Tag Archives: Echinoderms

De-bris-ing Glovers (Day 6)

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 6 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

We woke up to gloomy, grey skies with fierce winds, but that did not stop us from conquering the fore reef! Diving the fore reef was incredibly unique, it was unlike any of the shallow patch reefs we usually see. The water was a dark, royal blue, similar to the color of pen ink, and the waves were intense. Usually, the reefs are only a few feet below us, but the fore reef was around 40-50 ft below. Because of the depth, there was no color discrimination unless you swam really close to the reef. I saw lots of new sponge types, but the most interesting was the Giant Barrel Sponge. I saw it close to the “deep drop” towards the edge of the reef; it was on the much deeper side. Because the reef was so far below us, I didn’t see any echinoderms; however, I saw a sea turtle! It was too far away to identify, but from the shape of its bill and fins, I believe it was a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). It lacked the hawksbill pattern. The turtle was chilling under/ next to some coral, and it didn’t move even as we all approached it. I assume he was in the area because of the jellyfish swarm above us. Because the waves were so rough, we only stayed out four 20 minutes, and we swam through the jellyfish on our way back to the boat.

When we got back to glovers, I got to see some brown anoles (A. sangrei) because Dr. Correa’s son was catching them and letting us hold them. You can tell they are brown anoles because they are brown and have bright orange dewlaps (throat fans) that lack dots. I don’t know where he was catching them, but I assume they were crawling around the station.

After our much needed break, we made a research question to answer. We asked “How much of the trash that washes up on Glover’s reef can be disposed of on island, where is it located, and which area is the most efficient to clean?”

Our “trash” hypothesis was that the most debris would be located at the coral graveyard and that 50% would need to be taken off-island to dispose of. Our hypothesis really was trash because WE WERE COMPLETELY INCORRECT!!! After garbage collection and sorting, we found that 88% of trash could be disposed of on-island via burning, and we found that the mangroves behind the kitchen collect the most garbage by mass. Therefore, if we are going to do more beach cleanups at glovers, we should have volunteers focus on the areas near those mangroves.

While we were collecting the trash, Nate made an interesting find– an almost intact cow fish skeleton?!  I got to carry it back because everyone else thought it was gross. I mean, it is, but that wasn’t going to stop me! (Pictured below)

After listening to talks of Annelids, hydroids, ocean debris, and anemones, our group got to watch a hermit crab change shells! (Nate also found the shell while gathering trash, and he kindly gave it to the hermit crab). We all got very emotional, and it was the perfect way to end this reef day.

Till Tomorrow! P.s. I’m not sure why this blog didn’t get published on the day I wrote it, but it’s up now that we have better wifi, sorry!!!

QOTD: “I can’t explain it but our group gets really emotional over hermit crabs”

“Ugh, I lost my brainblast”

The Turtle we saw on the reef; as you can see, it is very far away. Potentially a Caretta caretta (Loggerhead)
The land hermit crab we saw change shells. The shell it is wearing is the one that Nate picked out!
The Cowfish skeleton Nate found!
Our Poster!!!
The 64kg of trash we collected from 3 different sites on Middle Key

I got really scared by an eel (Day 5)

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 5 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

DISCLAIMER: I just wrote this whole blog, and then the draft didn’t save, so here is an abridged version of what got deleted since we wake up at 6am and its almost 11 and I’m really tired 🙂

Today we woke up and continued collecting data to answer our research question. We did two snorkels on MPA reefs ( we called them MPA reefs 1 and 2, boring I know). These reefs had more cover than the non-mpa protected areas; however, they also had a lot of algae growth. Because these reefs were deeper and the tide was calmer, it was easier to measure the % live and dead coral. We also were way more successful at catching urchins. We caught about 113 total with the majority being E. viridis. However, we also saw 3 pencil slate urchins E. tribuloides, a west indian sea egg Tripneustes ventricosus (We had a bond. He latched onto me with his tube feet and held on for dear life, so I named him Fuzzy), and a super special live Clypeaster rosaceus sea biscuit. (We usually find them dead so we got very excited).  Lastly, but not least the Marine sea offcicers found some brittle stars for me since I can’t ever find them. We saw a common spiny brittle star Ophicoma echinata and a O. cinera, a banded brittle star. They were both found under rocks and coral. We only found one Diadema antillarium today and he was under some coral. We did see a nice eel on this reef (pictured below) he didn’t scare me. I decided to call him Floyd.

