Belize is going to be fantastic, if I have learned one thing from the readings from the class. New words have entered my vocabulary, like karst and lagoon, but they are things I have not personally experienced. I am excited to be in these places that I have only heard of and emerge from Belize as some sort of a tropical field biologist, perhaps as a TFB that Surf and Turf has warned us of becoming.
Not having been there is what makes it exciting, but it also makes it more difficult to predict what type of life I will see there, and what it will look like when I see hundreds of species of life right in front of face. Although the readings have been good about providing descriptions, I am a visual learner and I expect that I have a lot more to learn through trial and error when it comes to identifying species, or even families.
One thing I have learned about identification of species from looking at images online is that there are tons of variation. Take a species of red algae for example, one image may be pink, another greenish-purple. A brown alga often looks yellow or green. Although I don’t usually have trouble identifying colors, the types of coloration in these algae has overwhelmed my ability to describe them. I hope with experience in the water I will be able to become sensitive to all the subtle differences in the color of algae, as it can be helpful in identifying them.
In addition to learning to identify species, I hope to be comfortable in the rain forest, the cave, and the ocean. With enough practice, I am sure these blog posts will become more interesting and I hope you will follow my journey to a fascinating place!
