing from all of the guest lecturers and the constant exploration that occurred. I never felt bored, and everywhere I looked there was always something new and exciting to learn and see or someone with a unique perspective to talk to and learn from. If I had to choose a least favorite aspect of the course, it would probably be the amount of preparation that we had to do beforehand. Still, I can see how necessary and helpful all of it was.

I will no doubt remember how interlocked everything really is. Both within the ecosystems with the large trees and corals providing for the smaller species around them and outside of the ecosystems in our lives. As far removed as we might seem in our daily lives from either of those ecosystems, the things we do in our everyday lives leave a long lasting impact on the environment, as shown by the marine debris cleanup project that we did. As cliché as it sounds, this course also further reinforced the motto of hard work truly pays off. Hearing from a graduate student who spends hours sifting through photos from camera traps in the hopes of coming across a big cat snapshot about the simplicity of just remaining cheerful even when everything goes wrong is imprinted in my mind. Furthermore, I learned that working hard on your own is important, but it takes the efforts of many to manage the dynamics of conservation. Among the other lessons learned on this trip is that traipsing around in full body spandex dive skins is not actually as bad as it sounds, but putting it on is a struggle every time.

All in all, these past two weeks far exceeded my expectations. Not only did we have running water for the whole trip (well except for the time we were still in the states, ironically), but I also had countless opportunities to push past my comfort zones and see how incredible doing so could be. All of the sights and experiences were so much more beautiful than any textbook or online image could ever portray, and I am still in awe that I had the opportunity to witness it all.

Thanks for following along everyone; what an unbelizeably wonderful ride it’s been.

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Mangroves + Goodbyes

Hello everyone! Once again, the sunrise was unbelievably (or should I say unBelizably?) beautiful and the perfect way to begin our last day in Belize. We left Glover’s Reef early this morning and took a boat out to Carrie Bow Cay Marine Field Station. It was a cool place, but learning that global climate change could lead to rising water levels that could make the island disappear completely made me sad. During a quick tour of the quaint research facilities, I saw quite a few echinoderms that had been dried or preserved. Most notably, there were some slate pencil urchins (Eucidaris tribuloides) and a large red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa) along their balcony railings.

Carrie Boy Caye Marine Field Station, a Smithsonian Institution
Carrie Boy Caye Marine Field Station, a Smithsonian Institution

We then headed to Twin Cayes to snorkel among the mangroves in the channel that gives the islands their name. The waters here were really murky, with lots of loose sediment that was easily kicked up by our fins, so it was a little hard to see at times. However, I did identify several large bright orange cushioned stars (Oreaster reticulatus) lying in the sand near algae patches. It was fun to be able to hold them and feel the short knobby spines on their dorsal side. Too soon, our last snorkel in Belize was finished and we climbed back aboard the boat to ride to Princess Marina.

A bright orange cushioned star (Oreaster reticulatus)
A bright orange cushioned star (Oreaster reticulatus) found at the mangroves

Lunch at Calypso came to an end all too quickly, and then came time for us to say goodbye to our three wonderful marine safety officers who had assisted us every time we flipped our fins in the water (and with much more on land as a matter of fact). Sitting here now in this Southwest airlines plane and staring out the window at the green-blue ocean outside, it’s hard to imagine that more goodbyes to the amazing students and professors who I’ve spent the last two weeks with are rapidly approaching. A lot has happened these past couple weeks, and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend them with any other group of people. Check back in tomorrow for my final recap and reflection. 🙂

Sunrise + Lionfish + Tourist Tiki

Hi everyone! The sunrise was absolutely beautiful today. The 4:45 am wake-up was definitely worth seeing the sun peeking through the clouds on one side of the island and a perfect rainbow in the sky on the other. I’m going to try and watch it again tomorrow before we leave. 🙂

The rainbow  gently curving out of the clouds
The rainbow gently curving out of the clouds
A sensational sunrise
A sensational sunrise

This morning was spent in the back reef collecting as much biodiversity as we would find and analyzing the health of some corals that had been measured last year to see if the number of live colonies had increased. While we were at the back reef, some exciting things happened. I identified both some live red heart urchins (Meoma ventricosa) and their empty tests in the sand among the seagrass as well as a few more donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria mexicana). I also saw a chocolate chip sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus); all of these sea cucumbers were also in patches of sand between coral colonies. The other news I have to share from the patch reef was my sting from an anemone, which burned like fire for a while but now has reduced to a dull throb (tip from the locals: soak stings in vinegar).