After the boat drove us back, we watched 3 presentations on crustaceans, green algae, and climate change’s effects on coral. Then we enjoyed some relaxation before out next dive.

Our final dive of the day was at the seagrass beds and barrier reef behind our dorms. I noticed big differences between the two areas even though they were right next to each other! The seagrass beds were extremely warmer with ample algae and a greenish water color. Meanwhile, the barrier reef was freezing cold with a pretty aqua color. It had dead coral piled up the the surface,  but sea urchins and other small creatures made their homes in the rubble. I didn’t see any echinoderms in the seagrass beds, but we saw a an eel, a stingray, 3 lionfish, 3 lobster, a white anemone, spaghetti worms (which are very fun to mess with), and a pufferfish. The pufferish and eel scared the living daylight out of me because I found them by being directly above them (which made them very upset). The eel snapped at me, but the pufferfish just stayed in place. It was scary… I named the scary eel Jade, and he has no picture.

We came back to watch 2 presentations: 1 by the coast guard and 1 by the island manager. I learned lots of interesting facts about how they keep the island “human-free.” But the most interesting fact to tell all of you is that I’m too short to join the Belizean coast guard. You have to be 5’3″ to apply as a girl and 5’5″ to apply as a guy!!!

Till tomorrow!

QOTD: “It’s commiting crabicide!” … “Did you just say crab-i-cide?”

“What does TBF mean?” (TBF, aka Tropical Field Biologists, aka what we have been called since our first meeting in March)

Banded Brittle Star O. cinera
Live Sea Biscuit Clypeaster rosaceus
The puffer that scared me terribly. I was chasing after a stingray, and next thing you know I’m in a pufferfish’s personal space
Floyd, the nice eel

Research? More like reef-search!!! (Day 4)

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 4 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we started our attempt to answer our new research questions: “ What is the correlation between percent live coral and the sea urchin population?” and “How does that correlation change between mpa and non mpa reefs?”

Our hypothesis are as follows:  we think that areas with moderate amounts of sea urchins will have the highest percentage of live reefs. Additionally, we think that the unprotected reefs  will have an abundance of sea urchins and therefore have less live coral. We think this because unprotected reefs are susceptible to overfishing, which reduces the amount of creatures that prey on sea urchins.

Our methods were to lay out 50ft of transect tape in random, radial direction s from one central point. Then, at every 5 meters we would count the squares of live coral and dead coral using a quadrat. Our final part, would be collecting as many sea urchins as possible in 10 minutes, which we would identify later.

This method sounds easy in practice, but let me tell you. Counting. The. Corals. Was. Hellish. Don’t try to tell me,  “Corals are delicate, don’t touch them because they’ll get hurt.” * I now know the truth. They will cut you, burn you, and make you lose your quadrat to the current. If I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit, I would be covered in the wrath of a fire coral right now. So, yeah, getting the data from the West patch reef was very difficult, but collecting the sea urchins wasn’t easy either. Most of the time, the sea urchins were 1cm-2inches burrowed in the remains of hard corals (specifically the ones with a little algae overgrowth). They were hard to see at first, but after awhile they were easy to find. I saw many types, and as the echinoderms expert, I knew exactly what they were (mostly). The most common find was a Common reef urchin, Echinometra viridis, identifiable by the dark body, orange spikes, and small white rings on their spines. We saw a few reef burrowing urchins, Echinometra lucunter, and 2 pencil slate urchins, Eucidaris tribuloides. We found so many urchins that I could hardly count the ones in the wild, but we brought back 20 to classify.  My three favorite finds of this trip were a Flamingo tongue snail, a lobster trio(featured picture), and the donkey dung sea cucumber (Holothuria mexicana). I found the sea cucumber under a coral, and I got to hold him, he was very squishy and started molding to the shape of my hands. I couldn’t identify any particular behavior that he was doing, but maybe he just needed a nap.

