Projects, Projects, Projects/Get to know the groups

As beautifully illustrated by Jaron Bowton in the Saturday, September 7th blog post, our group projects are officially underway and today marks our halfway point!  (although some have been working extra hard to get further along in their projects). Today was devoted to working on projects and our time between breakfast and 11:00am was spent working independently on the STRI campus. At 11:00am Jan gave a wonderful lecture on the resistance, resilience, and recovery of coral reefs, along with the effects of divers on coral reefs. Following a delicious lunch including mackerel, we continued our work, splitting up into two groups one going to Mangrove Point and the other staying closer to STRI.

Jaron and Will waving goodbye to the other group, while on their way to do their project at STRI Point

Today, I am focusing on project updates and on how things have been going now that multiple days have been available to collect data, but first I'd like to give our blog readers a little insight into the groups. Each group has earned a name describing them and the dynamics between each person in the group. Enjoy!

Get to know the groups

Team Buff- Susanna, Kristi, and Robbie

Team Buff

Although this group can regularly be seen with their impressive muscles barely contained by their t-shirts, it is not their physical ability, but rather their similarity in clothing they chose to bring to Bocas del Toro that has coined them their name. As a group that was obviously meant to be together and without any previous discussion, these three are the only ones who brought buffs to wear while in Panama and can be seen sporting them while out on our snorkeling trips and while working on their project.

The Firemen- Will & Jaron

Will (left) & Jaron (right) during lecture

Whether it is working with the infamous and dangerous fire coral, putting hot sauce on everything at every meal, or just looking good on a regular basis, this team is definitely on fire and their friendship has flames that cannot be put out.

Jaron (left) & Will (right) heading out to STRI Point to work on their project

The Cubazoan Ninjas-Mandi & Christy (aka shark)

Mandi (left) & Christy (right) ready to fight any jelly fish that come their way

This group has exhibited their lack of fear, not just by being the only group that has a project that requires them to do night snorkeling, but they also stare fear right in the eye every time they go out by swiftly and gracefully dodging stinging box jellies in their mangrove sites during each night's trip.

The Damsels in Distress- Kassie and me (Theresa)

Apart from studying and working closely with the three-spotted damselfish, Kassie and I are always hopelessly trying to take every opportunity to get a little sun and work on our tans, but are constantly being “rescued” (reminded) by our knights in shining armor, Jan and Ricardo, to cover up and wear plenty of sunscreen to ensure our delicate damsel skin stays beautiful for the future.

Me (Theresa) (left) & Kassie (right)

 Projects, Projects, Projects

At the beginning of each description there is a reminder of what each group is doing, for those who have forgotten or might not have read Jaron’s beautifully written blog entry (which can be found at http://oimbpanama.blogspot.com/2013/09/research-time.html):

Depiction of Team Buff in the field. Kristi (left) & Robbie (right) Picture by Susanna

Team Buff-Susanna, Kristi, and Robbie are focusing on the gradients of seagrass epibiont (animals and plants that live on the blades) grazing and herbivory with distance from the mangroves as well as exploring differences in sea grass shoot density and height.

Samples of epibionts ready for drying

Measuring of the surface area of the sea grass blades

UPDATE: Since Saturday, Team Buff has added two more sites, but everything is going a lot quicker now that they have a routine down. They are done collecting all of their turtle grass samples. Next they have planned a swim-over survey to assess what herbivores they see that might attribute to the bite marks they have observed on the turtle grass. In the lab they have been looking at epibionts by scrapping them all off of the second oldest blade (to maintain consistency) and burning the samples to get the dry weight. They are taking pictures of the blades to determine the surface area, for an epibiont to surface area ratio. In the field today they looked at the bite marks on blades of turtle grass in a 20x20cm quadrant and, like all good scientists, persisted through the entire sampling process despite tons of stinging hydroids on the sea grasses.

Kristi (left) & Susanna (right) working on scraping off epibionts

Robbie in the field working hard

The Firemen- Will & Jaron are trying to correlate both micro- and macro-morphology with the flow rate of the water. 

Clod cards being used out in the field

UPDATE: Two sites have been set up, one at STRI Point and one at Reef Point. Both sites have been sampled a total of 3 times and so far they have found that at Reef Point, there are both extremes (high and low) flow rates and at STRI Point there is a mixture of medium flow rates. To determine flow rates they have been using two methods; Clod cards, which are used to measure long term water flux, and fluorescine tests, to measure short term flow rates. Overall they say that things are going well, despite the fact that “there have been a couple breaks in the  process along with a couple burns along the way”.

Fluorescine test out in the field

The Cubazoan Ninjas-Mandi & Christy hypothesize that because mangrove prop roots are a day time refuge for juvenile fish to avoid predation from visual predators, there will be a greater abundance of fish during the day than at night.

Mandi (left) & Christy (right) on doing night observations

UPDATE: As of tonight, they have visited a total of 3 sites; 2 times during the night and 1 time during the day, meaning they are half way through with their data collection! So far, they have  identified 17 different types of fish including both adults and juveniles. Everything has gone relatively smoothly, and the data is supporting their hypothesis. The only problems they have encountered are low visibility due to increased sedimentation in the water that has been stirred up by the recent rains... and the jellies. During the night swims they have encountered box jellies, which are abundant in the mangroves. "Fish rock, jelly fish do not" -Mandi and Christy

Example of one of the many fish Mandi & Christy observe while out in the field

Mangrove roots, where Mandi & Christy conduct their observations

The Damsels in Distress- Kassie and I (Theresa) are looking at the differences in aggression between individuals that maintain territory on continuous reefs and isolated patch reefs.

Me (Theresa) measuring out in the field

Kassie taking observations

UPDATE:  So far we have collected two sets of data and taken  measurements to  map the distances of the territories from each other and from the mangroves. Things have been going really well, except for the schools of small fish swimming over the territory during observations, the change in light when the sun comes out from behind the clouds, and an increase in sediment from recent rains, which all have made it hard to see the focal animal. 

Three Spotted damselfish territory marked off

Other Exciting Things Happening at STRI

Today was an eventful day at STRI. Apparently, the Dallas World Aquarium had permission from the Panamanian government to export 8 Pygmy three-toed sloths. Pygmy three-toed sloths are endemic to an island near Bocas called Isla Escudo de Veraguas, where there is thought to only be about 79 individuals. When they went to the Bocas del Toro airport, they were greeted by a group of locals protesting the export of these animals. In the end, the Dallas World Aquarium decided to return the animals to the wild and so they were brought to STRI where they were then transported by boat back to their home to be released.We did not see the animals as they were each in a box, but we watched them being loaded into the boat for their return to their island.

-Theresa Berkovich