2019

Hello Clivus my New Friend!- Day 14

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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!

 

 

2019

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

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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!

 

 

2019

In the Corals and the Trees (Reflection Post) with species lists

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The coral reef and the rainforest are the most diverse marine and terrestrial ecosystems, respectively. They both represent what seems on the surface a paradox—nutrient poor soils in the rainforest and nutrient poor waters in the reef, despite the incredible diversity of organisms in each place. Coral reefs actually rely on the low nutrient density of the water, because when there are more nutrients available, algae tends to outcompete corals. In the rainforest, the nutrient poor soils are due to the rapid nutrient cycling and wide diversity of decomposers facilitated by high temperatures and rainfall and necessary for the incredible growth present there. In addition, my taxon groups in the rainforest and on the reef were somewhat parallel: the trees in the forest and the corals on the reef. Each of these is the foundation of the ecosystem, photosynthesize (or have a symbiotic relationship with photosynthesizing organisms), and are incredibly abundant.

I took the wide diversity of each species as a challenge, and tried to identify as many as I could, although in each case some of the organisms looked incredibly similar to one another and occupied similar niches.

Unfortunately, when I set out to take this course, I saw the obstacle of my food allergies first and any academic challenges second. The result of this was that I was thoroughly prepared to avoid food allergens, and less prepared for the actual coursework. Despite this, I learned more in these two weeks than I think I ever have in two weeks before in my life: about the rainforest, the reef, and research in the field. Interestingly (maybe this is TMI) I have a skin condition and thought it would get worse on the trip. It did the opposite and flared up as soon as we returned to Houston. Allergies also turned out to be easy to deal with, as the cooks on the island and in the rainforest were very careful and had limited ingredients in the kitchen to begin with (fewer contaminants).

It’s hard to choose a favorite part of the course. We saw spider monkeys shaking trees at us to get us to go away (we just thought they were cute); a tapir on one of our camera traps (we all cheered!), scarlet macaws almost every day in the rainforest, the inside of a leafcutter ant nest. I think the most intriguing things I saw were zombie ants. Zombie ants are ants that are infected with a fungus that somehow compels the ant to climb up (in this case on a palm). The ant then clings to the inside of the palm and slowly dies as the fungus eats it from the inside out, then sends out a fruiting body (mushroom). We saw several of these, and some ants that were still moving but appeared lost on the bottom of palm leaves, possibly controlled by the fungus. The phenomenon is incredible and frightening, as when I’ve related it to friends and family one of the first questions they ask is “can that infect humans?!” The answer to that question is no. At least, no known fungus will do that to humans.

In addition to the course content, I think we all learned how to split up the work to get something done, and not obsess about the details (for those of us inclined to do so). For example, the first research project we did took all day to analyze. We spent the morning making sure each morphospecies (“species” identified as “species A” based on observable characteristics when the species name is unimportant) was carefully identified, and the entire afternoon making a poster. We had all of our graphs on a laptop instead of the poster itself, and had the one person with some of the best handwriting and drawing skills (Liz) draw the entire poster (no printing facilities in the jungle!). By the end of the two weeks, we could whip up a poster in a few hours, max. A few people would work on each section, and at least two people would write and draw on the poster. We were much more efficient, and still conveyed our work effectively.

Scott requested a species count for each taxon in the reflection post, so here those are:

Trees

Elephant Ear/ Guanacaste (Enterlobium cyclocarpum)

Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata)

Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribaea)

Rosewood (Dalbergia stevensonii)

Billy Webb (Sweetia panamensis)

Nargusta (Terminalia amazonica)

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)

Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata)

Bull Thorn Acacia / Bullhorn Acacia (Acacia/Vachellia cornigera)

Basket Tie-Tie (Desmonicus schippii)

Banana (Musa sapientum/paradisiaca)

Prickly Yellow (Zanthoxylum sp.)