Our other daily activity was making a taxa showcase! We gathered lots of creatures from the seagrass beds behind the kitchen. We found one Spiny Sea Urchin, Diadema antillarum, and Kaiu graciously scooped it up for me to talk about. He hardly stole the show though because we found so many types of green algae, a lobster, and two mantis shrimp!

Oh, and did I mention that Prof. Solomon speared a lionfish? Looks like we might have ceviche tomorrow!

Till then!

QOTD: “You made the *dumb* graph, this is on you

The first mantis shrimp I’ve ever seen. Everytime I go to an aquarium they don’t have them, and they are supposed to be really hard to find. I finally accomplished my life goal (twice in one day!!!)
Me and the Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber, Holothuria mexicana
Black long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, somehow being carried in a tiny net
Some of the guides we used to identify the sea urchins. I made the one on the left!!!
My teacher speared a lionfish in front of me … I LOVE BIOLOGY

* please do not intentionally touch corals its a) illegal and b) bad for corals

The Best Place on Earth (Day 3)

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 3 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we started off with a new activity where we learned how to use the quadrats and transect tapes.  On the reefs, quadrats are used for making standardized measurements while fighting the wave currents. You can count them using  the individual squares or their cross-sections!!! We took on two tasks, one as a duo and one as a whole group, that challenged us to use quadrats and transect tapes to answer a scientific question.

As a pair, Maegan and I tried to measure the heights and widths of young palms (we called them coconut palms because they still grow out of coconuts) on the Glover’s island, but Dr. Correa told us to change it, so we ended up measuring the volumes of two random coconut palms. We used the transect tape as a tool to decrease the bias in our samples, and we used the qaudrats squares as a unit of measurement.

After this test-run, our entire group created a scientific question, hypothesis, and procedure for collecting data. Here are the details:

Our question was, “How does the density of the green algae Penicillium change with distance from the dock?” Our hypothesis was that the density decreased because “algae are light dependent and nutrient depended,” and we *assumed* that there was more light and nutrients towards the shore.  For our actual experiment, our pairs lined up horizontally at the doc, and then layed out 100ft of transect tape in a line straight ahead of us. Then, every 10 feet we counted the number of Penicillium in 1 quadrats range on either side of the transect tape. Our findings actually conflicted with our hypothesis because the distance with the highest Penicillium density was actually 80ft away! We concluded that our hypothesis may be wrong because 1) seagrass was outcompeteing the algae in shallower waters, 2) the waters by the shore might not be more nutrient rich or provide more light, and 3) we may have gotten better at finding the algae the more we practiced (therefore reporting more at deeper depths). However, we kinda ruled out #3 because Maegan and I did the experiment backwards, and even though we reported the algae from 100ft to 0 ft, our data aligned with the trend (we found 6 Penicillium at 80ft. which was our highest density). Another group also did a backwards collection and had similar data. To finish off this trial research, the professors made us present it just like I said it to you now!!! So, look below for pictures of our beautiful poster!

Then data collection dive was challenging in many ways. I found out how difficult data collection is because of the currents and carrying materials. Because of this, I ended up leaving my camera behind, so of course, the worst thing happened– 2 echinoderms showed up! First, Professor Correa brought me a Oreaster reticulatus more commonly known as a cushion sea star. I was not sure where she found him, but I assume it was in the sea grass where we were collecting data. I had a difficult time identifying this star because it had pillow-star depth, but the spines were the same color as the bodice and the legs lacked a prominent “fused” appearance. Most guides show pictures where their spines are lighter than the bodice color and their legs are very fused. Nevertheless, I got to hold him and feel his spiny tube feet prick my fingers. Because I didn’t have my camera, someone else took my photo, so hopefully I’ll be able to get the picture and upload it for the next blog!

