It's quite a few months since we last chatted hasn't it? What would you say...5 months? So, I guess this means I have to catch everyone up. Let's start with the bad news; the main reason I haven't posted; the Storm. I capitalize the "S" in storm because indeed it was a BIG storm; not by windspeed, but by sheer size. At one point in it's existence it covered almost the entire Gulf of Mexico. Ike hit Galveston on September 13, 2008 as a category 2 but had the storm surge of a category 4. Several people lost their lives and economically, the island lost billions. In all, it claimed many dozen lives as it winded its way from Texas all the way up to Ohio.
Yours truely got out of the way. I had samples on me that took somewhere around 2 weeks to collect and I for sure wasn't about to lose them to this monster. So like the Beverly Hillbillies, I packed up my bags/samples and moved. I went north, though, not west. My first stop, the parents house in Montgomery. They had a large freezer, so I was certain my samples would be safe there. At around 3am on the 13th of February 2008, the power goes out. GREAT! Around 10am in the morning I'm searching for a place to go. I remembered that one of my colleagues was working in College Station, TX and potentially had some extra freezer space.
*Ring, ring*
- "Carolyn? Hey it's Mike! So listen, the power's out where I am right now. How is College Station doing?"
- "The power is still on here."
- "I have my samples with me and they need to stay frozen. Do you have any extra freezer space I could borrow."
- "Sure there is space."
- "Great! See you in an hour!"
*click*
The conversation was not verbatim; hardly even paraphrased, but made the point: I needed space and she had some to spare.
I ended up remaining in College Station for the semester where I continued to process the sampling I collected back in August. Basically, what I was doing was picking through all the sediment, grass, algae, and detritus and counting all the animals (vert or invert) that I found in each replicate. I also took observational notes on the % grass, % algae, and % detritus in each replicate. These measurements were subjective, but basically they allowed me to compare % type of vegetation with animal abundance. What I found was pretty interesting. Animal abundance, although not significant at the 95% level, showed a positive linear relationship with % grass. Animal abundance also showed (this time significant at the %95 level) a negative linear relationship with % algae. In June I will be more precise in my sampling among each restoration habitat.
Within the three restoration methods, I will sample spots within that contain mainly algae and spots that contain mainly grass. So instead of just three replicated from areas 1a/b through 4a/b (24 replicates total). I could possibly take 3 grass replicates and three algae replicates in each of the areas 1-4 a/b (48 replicates total). I would do this once in June and then again in January or February. This will allow me to collect samples in the middle of two different seasons, summer and winter. Hopefully, by then, I will be able to see if there is some truth behind the previous regressions I found. Until that time I am helping other collegues with their sampling as well as developing some other aspects of my own research.
Right now, I am in the middle of performing monthly diversity surveys with Chuan-Kai (CK for short), which include recording species present on designated mounds as well as perform hit count measurements using a 2m skinny wooden dowel rod and using a 10cm x 20cm quadrat to collect plant samples for species identification, height measurements, and chlorophyll analysis back at the lab. The areas are designated d1through d8 (slightly different than the designations I use for my study). It works well. Each area has 10 mounds randomly selected and flags are used to tag each individual mound. So for instance, mound 7 in area 3 will be marked with a flag "d3-7" so we can find them easier at a later date. CK and I are also preparing an area about 15 minutes north of Galveston Island for mesocosm experiments. What I will potentially do is use these enormous tanks to run controlled experiments testing plant/algal growth with sediment agitation and nutrient input. So, to put it in lay terms (taken from Dr. Armitage), the next question is why? Is there something different about the soil source, like the amount of nutrients it releases? Is there something different about the consolidation (i.e., less consolidated sediments are less suitable to rooted SAVs)? A great way to answer these questions would be to do mesocosm studies, where you would put in clumps of algae and/or grasses into tanks with different soils in them and look at growth and nutrient uptake. Likewise, you can take a bunch of the same soil and have some treatments with settled soil and some with suspended, unconsolidated soil and look and grass and/or algal growth and nutrient uptake. More to follow shortly on this subject.