What once housed a red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa)
What once housed a red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa)

After lunch, we dissected some lionfish to examine their stomach contents and watched one of our marine safety officers, Herbie, make ceviche out of it. We then took a boat to a tourist island with an adorable tiki hut on the water. All in all, it was a really great day.

A lionfish, captured for dissection and ceviche
A lionfish, captured for dissection and ceviche
Beautiful view from the dock
Beautiful view from the dock just outside the tiki hut

Marine Debris Cleanup + Night Snorkel

Happy Sunday everyone! We just got back from an exciting night snorkel out on the patch reef. It was exhilarating to see how different the patch reef looked at night compared to how it looked when we had gone out during the day. While we were there tonight, I identified a tiger tail sea cucumber (Holothuria thomasi) hidden under some large mound corals. Though only about a foot and a half of it was visible, I could tell there was more of its body going under the corals. I also identified a couple donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria mexicana) by the sandy areas near the bases of some large coral colonies and a red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa) buried among the sand.

A red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa) buried among the sand
A red heart urchin (Meoma ventricosa) buried among the sand

Going back to the beginning of our day, we spent the morning cleaning up marine debris along the windward side of Middle Caye and analyzing the types of debris that we found. Interestingly enough, we found very few plastic bags, lots of children’s toys, and equal trash bags full of Styrofoam and plastic (although plastic made up 50% of our collected debris by weight). Among the fourteen of us, we collected about 91 pounds of debris in an hour. That sounds like a lot, but there was still so much out there that we weren’t able to pick up.

Marine debris
Marine debris collected from the windward side of Middle Caye

It astounds me that the amount of debris that we collected had accumulated in a week (the people here at Glover’s do weekly clean-ups) and that so much of it travels here due to the Gulf of Honduras circulation patterns. With that said, I think we all came away from the experience with higher expectations for ourselves to try to do our part in terms of recycling and using more sustainable products. It was definitely an eye-opening experience and was especially interesting for me since I had just given my lecture on marine debris the night before. Anyway, that’s all for now everyone! I’m going to try to catch the sunrise tomorrow. 🙂

Snorkel Day + Sea Cucumbers

Hi everyone! What a day! This morning we learned about reef zonation and took a boat ride outside the calm waters of the reef crest and into the higher energy fore reef to explore the organisms (in particular the coral) outside the atoll. There I spied some small reef urchins (Echinometra viridis) buried in the crevices among the large coral. Amazingly, we also got to see a couple larger marine creatures out in the fore reef. We all watched in wonder as an enormous spotted eagle ray glided along the benthos and a nurse shark navigated its way through the coral.

A large spotted eagle ray spotted in the fore reef
A large spotted eagle ray spotted in the fore reef

Our afternoon time in the water was spent on the shallow back reef much closer to the island. This area was just as interesting as the fore reef to me, and I got to hold several donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria mexicana) that were about a foot long and on the sand among the sea grass on the edges of coral. The back reef was also neat because I got to swim alongside many schools of fish. While we were at the back reef, we also managed to spear some lionfish, an invasive species from the Indo-Pacific that consume many native species of fish, to study and make ceviche out of later on. I can’t wait to see how that will go! 🙂

The underside of a donkey dung sea cucumber (Holothuria mexicana) found in the back reef
The underside of a donkey dung sea cucumber (Holothuria mexicana) found in the back reef