Next, I saw a West Indian Sea Egg (Tripneustes ventricosus) just sitting in the sea grass, but Ruth, our marine safety guide, picked him up before I could. So, alas, I did not get to name him “Fluffy,” and I cannot cross this off of my goals list! Anyways, we got to see the interesting sea urchin suction mouths because he suctioned to us while we held him. Shortly after seeing him, messing around with plastic-bag jellyfish, and trying to grab upside-down jellyfish, we went inside for lunch.

For our last activity of the day, Dr. Correa brought us to “the best place on Earth” where we identified washed-up coral skeletons based on their coralite and polyp structures. It was a very informative talk, but I don’t think I can cover it all here. You’ll just have to visit the coral graveyard yourself with a coral guidebook! I did go a littttttllllleeeee conch crazy and collected every conch that had color in it (about 5 or so). I also found a walking stick!!!

Till tomorrow!

Quotes of the Day:

“This place is amazing!!! *points at coral* And this is Agaricia”

“Signing off in another language would be a very suburban mom thing to do, ‘like I learned a few new words today’ would be too ‘mom’ of me”

West Indian Sea Egg (sadly not named Fuzzy)
Tripneustes ventricosus
Our presentation poster with a quadrat heart <3
Labeling Coral from the coral graveyard
Fossilized Palm Roots from the coral graveyard. This one stumpted us at first; we knew it wasn’t a coral. All we could do was ask Prof. Solomon, “Is this a land thing?” We found out what it was by finding dead palm roots that looked very similar.

Getting to Glovers!!! (Day 1)

Hi all, it’s Faith here with Day 1 updates from our Belize trip!!!

Today, we spent such long time just trying to get here, so I’m a little worried about the intensity for the next few days, but I didn’t  sign up for this thinking it would be easy! Here is what happened:

The whole group made it on time and to the airport by 8:00, but not even 10 minutes in, we ran into our first problem– the professors hadn’t filled out the paperwork to bring their kids!

So, while we were reorganizing the class gear to be under 50lbs, the professors were rushing to get their kids on board. Don’t worry though, we all made it on the plane, and had time to grab panda express for breakfast.

After some seat and boarding pass complications, we made it to the Belize city airport, and went through an hours worth of customs! Then we temporarily lost Professor Solomon (which was kind of my fault because I didn’t follow him outside, but no one has to know).

After a brief stop at the supermarket to grab snacks,  we headed to the boat for a 4 hour boat ride. On the way there, Dr. Correa’s son was telling Maegan and I that he wanted to see rollercoaster-like waves once we passed the barrier reef. We got kinda confused, but he was right, and we saw huge waves!

Not much happened after the boat trip. We just got our rooms, ate some yummy dinner, went over the station’s basics, and admired lots and lots and lots of hermit crabs. Fun fact: on the way back from the shower a giant ghost crab ran into me.

Sadly there were no echinoderms today because we were on land, but I’ll let you know what we find tomorrow.

I saw one reptile, a common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus on the shower wall. He was cute and although patternless.

Quote of the day: “Don’t just write ‘Oh, I saw that dang tree again!’ I can confirm *laughs*  there are gonna be trees in the rainforest, thank goodness” -Dr. Solomon

The Common house Gecko on the shower wall (Hemidactylus frenatus)
One of many, many, many giant hermit crabs

I can’t Belize It’s Over!- Wrap-up Blog

 

Some of my favorite pictures:

Chiquibul Forest
Golver’s Reef Research Station
Sunset over Glover’s Reef

Outside of the fact that both the reef and the rainforest are two of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, another similarity is that they both exist in nutrient-poor areas and depend on effective nutrient cycling in order to thrive. Additionally, both ecosystems are nitrogen limited. One difference is that invasive species in the reef are much more destructive than in the rainforest. These two areas are likely so biologically diverse due to their effective nutrient cycling which allows for enough energy transfer to support an incredible amount of species abundance and richness.