So after an unorthodox semester in College Station, I am back in Galveston. I remember why I left College Station in the first place, and being able to return to the Island certainly filled a void within myself. There's nothing greater than being on an Island: the salty air, the persistant seabreeze, the plethora of natural beauty. To me there is no comparison. Islands, in my book, are places that make everything better. Since being back on this island, things have been better and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
Yours truely got out of the way. I had samples on me that took somewhere around 2 weeks to collect and I for sure wasn't about to lose them to this monster. So like the Beverly Hillbillies, I packed up my bags/samples and moved. I went north, though, not west. My first stop, the parents house in Montgomery. They had a large freezer, so I was certain my samples would be safe there. At around 3am on the 13th of February 2008, the power goes out. GREAT! Around 10am in the morning I'm searching for a place to go. I remembered that one of my colleagues was working in College Station, TX and potentially had some extra freezer space.
*Ring, ring*
- "Carolyn? Hey it's Mike! So listen, the power's out where I am right now. How is College Station doing?"
- "The power is still on here."
- "I have my samples with me and they need to stay frozen. Do you have any extra freezer space I could borrow."
- "Sure there is space."
- "Great! See you in an hour!"
*click*
The conversation was not verbatim; hardly even paraphrased, but made the point: I needed space and she had some to spare.
I ended up remaining in College Station for the semester where I continued to process the sampling I collected back in August. Basically, what I was doing was picking through all the sediment, grass, algae, and detritus and counting all the animals (vert or invert) that I found in each replicate. I also took observational notes on the % grass, % algae, and % detritus in each replicate. These measurements were subjective, but basically they allowed me to compare % type of vegetation with animal abundance. What I found was pretty interesting. Animal abundance, although not significant at the 95% level, showed a positive linear relationship with % grass. Animal abundance also showed (this time significant at the %95 level) a negative linear relationship with % algae. In June I will be more precise in my sampling among each restoration habitat.
Within the three restoration methods, I will sample spots within that contain mainly algae and spots that contain mainly grass. So instead of just three replicated from areas 1a/b through 4a/b (24 replicates total). I could possibly take 3 grass replicates and three algae replicates in each of the areas 1-4 a/b (48 replicates total). I would do this once in June and then again in January or February. This will allow me to collect samples in the middle of two different seasons, summer and winter. Hopefully, by then, I will be able to see if there is some truth behind the previous regressions I found. Until that time I am helping other collegues with their sampling as well as developing some other aspects of my own research.
Right now, I am in the middle of performing monthly diversity surveys with Chuan-Kai (CK for short), which include recording species present on designated mounds as well as perform hit count measurements using a 2m skinny wooden dowel rod and using a 10cm x 20cm quadrat to collect plant samples for species identification, height measurements, and chlorophyll analysis back at the lab. The areas are designated d1through d8 (slightly different than the designations I use for my study). It works well. Each area has 10 mounds randomly selected and flags are used to tag each individual mound. So for instance, mound 7 in area 3 will be marked with a flag "d3-7" so we can find them easier at a later date. CK and I are also preparing an area about 15 minutes north of Galveston Island for mesocosm experiments. What I will potentially do is use these enormous tanks to run controlled experiments testing plant/algal growth with sediment agitation and nutrient input. So, to put it in lay terms (taken from Dr. Armitage), the next question is why? Is there something different about the soil source, like the amount of nutrients it releases? Is there something different about the consolidation (i.e., less consolidated sediments are less suitable to rooted SAVs)? A great way to answer these questions would be to do mesocosm studies, where you would put in clumps of algae and/or grasses into tanks with different soils in them and look at growth and nutrient uptake. Likewise, you can take a bunch of the same soil and have some treatments with settled soil and some with suspended, unconsolidated soil and look and grass and/or algal growth and nutrient uptake. More to follow shortly on this subject.
So after an unorthodox semester in College Station, I am back in Galveston. I remember why I left College Station in the first place, and being able to return to the Island certainly filled a void within myself. There's nothing greater than being on an Island: the salty air, the persistant seabreeze, the plethora of natural beauty. To me there is no comparison. Islands, in my book, are places that make everything better. Since being back on this island, things have been better and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
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