Today I continued editing the photos from my Biocubes and I am finding some of the specimens challenging to edit due to them having many tiny legs or clear coloring. I also continued identifying specimens one by one, which is proving to be quite difficult.
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Today I continued identifying fish in the several GoPro videos from all of the Biocubes I have conducted so far. Luckily, I have plenty of field guides to help with identification. I also produced a spreadsheet for each Biocube that organizes all of the information and photos in a simple way (example below).
After snorkeling around for a little while I came across a small ledge in five and a half feet of 87.4°F water at the coordinates 24° 40' 16" N and 81° 44' 40" W. I set my Biocube over the corner of the ledge with the GoPro filming for several hours then extracted the sample and brought it to shore. After a long night of sorting and photographing I returned all of the specimens and came to a species count of forty-eight (without the GoPro footage), the same as the Biocube in the Atlantic. This was shocking to me with the recent research on how destructive the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been and the impact that it left on the waters.
This morning I set up a float plan with the FWC for tomorrow morning to conduct another Biocube off of Jewfish Basin in the Gulf of Mexico. The past few days I had been spending time diving in the Gulf of Mexico and decided that it would be interesting to see the difference in life after the large oil spill in the Gulf eight years ago. In preparation for tomorrow I wrote out the identification numbers, which will be GUL_001, GUL_002, etc. Later in the day I had to reassemble my Biocube and give it a touch-up coat of paint. I have been spending the past week or so editing all of my photographs. Currently all of my photos have at least a rough edit.
I began the day early by releasing the organisms from yesterday, since I was working until nearly one in the morning. All of he organisms were safely released into the water and it was time to work on cleaning up. After several hours of cleaning up sand and salt water, I began looking over the GoPro footage. I looked through around on half of the footage and was able to identify thirteen fish, bringing my species count to sixty one.
Today I went back to Middle Sambo to finalize the location for my Biocube and deploy it. I found an ideal ledge at the coordinates 24° 29' 28" N and 81° 40' 17" W in around eight feet of 86.9°F water. At first I had some trouble placing the Biocube, because it was floating. To keep it down I attached dive weights to the legs of the cube. Once everything was in place I set up my GoPro to film the cube. Every half an hour I would change the positioning of the GoPro to get a different perspective of the Biocube. After several hours of diving the area and observing the Biocube, I removed the sample and brought it back to the boat. The seas were a little choppy, so we had to go into shore slowly, which could have been detrimental to the organisms. To keep them alive in the heat I made sure they were in the shade and had oxygenators. Once I got back to shore, I began sorting through all of the sediment and rubble to find organisms. I ended up working until late in the night, but I was successful in finding forty eight different species, without the GoPro footage.
Today I had to give FWC twenty four hour notification that I would be conducting scientific research within state waters. During the call I had to give information such as where I would be and the vessel I would be on, otherwise known as a float plan. After several questions, I was cleared for tomorrow. Later in the day I wrote out my identification numbers. This time they would be MID_001, MID_002, and so on. I also purchased a thicker white board for photographing on, because the previous material absorbed water and wrinkled. Looks like I am all set for tomorrow and I expect that there will be more biodiversity in this Biocube than the last one.
Today required unpacking everything from my set up in Key Largo, Florida and reassembling it. Once again, I set up in an air conditioned place away from natural sunlight. My next challenge was finding a way to film my Biocube in the water without having to stay with it for several hours. This time my Biocube will be in shallow water and not moving, so I needed a stable mount for my GoPro. With help from my father I cut down a PVC pipe and drilled a hole in it for the GoPro mount. Then I mixed some concrete and placed the PVC pipe in it as it dried to create a stable base.
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. I just received an e-mail that my license was approved! All that is left is to print and sign it and I am ready to move on with my project.
I heard back from the FWC again with one more question on how long the Biocube will be in the water when in use.
Today I got my first reply from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) about my application for a Special Activities License, in order to conduct research in state waters. In the reply I was asked what a Biocube was and what I would be using it for.
Today I posted the unedited images of my specimens to iNaturalist.org in order to get assistance in identification. You can check out my Sargassum Biocube project below on the iNaturalist website.
http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sargassum-biocube Today I began editing some of the images that I took yesterday. Among further examination I discovered that two of the species were actually the same, bringing my species count before the GoPro footage to twenty three. I also began identifying some of the easily identifiable species, which was discouragingly only seven of them.
At the crack of dawn I was out on the water scouting an ideal patch of Sargassum weed off of Key Largo, Florida. Finally, I came across an ideal patch in 845 feet of 83.3°F water at the coordinates 24° 57' 15" N and 80° 11' 5" W. I deployed my Biocube in the patch of Sargassum and took underwater footage using a GoPro camera. After a few hours, to allow the Sargassum and animals to settle, I retrieved my Biocube and removed my one cubic foot sample. Then I made my way back to shore to begin. Before I started, I set up a small tank with an oxygenator and my sample. I filmed the sample in the tank for roughly ten minutes in order to create a virtual aquarium in the later stages of my project. The next step was to morpho-sort the specimens. To clarify, morpho-sorting is a way of putting the specimens in groups depending on their physical appearance. After several hours of morpho-sorting it was time to photograph a representative for each species. In the photographing process my G-12 Cannon Powershot was giving me difficulties, so I switched over to a macro Olloclip lens for my iPhone. Surprisingly, the Olloclip worked much better and produced high quality images of the tiny specimens. After all of the photographing was over, I released the organisms into the water. By the end of the day I had twenty four species, not including what was on the GoPro underwater footage. *Note: This Biocube was not within state waters, so no licensing was necessary Today I began my project by gathering all of my necessary materials for my first Biocube in Key Largo, including, but not limited to: waterproof paper, Biocubes, cameras, oxygenators, a microscope, and many plastic cups. Once I gathered all of my materials I set up my lab in a cool, dark, place away from sunlight to protect the animals from damage. Next, I began writing up identification numbers on the waterproof paper for each species while taking photographs of the specimens. Since my first Biocube will be in Sargassum offshore, I have decided to identify the species as SAR_001, SAR_002, and so on. In preparation I did come across an issue, how I would make my Biocube float and how I could stabilize it. After some thinking and a quick trip to the store, I was ready to assemble my Biocube. I stabilized the joints with waterproof silicon, something sturdy and non-permanent, and finished it off with a coat of green spray paint. To make sure the Biocube floated I securely outfitted each corner with two fishing bobbers on fishing line. As long as the weather stays calm, I will be ready for tomorrow!
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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. |