My personal observations regarding the similarities and differences between both the reef and rainforest were that at both I was able to find my taxon relatively quickly; however, at the reef, it was much easier to identify them because I could get much closer. It seemed that I was also able to much more easily identify damage to the reef  (trash, etc.) than the rainforest. The rainforest seemed healthier.

This course greatly exceeded my expectations. For one, I didn’t think they we would see anywhere near the number of species we did, and I had no idea we would get to traverse through a place as amazing as the A.T.M. Cave. Also, the research stations were gorgeous and weren’t as unlivable as I thought they would be. My favorite part of the course was finding out that we had gotten a Tapir on camera trap, and my least favorite was getting seasick on the way back from the Forereef and feeling off for two days.

The most important things I learned in the course are that these ecosystems are in danger and that it is up to us to help them, that Belize is a country which truly cares for its natural resources and does everything it can to protect them, and I was surprised by both the immense amount of trash we found on the island we were staying on as well as the commonality of poaching in both the reef and rainforest. Overall, the trip was fantastic and I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon!!

Rainforest Taxa Seen: Keel-Billed Toucan, Plumbeous Kite, Vultures, Scarlet Macaw, Pauraque, Parrots, Social Flycatcher, Montezuma Oropendola, Spectacled Owl, Pygmy Owl, Barn Owl, Mottled Owl, Chachalaca, Curassow, and the Melodious Blackbird

Reef Taxa Seen: Reef Urchin, West Indian Sea Egg, Long-Spined Urchin, Brittle Stars, Red Heart Urchin, Slate Pencil Urchin, and the Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber

On the Road Again!- Day 15

Today we said goodbye to Belize and arrived back in Houston. Glover’s Reef is now a memory, as are our other experiences on our trip, but I’m sure we’ll all look back on them fondly. We had a long day today, and it all started when we met up at 5 a.m. We ate cinnamon rolls which the cooking staff had kindly prepared for us and then we hopped on a boat which took us back to Belize City. Once on land, we said goodbye to Herbi and Javier, two people I will definitely remember from our trip thanks to all they did for us.

Sunrise while leaving Glover’s

 

We then took a van to the airport where we made our way through customs and security and boarded a plane which thankfully didn’t seem to have any problems with its trays. We were then in the air and finally going back home. We landed, said goodbye to a few people who had connecting flights and then were on a bus back to Rice. Once there, we unloaded and everyone said their final goodbyes. We went in our separate directions and everyone headed home to catch up on some air conditioning, sleep, and probably take a much-needed shower.

We didn’t see any echinoderms today, and that’s probably a good thing because I don’t think any of them can fly.

It’s crazy to think that we’re already back home, but the trip was full of experiences I’ll never forget. We had to get comfortable being uncomfortable and we learned a ton in a mere two weeks. Although I’m happy I’ll be able to sleep with blankets again, I’ll definitely miss the people I met, the friends I made, and the experiences we shared. Thanks for everything Belize, see you soon!

Hello Clivus my New Friend!- Day 14

Today was our last full day in Belize (cue the sad violin music), but we definitely made the most of it. After breakfast, we jumped straight into a research project which involved picking up marine debris (trash) from all over the island. Our goal was to determine its composition. It was kind of depressing seeing the immense amount of trash that had accumulated on this small remote island, but I’m glad we were able to clean it up a little bit. Most of the trash we collected ended up being plastic (surprise!).

 

The trash we found

In the afternoon, we were able to perform a lionfish dissection! Scott, Herbi, and Javier had been hunting them at the reefs we visited since they are an invasive and harmful species. We used the fish they caught in our dissection. We determined sex and even looked at their stomach contents. One of the lionfish had a completely intact fish in its stomach! Afterward, Herbi turned the lionfish into ceviche. It was delicious.