White Poisonwood (Sebastiana tuerckheimiana)

Black Poisonwood (Metopium Browneii) (Tropical Education Center)

Fiddlewood (Vitex gaumeri)

Kapik/Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra)

Horse’s Balls Tree (Stemmadenia donnell-smithii)

Guava (Psidium guajava)

White oak sp. (Quercus insignis) (Tropical Education Center)

Sapodilla/Chicle (Manilhara zapota)

Give-and-Take Palm (Crysophila staurocantha)

Gumbolimbo/ Tourist Tree (Bursera simaruba)

Jobillo (Astronium graveolens)

Bay Cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia)

 

Corals

Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata)

Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis)

Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides)

Thin Finger Coral (Porites divaricata)

Grooved Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria labyrinthiformis)

Boulder Brain Coral (Colpophyllia natans)

Pillar Coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus)

Symmetrical Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa)

Golfball Coral (Favia fragum)

Lettuce Coral (Agaricia sp.)

Mountainous Star Coral (Orbicella faveolata)

Massive Starlet Coral (Siderastrea siderea)

Additional Siderastrea sp., maybe stellata, dead coral

Boulder Star Coral (Montastrea cavernosa)

2019

Day 15: The city is too… city

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We woke up before 5 to meet, with bags packed, at the dining building. Breakfast was a cinnamon roll for most, but since that contains milk and I have an allergy, mine was fresh papaya. The mood was subdued; in part, it was 5 in the morning. In addition, we were worn out and ready to be back home. We took a calmer three hour boat ride back to the coast, then took a van to the airport.

We had time at the airport to buy souvenirs. Some of the popular ones included Marie Sharp’s brand jam, of various tropical flavors, and Belizean hot sauce. A couple of the hot sauce names were No Wimps Allowed and BEWARE. They also sold Mayan carvings and weavings, some at pretty steep prices. The prices were a mix of Belizean dollars and US dollars; a US dollar is worth twice that of a Belize dollar.

Marie Sharp’s Jam from the airport

The plane was a bit delayed, but not so much I think that the three connecting flights were too much of a problem. Once we got to the Houston airport (IAH), we had to say goodbye to the three students who were catching connecting flights to go home. Since three of the students on the trip were from Vanderbilt and Baylor, respectively, there is a good chance we may never see each other again. After two weeks in close quarters, we got to know each other pretty well, and it was sad to see everyone depart. Although, I will say that by the end of two weeks in such close quarters, with everyone exhausted and itching, we were beginning to step on each other’s toes a bit.

The rest of us took a bus back to Rice. The city was a bit of a shock after the island and the forest—so noisy, rushed, and concrete! Despite a packed schedule, there were fewer worries in the jungle than in the city.

2019

Day 14: We found a boat in the Mangroves of Death

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This morning we combined a research project with an exercise in awareness, in addition to helping the island with a major problem. You see, an island that is in the middle of the ocean (not near shore) still, perhaps surprisingly, collects debris.

We split up into four groups and went to different sides of the island: The Dock, The Touch Tank (named such because we collected animals for a touch tank there on Day 11), The Coral Graveyard (where corals wash up on the shore; this is the windward side of the island), and an area we termed the Mangroves of Death. For some unknown reason—okay, because few people were willing to go—I went to pick up trash in the Mangroves of Death. For the uninitiated, Mangroves of Death are full of mosquitoes and also, in this case, sand flies. Our group of three students went out there to the jungle gym of mangroves and alternated picking up old rags, plastic bottles, plastic bags, and other trash and slapping ourselves to rid our skin of mosquitoes. Having anticipated this, I was covered except for my face. As it turns out, the sand flies didn’t care and bit me all over anyway, but the mosquitoes just clustered around my face. I tried to get them off with my arms, because I was using my hands to pick up trash and didn’t want to rub the dirt on my face.

The highest count of marine debris was at the Coral Graveyard, and we decided this could be caused by the fact that this was where trash would hit the island when the surface of the water was moving with the wind. However, the second highest count and the largest volume of trash was found in the Mangroves of Death. This was partly due to the large metal and foam boat pieces we found and dragged back with us. Another reason this could be the case is that the mangroves form a maze of roots that collects, in addition to water, trash. Trash becomes tangled in the roots, so we had larger pieces of trash in general, leading to a larger volume despite a slightly lower number of pieces. We also found mostly plastic. Despite 12 people spending half an hour collecting trash, we all felt like we hardly made a dent in the marine debris washed up on the island, despite the fact that the staff on the island regularly collect what washes up.

