Category Archives: 2019

Day 11: Anemones!

Today was the first day we got to ride the boat to a patch reef. We went to one reef in a marine protected area and one reef outside of a reef protected area to compare the live coral cover between them.

Later, we got to spend around an hour wading next to the island to collect any organisms we saw. From my taxon, we saw two Sun Anemones (Stichodactyla helianthus) and a few Giant Caribbean Sea Anemones (Condylactic Gigantea).

Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone and Damselfish

 

Sun Anemone found in seagrass

There were two Damselfish that were swimming within the Giant Sea Anemone which is a common occurrence in Sea Anemones. Fish, shrimp, and crab sometimes live in association with this species by providing nutrients and protection for the anemone in return for protection from predators.

28/05/19 Bye Bye Belize!

Today’s blog will be relatively brief as I have spent the whole day unconscious (sleeping—sleeping on the boat, sleeping in the van, sleeping on the airplane). We woke up at 5:00am just in time to watch the sun rise over the ocean. It was a beautiful way to end our time at Glover’s Reef—then we jetted off the island in a boat to escape the bugs once and for all.

The boat ride was relatively smoother returning to the mainland as we were not fighting the current, but there were still some rough patches that woke me up from my nap. Dolphins were spotted at some point?, but I missed them unfortunately. After a short van ride, we were at the Belize Airport, ready to head home. I bought some Belizean hot sauce for my friends and family. On the plane ride home, Aquaman was playing, and I’m pretty sure that (in that one scene where kid Aquaman is at the aquarium and controls a shark) there’s a Nassau grouper in the background—so exciting to see my taxon! Finally, in Houston, we parted ways with part of the group, and, at Rice, we said our goodbyes to the whole group. I’m staying at my cousin’s place for one more night, then heading home to Memphis tomorrow. I hope everyone has safe travels wherever you may be going! Thank you for a fantastic trip!

Day 10: Exploring Sea Grass

We spent the day working on a small research project comparing the community ecology structure of a mixed sea grass and algae region to a mostly seagrass region. It was a very tiring and at times frustrating experience because of different problems with equipment and getting used to swimming to the bottom to collect data.

At the end of collecting data I got to snorkel around a patch reef where I saw so many different fish, and coral. There are so many different organisms in the reef that I have no idea how to identify even into a broad group like I could often do in the rainforest because it is such a different environment to be in.

Giant Sea Anemone in the seagrass

I spent most of the day in a seagrass bed, so I did not see any anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs. Kaela showed me a picture of what looked like a greenish or yellowish sea anemone which was probably a Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantea).

Day 9: First day snorkeling

After a three-hour boat ride from Belize City, we made it to Glover’s Reef Research Station. The ocean is beautiful and blue. There are hermit crabs all along the trails. It is definitely much hotter than the rainforest.

We spent the rest of the day getting used to snorkeling by practicing in shallow waters. It was windy which made it hard to control myself and my mask kept getting fogged up. We also had to go through mangroves to get to a different part of the island and got swarmed by mosquitoes which was miserable.

Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone

I did not see any anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs, but Bella saw one in the seagrass and took a picture for me. It was hard to see in the picture, but the shape looked just like the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantea), and it had green tentacles with swollen tips.

Day 8: Climbing Through a Cave

We left Las Cuevas Station this morning. It was sad to leave, but all our feet hurt so much that we felt it was time to go to the reef. Our first stop of the day was the ATM caves which is a Maya archaeological site. After swimming and climbing through the cave we made it to a larger chamber where there was pottery and human skeletons.

In the evening, we got a tour of the Belize Zoo at night which is a good time to come because many of the animals are active during the night. My family is not going to believe that I held a Boa Constrictor, but I did hold one for around ten seconds. I also got to see a Tapir, Jaguar, Barn Owls, Pigmy Owls, Morelet’s Crocodile, Ocelot, and many others.

Tapir at the Belize zoo

I didn’t see any Orthoptera because we mostly spent the day in a dark cave, traveling, and at the Belize Zoo. Tomorrow I will start looking for my reef taxon which is the non-reef building anthozoans which includes anemones, corallimorphs, and zoanthids!

Day 7 in Belize: Last day at Las Cuevas

Today was our last day at Las Cuevas Research Station and we had a full day. We collected all the camera traps that we set up the first day. Later in the evening, we looked through the camera trap photos and the most exciting photo was of a Tapir!

We also excavated a young and old leafcutter ant nest and saw the chamber where they keep their fungi garden in the older nest. The ants bring the leaves to the fungi for it to digest to a form that the ants can eat. It was a little scary when the army ants came out of the nest and started surrounding our boots because they can cut through pants and draw blood.

It was a great day for spotting Orthoptera. I saw at least two katydids. Both mimicked brown leaves to avoid predation. I think one of them was the Dead leaf katydid (Orophus tesselatus) because it has a very similar shape and pattern of the wings to the picture on my ID card.

Leaf mimic katydid

 

Dead leaf katydid (Orophus tesselatus)

The last Orthoptera I saw was dead and had its antennae and legs eaten off which makes it harder to identify. The hind wings were like a bright red fan which made me think it was the Giant Red Winged Grasshopper (Tropidacris cristata) and not a katydid. It was also very large and had bumps on the pronotum which are characteristics of this grasshopper.

Dead Giant Red Winged Grasshopper

 

Hind wings of dead grasshopper

Day 6: Ants and Cecropia trees

Today was the busiest day at Las Cuevas so far. In the morning, we compared the plant diversity of a region disturbed by a hurricane a few years ago to an undisturbed area.

In the afternoon, we collected data to see if young Cecropia trees that are not yet colonized by ants have tougher leaves than those that are colonized by ants to avoid herbivory. Cecropia and Azteca ants form a symbiotic relationship where the plant gives the ants a home and carbohydrate source, and the ants protects the Cecropia.