The Lionfish ceviche

 

As we spent our entire day today on land, we, unfortunately, weren’t able to see any echinoderms. My dreams of finding sea stars and chocolate chip sea cucumbers never came true, but the echinoderms we did see were really interesting and my favorite was definitely the Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber.

I can’t believe we’re already leaving tomorrow. It feels like our two weeks here have flown by. We had a sendoff get together on the island’s dock tonight, and it was nice to get to just talk, look at the stars, and relax. I’m definitely going to miss all of the great food we’ve had as well as the incredible experiences. I’ll even miss my new friend Clivus (the composting toilet). This trip has really allowed me to appreciate the world’s biodiversity, and I can’t wait to talk about and share all that I’ve learned and experienced!

 

 

1 Urchin, 2 Urchin, Red Urchin, Blue Urchin!- Day 13

Guess what we got to do during our research project today. Did I hear COLLECT SEA URCHINS, because that’s exactly what we did! I was worried about even seeing echinoderms today, but then we had a whole research project centered around them! We visited two reefs, one inside and one outside the Marine Protected Area. We collected as many urchins as we could within 30 minutes, placed them into a bucket, measured and identified them, and then placed them back into the ocean.

A bucket of urchins we collected

 

We found a bunch of different species, including the Slate Pencil Urchin, a lot of Reef Urchins, the Red Heart Urchin, West Indian Sea Egg, and a good amount of Long-Spined Sea Urchins (Diadema Antillarum), some of which were HUGE! We saw a much larger number than we collected, but many of them were either too far into crevices or stuck onto rocks so tight that it was impossible to get them. I didn’t realize how fast urchins could be until I tried catching them!

Tonight, we were even able to go for a night snorkel to a nearby patch reef! It was way darker than I thought it would be but we all had dive lights so seeing wasn’t an issue. We were able to see a lot of species which we wouldn’t usually see during the day. We saw a bunch of lobsters, shrimp, a Southern Ray, and even a puffer fish. I also saw two Donkey Dung Sea Cucumbers! They were laying on the ocean floor and if I wasn’t looking for them, I definitely would’ve missed them.

The night snorkel was the last time we’ll be in the water since tomorrow we will be entirely on land. Being able to visit reefs and explore a small bit of the ocean’s diversity was amazing, and an experience I’ll remember for quite some time. Tomorrow is our last full day in Belize, which is crazy!

 

 

Peanut Butter and Jellies!- Day 12

We spent most of our day today in the ocean, which was both super tiring and super fun. This morning the conditions were nice, so right after breakfast, we hopped onto a boat as soon as we could and took off for a reef inside the Marine Protected Area. We conducted similar surveys to the ones we did yesterday, but this reef was COVERED in fire coral. It felt like everywhere I turned there was another patch of fire coral and I was worried I was going to run face first into one (luckily it didn’t happen). We then headed to another reef but this one was infested by moon jellyfish which sting, so we had to scramble to get back onto the boat and it felt like being in the Matrix while we were trying to dodge the jellies.

Branching Fire Coral
Moon Jellyfish (hard to see)

 

Luckily we were able to find a suitable reef and we conducted our survey there as well. This reef was outside of the MPA, and I noticed there was a lot of algae but also way less fire coral which was much appreciated. We then took a break on the island and then headed out to the forereef, which was much deeper and had much larger coral than the other reefs we had visited. Also, we got to swim along the reef wall which was right next to the drop off (we didn’t get to touch the butt).

Between all of the reefs we visited, we saw a nurse shark, some squid, butterflyfish, parrotfish, pillar coral (super rare), Elkhorn coral, some southern stingray, and I even spotted dark spot disease on a coral! Overall, today was a full and exciting day!

I didn’t get to see any echinoderms though, but it’s alright since I was spoiled yesterday. Hopefully, we’ll get to see some tomorrow. Also, we might be doing a night snorkel depending on what the group decides tomorrow, but I think that would be awesome! Echinoderms at night??? Who knows?!