Kaela and me counting marine debris from the Mangroves of Death

After lunch we dissected lionfish. Lionfish are invasive in the Atlantic (native to the Indo-Pacific) and have few predators here, so they proliferate and are destructive to competing carnivorous fish populations and eat young commercially harvested fish species. That could potentially have an impact on the fishing industry. We measured them (ours was 21.5 cm, or about 9 in, long) and pulled out the stomach. Ours looked pretty full but the contents were not identifiable. Another group found a whole fish in the stomach of their lionfish.

Herbie with a lionfish

We then had a snack of lionfish ceviche, made with the same fish we dissected, and took a break to pack until dinner.

In the evening we had a brief social gathering on the dock, looking back on our experiences. But it wasn’t just socializing—Amanda tied her dive light to the dock and attracted lots of tiny shrimp. This attracts fish that feed on the shrimp, and fish that will eat those larger fish. Eventually we saw a few stingrays and a shark, all right under our feet on the dock!

2019

Day 13: The Urchins

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This morning we met in the classroom to devise yet another method for measuring reef health. We decided on counting sea urchins, because they play a key role in eating algae. In the absence of such herbivores, algae can begin to take over coral colonies, so we decided a healthy reef would have more urchins. Again, we assessed a reef inside and a reef outside of the MPA.

We found more urchins inside the MPA during the same amount of collection time with the same amount of people (same total effort). Fishing is restricted in the MPA and carnivorous fish are often a target of commercial fishing, so the decreased presence of carnivorous fish and thus greater quantity of herbivorous fish might exist outside of the MPA. Herbivorous fish compete with urchins for food, so a larger number of herbivorous fish could decrease the number of urchins outside of the MPA. In addition, the site we studied inside the MPA had greater coral cover, which provides places for urchins to hide and could increase their numbers by improved protection from predators. We identified 5 different species of urchins.

Pencil Sea Urchin

A few people are still feeling a bit seasick from the trip to the forereef, where the wave action was greater. By lunch, I was feeling a bit off as well, despite not diving down at the forereef. I surmised after it only took a few hours to recover that I had been too cold in the water while searching for sea urchins. By the end of the day I think most people felt better, but we are all exhausted. Despite that, we did lectures in the afternoon today so that after dinner we could snorkel at night.

The point of snorkeling at night is that we can see bioluminescence. Corals are interesting at night as well because they extend their polyps (many species retract them during the day). I had trouble taking acceptable photos in the dark, and I kept alternating between being right on top of my buddy (Keegan) and trying to locate him because I got too far away. He was wearing all black, and it was dark—I guess I was easier to spot at a distance with my white snorkel and mask. I ended up wishing everyone was wearing more distinctive gear, because though we were supposed to stick together with our buddies, it was hard to tell who was who. It was also hard to find the reef in the dark and we initially swam past it.

We did manage to see the coral polyps, and some large Spiny Lobsters! The rest of the experience was marred by accidentally kicking and being kicked by my fellow TFBers, and trying to stick my head up out of the water to see where everyone was. In total we didn’t see that much.

2019

Day 12: Swimming in the depths

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This morning we went out first thing to catch the calm weather for snorkeling and get off the island which was very buggy (because there was no wind). We went again to a patch inside and outside of the Marine Protected Area, and in each place counted live coral using a quadrat method, 10 samples over a distance of 100 m for 5 groups. We ran into more trouble this time: the first sample was thick with fire coral—we even had to put our quadrat on fire coral once. Some of the reef was also deeper and we had to dive down to count the coral.

Fire Coral

Then, we got in the water only to realize it was full of jellies, and we had to rush back onto the boat while one of the safety officers pushed the jellies away by pushing them by the heads. I didn’t see them, but we also saw comb jellies at that location. Amanda picked one up. It looked just like a handful of gelatin.

We went to another location outside the MPA without jellies to actually take data. I took pictures of corals when I wasn’t taking data, and I saw Golfball Coral (Flavia fragum) and another coral I still need to identify. There was still a lot of Mustard Coral (Porites astreoides) and I also saw some purple branching Porites, possibly divaricata again. Most of the Porites we have seen so far, excluding Mustard Hill Coral, have probably been P. divaricata due to branching near the tips, although a few times I have seen colonies that form thicker branches that might have been P. porites or P. fulcata. P. porites is generally greater than 1 cm wide, P. fulcata is is in between, and P. divaricata is less than 1 cm. I also saw some Grooved Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria labyrinthiformis), which has a groove on the ridge between valleys (the valley contains a row of mouths where polyps stick out (like most corals, these polyps extend primarily at night).