Giant Red Winged grasshopper nymphs.

The most interesting Orthoptera I saw was a large group of grasshopper nymphs in the morning. They looked like they were piled on top of each over and formed a ball when I first saw them. I think they were Giant red winged grasshopper nymphs (Tropidacris cristata) because of the yellow aposematic markings on one of them. I also saw a lot of crickets at night, one of which looked like the White-kneed king cricket (Penalva flavocalceata).

White-kneed king cricket

Day 9: Not ideal conditions, but coral!

Today we left the Tropical Research Center and took a 3 hour boat ride to Middle Caye on Glover’s Reef. As soon as we got here, after an orientation and lunch, we got in the water (around 2pm). The problem: The water was a bit choppy. We could tell on the boat ride over. One of the crew said he’d seen worse, but it got pretty rough after we passed the barrier reefs (a good demonstration of the sheltering effect of reefs!). The boat ride was actually kind of fun in this weather, but snorkeling, not so much. I ended up breathing in some seawater in an area where I couldn’t stand because we just jumped right in.  Fortunately we dove from the dock, so we weren’t far and one of the safety officers helped me and a few others get back to shore. In case you were wondering, and without too many details, breathing seawater is a bad idea. I was fine after recovering on shore for at least an hour.

Instead, we went to the shallow wade-able reef at the other side of the caye. We finally saw coral! Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides) was on several of the clumps of coral we tried to avoid stepping on. We also saw several brain coral, which I think were all symmetrical brain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa). There were several sea fans, though I’m not sure yet what kind. The most likely options are Venus sea fan (Gorgonia flabellum) or purple sea fan (Gorgonia ventalina). Most of these corals looked healthy. We tried not to kick sediment on top of the reef formation.

Shallow side of the island (Middle Caye)

We started a scavenger hunt which will be ongoing. Here, we found Christmas Tree Worms, Scleractinian (stony) corals, Gorgonian (soft corals), endosymbionts (corals) and several other items on the list.

Holy Smokes! (A look back at the past two weeks)

In both the rainforest and the reef we observed great amounts of biodiversity. Both these places are located in the tropics which receive more direct sunlight than more northern ecosystems. Having lots of available sunlight allows for more plants and therefore there is more energy available to species that eat plants which could be why we saw so many different levels of herbivores and carnivores. Wow, that’s some science right there.

In both places, trees formed a vital part of the ecosystems (canopy and mangroves) and in both species have developed adaptions to compete and live in close quarters. In both areas we also found endangered species and invasive species, which though the causes for each habitat being endangered differ, both stem back to humans (sigh).

I expected more structure to our research, but was pleasantly surprised when we were allowed to pursue topics that interested us.  My favorite parts of the course were mostly in the rainforest- finding tarantulas at night, going into the cave, and getting to see all sort of different beetles, butterflies, and other things we don’t see around Houston. I found on this trip that I do not enjoy underwater research, in particular counting strands of seagrass was a low point, but it was still a good chance to learn what marine biologists do.

The most poignant moment for me on this trip was the trash collection activity on the last day- I was blown away by how much we collected and how much remained.  Also in preparing for my presentation, I learned about seagrass and mangroves and how they are actually vital for reefs and land ecosystems. I also went into the trip with a generally negative opinion of ants, but Scott’s passion and fun facts converted me to the cult of the ant. In particular I thought the leaf cutter ants were cool as they have super complex social structures, architecture, and they have little ant highway which somehow manage to be less chaotic than Houston’s own during rush hour.

Species seen:

Amphibians:

Morelet’s Tree Frog, Mexican Tree Frog, Broad Headed Rain Frog, Campbell’s Rainforest Toad, Gulf Coast Toad

Crustaceans:

Orange-tipped hermit crab, green climbing gall crab, giant hermit crab, furcate spider crab, spiny lobster, miscellaneous shrimp, blue land crab, blue land hermit crab

May 16th – hundreds of ticks and a tarantula

Today was a long day of hiking for our team as we set up our 7 working camera traps along the trails near the research station to see what wildlife crosses the paths when we aren’t there. Though there were light showers in the afternoon, today was a fairly sunny and dry day. However, in the morning I did find a broad-headed rain frog under a log by where we deployed our first camera trap. Broad-headed rain frogs can be easily identified as they are often found in the leaf litter and have a distinctive side stripe that extends over its eyes, sort of like a bandits mask in old westerns. In the afternoon on our way up the Monkey Tail Trail, I caught a glimpse of a Mexican Tree Frog of a khaki coloration. Unfortunately, it was already high up the tree by the time I saw him. This was an abnormal siting as Mexican Tree Frogs are typically more active at night, though perhaps the rains brought him out.


Today was an exciting day for sitings from outside my taxon group too. We saw a group of spider monkeys before lunch and a bunch of us ate termites under Scott’s instruction. In the afternoon we got to observe first hand the mutualistic relationship between the Bull Thorn Acacia tree and their ant protectors plus we saw the fresh claw marks in the dirt on trail where a puma or jaguar had crossed. We also saw three scarlet macaws in the canopy and I even managed to capture a video of them as they swooped past.
Back at the station I found, no exaggeration, at least 100 ticks on me. I spent probably an hour tweezing them all out. Unclear how I got wrecked by ticks when everyone else just found a few, but tomorrow I’m going to use a LOT of bug spray.
After our lectures, it was dark, aka perfect conditions for tarantula hunting. We found a huge red-rumped tarantula in its hole and managed to coax it out, revealing the broken shells of beetles it had been eating. We also found a different arachnid, the Florida Bark scorpion in a sink, but if you are reading this, don’t worry mom, I didn’t get my hand close to either of them.