Today I spent the day on the water scouting an area for my next Biocube. Six miles off of Key West, Florida I came across a reef known as the Middle Sambo, with gorgeous coral heads and an abundance of life. After exploring the area for a few hours, I came across a patch of coral in roughly four feet of water that dropped off to around ten or twelve feet. I decided this area would contain the most biodiversity of the reef because it was an edge ecosystem and high energy. An edge ecosystem is where there is a gathering of two or more distinct habitats allowing a higher amount of life to be passing through. In this case my site is an edge ecosystem because it contains the shallow water filled with coral and the deeper water with a sandy bottom. Also, it is high energy because there is a slight current passing over the coral allowing a greater number of organisms to pass through, compared to stagnant water. Finally, this is an optimal time of the month for biodiversity, because of the recent "super moon." In the full moon marine life spawns, so during this time there should be a large amount of larval organisms and a surplus of larger organisms coming in to feed on the spawn. Tomorrow I will begin setting up to deploy my Biocube this Thursday.
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Olivia Cohen
Welcome to my blog for my senior project, An Investigation in Marine Biodiversity: Florida Keys. Over the summer I will be conducting four Biocubes (further explained in "About") in several locations in the Florida Keys. |