Urchin Day + Snorkel Fun

Hi everyone! I saw so many urchins today!! Before I get into those, I’ll give a quick rundown of the day’s activities. Today consisted mainly of two projects: determining the percent coverage of live coral on the reef and collecting sea urchins. This morning we took a boat out to a patch reef in the lagoon and used transects and quadrats to count the number of live coral, recently dead coral, and macroalgae among other things to determine the health of the coral reef. Since sea urchins both help the coral by consuming the algae that live on them and harm the coral by boring into them, we also did a timed sea urchin collection to see how many urchins we could all catch and returned to the island to identify and measure them. In the afternoon, we repeated the morning’s activities outside of the lagoon.

Slate pencil urchins (Eucidaris tribuloides)
Slate pencil urchins (Eucidaris tribuloides)

Now on to the sea urchins!! In the lagoon alone, we collected over a hundred Echinometra viridis (a small brown/red urchin with spines that have a pale ring close to the body). We also found quite a few Eucidaris tribuloides (commonly known as slate pencil urchins, reddish brown body with blunt spines) and some Tripneustes ventricosus (an urchin with a black/dark purple body and short white spines) hiding in the coral crevices in the lagoon.

A long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum)
A long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum)

In the afternnon, we also collected some Diadema antillarum (a long-spined sea urchin whose spines easily penetrate skin) among the coral and a few Meoma ventricosa, both the live and dead versions (a flattened globe urchin with a reddish body and a five petal design on its back) buried in the sand along with the other species. It was interesting to me that we found the long-spined urchins and red heart urchins mainly outside of the lagoon, while inside we mainly were able to find the viridis species.

Several reef urchins (Echinometra viridis)
Several reef urchins (Echinometra viridis)

In other words, it was a very exciting day for me! I absolutely loved getting to find, hold, and work with the urchins more today. 🙂 I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings and what echinoderms I’ll spot tomorrow. Thanks for reading everybody!

Transects + First Echinoderm Spotting + Fossilized Coral

Hello everyone! Today was an exciting but tiring first full day at Glover’s Reef. We began the morning with a snorkeling scavenger hunt on the patch reefs nearby, looking for behaviors like antagonistic interactions as well as different kinds of organisms, followed by a transect activity on land to determine the abundance of crab holes in the area. After lunch, we went out to the reef for our second transect activity focusing on the abundance and density of different species of green algae.

Utilizing transects underwater
Utilizing transects underwater in a green algae project

While we were in the water, I got the chance to hold my first echinoderm (!!!!), a sea urchin. It was about the size of my palm, had a reddish brown body and pale cream colored spines that got slightly darker closer to its body, and was found among the seagrass beds by the dock. It was a West Indian Sea Egg (Tripneustes ventricosus). It felt kind of weird when I was holding it, with the mouth suctioning at my hand and the spines poking me ever so slightly, but it was really cool as well.

First echinoderm identification! A West Indian Sea Egg, (Tripneustes ventricosus)
First echinoderm identification! A West Indian Sea Egg, (Tripneustes ventricosus)

Later on, we visited an area covered with fossilized coral. It was fascinating to examine the (almost) perfectly preserved pieces and try to identify them. I learned a lot about the different kinds of polyps and ridges that a coral can have and I’m looking forward to going back out to the reefs to look for the live versions of all the corals we saw. That’s all for today everybody! Thanks for reading! 🙂

Pieces of fossilized coral
Pieces of fossilized coral

Boat Ride + First Snorkel at Glover’s Reef

Hi everyone! We finally made it to Glover’s Reef! This morning we woke up and got another chance to visit the zoo. We visited Charlie the Scarlet Macaw (who said hello to me!) and also saw some other animals that we didn’t get a chance to see last night such as a howler monkey. It was cool to see so many extraordinary animals that we had been so close to in the rainforest in such close proximity again.