Amanda also saw one Montastrea cavernosa, which is the Great Star Coral. The surface is described in the ID book as “blister-like corallites”. They (the coralllites) are particularly large, size ¼ to ½ in. The colonies of corallites can get quite large, but the one Amanda saw was smaller. I saw only a picture. I also think I saw a lettuce coral (Agaricia). There are multiple species, but my picture is not good enough to tell the difference.

In the afternoon we took the boat over the reef crest (boundary of the ring-shaped atoll) to the forereef outside of the atoll. This is an area of greater wave action where corals form thicker, larger, and more robust forms such as massive or encrusting that don’t stick up into the water where branches could be broken off. This is also one reason the forereef has less algae than the patch reefs we have visited before, which were all inside the atoll in the lagoon, which is sheltered by the reef. We first swam along the wall, where we could not see the bottom over the ledge, then went to a patch reef closer to the crest.

We saw larger fish here too, including a reef shark and some larger Parrotfish. There were some very large Symmetrical Brain Coral (Pseudodiploria ———-). This species is actually very similar to Colpophyllia, but apparently Colpophyllia has deeper grooves, which is a common identifying characteristic in meandroid corals. However, it would be a much easier characteristic to use with more experience. From what I can tell in the ID book, Colpolhyllia also has wider valleys, so that may be used as an additional identifying feature. The most notable species of coral we saw on the reef was Dendrogyna, which is apparently rare (used to be more common). This is the pillar-shaped coral, and has a more bulky skeleton than other species. I think I also saw the Lobed Star Coral, which is Orbicella annularis. Its form is a group of lumps tightly packed and protruding from a hard substrate.

2019

Day 11: We found an octopus!

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Today we started out by measuring coral density inside and outside the Marine Protected Area (MPA). The island we are currently staying on, called Middle Caye, is on Glover’s Reef inside of an MPA. This area is patrolled by the Belize coast guard, especially at night. Commercial fishing is not allowed in the area, and part of the point is to prevent overfishing and coral damage in the protected area. We tentatively found that the MPA patch we surveyed had about 28% live coral over total area and the area outside of the MPA had about 18% live coral.  That would seem to suggest that the MPA is protecting the corals and allowing them to grow. However, we identified some improvements we could make to our methods and will repeat the assessment tomorrow.

When not measuring, I saw a few distinctive corals, including Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral).

In the afternoon we walked out to the seagrass and mangroves and collected some small animals, plants, and other living things to look at in the wet lab. We kept them in buckets of water to preserve the creatures. We found a wide range of creatures in nearly everyone’s taxon ID groups, and Kaela even picked up a fireworm. It stung her and released stinging hairs, but she brought it back to the collection bucket anyway. Other creatures we saw included an Atlantic Pygmy Octopus, which could change color and tried to hide under the conch shells, live Queen Conchs, which have a beautiful sunset pattern inside their shells which unfortunately attract collectors (often overharvested and picked up by tourists), a West Indian Sea Egg, which is a kind of urchin that is dark with white spines and covers itself with sea grass, several other urchin species, three-finger leaf algae, other Halimeda algae, Pearl algae, and a ton of hermit crabs.

In terms of coral, we picked up a Porites species and a Siderastrea species. Porites is a branching coral with corallites that are generally flush with the surface of the coral (they don’t stick out like Acropora, which include Elkhorn and Staghorn corals). This one branches near the tip and is probably P. divaricata due to that characteristic and thin branch size. The species is also called Thin Finger Coral. The Siderastrea are called starlet corals, and the one we picked up I think was S. stellata.

Siderastrea stellata, finger for scale
2019

Peanut Butter and Jellies!- Day 12

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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?!

2019

Day 14: Dissecting lionfish

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Today was the itchiest day of my life. I have never been so covered in bug bites, so I am ready to leave this island. Today we collected trash in different areas of the island and analyzed its composition which was mostly plastic and Styrofoam.

In the afternoon, we dissected a lionfish and it was used to make ceviche. I normally don’t like seafood, but I thought it was pretty good because it didn’t taste like fish.

The small fish was found inside the stomach of Liz and Cassia’s lionfish.

I didn’t see any sea anemones, zoanthids, or corallimorphs because we didn’t spend any time in the water today.

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