Charlie the scarlet macaw from the Belize Zoo
Charlie the scarlet macaw from the Belize Zoo

After our quick zoo stop, we took a bus to the Princess Marina, had a quick lunch at Calypso restaurant at the pier, and then loaded a boat to head to Glover’s Reef. The scenery along the boat ride was absolutely glorious; the water color varied from beautiful shades of turquoise to cerulean and the sea breeze was really refreshing after so many days in the rainforest. Soon after we got here, we all headed to the water for our first snorkel.

Princess Marina
Princess Marina

Being in the water here was exciting but also a little bit of a struggle for me because I had some trouble with my snorkel and getting it to attach to the correct side, so I was not able to explore quite as long today. On that note, my taxa here is echinoderms (sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and brittle stars), and I know where they’re supposed to be on the reef so expect to read more about them in the coming days as I get a chance to search the crevices in the coral and sand in more detail! I’ll be sure to share my sightings here. For now, I’ll share a couple fun facts about echinoderms instead: sea stars can push their stomachs outside of their body and externally digest their prey and  echinoderms can regenerate parts of their body if necessary. Isn’t that cool? 🙂

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Wonderful view of the reef from our room

The Trouble With Vans + Belize Zoo Night Tour

Hello everyone! This was an interesting day schedule wise. Though we were originally supposed to leave Las Cuevas at 7 am and head to the ATM cave, our van did not show up until around 11 am. Unfortunately, this meant that we would have to skip the cave tour, but we did get to hear a really neat talk by one of the workers at Las Cuevas and spend a little extra time being at one with the rainforest.

An agouti from the Belize zoo
An agouti from the Belize zoo

Once the van finally arrived, we ended up heading to a souvenir shop, small café, and supermarket to pass some time before traveling to the Tropical Education Center where we’re staying for the night. After a quick dinner, we got to go on a Night Tour of the Belize Zoo (!!!!) where we saw and interacted with some amazing animals. We got to touch a black jaguar’s paw, watch a spotted jaguar do somersaults and climb a platform, see ocelots, margays, a puma, and feed carrots to a tapir (the national animal of Belize) among other things.

Lucky Boy, the black jaguar at the Belize Zoo
Lucky Boy, the black jaguar at the Belize Zoo

While we were roaming the zoo near the margay cage, I did spy a beetle that had landed on one of my classmates. It was a couple of centimeters long and brown, but other than that I did not get too close of a look at it because it quickly flew away so I am not sure what it was (probably a darkling beetle of some sort). Despite all of the travel adjustments that had to be made today, I would still call today a great day because of the wonderful zoo tour. After all, when else am I going to be able to touch a black jaguar’s paw and feed carrots to a tapir? 🙂

Feeding carrots to the national animal of Belize, the tapir
Feeding carrots to the national animal of Belize, the tapir

Camera Trap Pickup + Another Long Hike

Hi everyone! I have some cool news to share about our camera trap results (from the camera traps that we placed our first day here at Las Cuevas)! Captured on film were a couple brown jays, a curassow, a tapir, an agouti, and an ocelot! Though we weren’t able to find a definitive answer to our question of whether there was a difference in species’ composition and richness between man-made or natural sites in the Chiquibul, the fact that we got to see these fascinating species wandering in the same places where we spend our days is amazing.

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Speaking of neat species, I did get to see a couple new beetles today! During the afternoon portion of our trek, I spied a small chestnut brown beetle similar to a june bug (Phyllophaga spp). A large black/brown stag beetle (Lucanus capreolus) was also found flying around seemingly in a slightly distressed manner in the classroom tonight.

The Chiquibul Rainforest: a fascinating place full of undiscovered mysteries
The Chiquibul Rainforest: a fascinating place full of undiscovered mysteries

Sitting here after another 13 mile hike during our last day at Las Cuevas Research Station, it’s hard to believe that our five days here are already at an end. However, I am excited for tomorrow because we are heading to another neat cave as well as to the Belize Zoo! 🙂