Written by Aiden De Turris, 2024 undergraduate summer intern hosted by Drs. Mike Allen and Enie Hensel at the UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station
What is the Nature Coast?
The Nature Coast is a selection of sites along the Gulf Coast of Florida. This summer, I spent my summer collecting and analyzing seagrass samples from these sites with Dr. Enie Hensel of Nature Coast Biological Station. Our goal was to analyze the overall health of the seagrass meadows along these sites, to see if they are being affected by nutrient presence or human caused runoff. These habitats are vital to the ecosystem, as they act as nursery habitats for many species.
Field Work
To be able to collect these samples, we went to a series of sites across three counties: Citrus, Hernando, Pasco. We would take a boat out, heading from site to site, sampling in and off shore. We would set anchor, collect data on surface conditions like water temperature, pH, and salinity, before putting on our snorkeling gear and getting in the water. Once in the water, we had a set of four quadrats at each site, which allowed us to show in site variation and account for repeatability in future data collection. In-site sampling methods were site dependent, with some being full collections of seagrass biomass, epifauna, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus (CNP) presence, and macroalgae, while others were exclusively seagrass CNP samples, and still others involved poking marked sheaths and returning the following week to collect samples to measure growth rates.
Lab Work
The lab work portion of my internship involved primarily looking at the growth rate samples collected. I would defrost a ziploc bag that had been stored in a freezer from field work before cleaning its contents. Once the shoots had been properly cleaned, I could determine if they had been poked in the field. The goal for every quadrant’s collection bag was 5 poked shoots. I would then measure old and new growth on each leaf of each shoot, to display an abundance or lack of growth at sites, depending on the nutrients available to them and general water quality.
Special Thanks
This internship is one of the first opportunities I have gotten as an undergraduate to experience the ins and outs of marine science as a career and it has helped open my eyes to the variety of opportunities available to me. I would like to thank NCBS for opening this position, specifically Dr. Enie Hensel for directly mentoring me and Dr. Mike Allen for giving me the opportunity. It was a life changing summer that will hopefully be the start of a life-long journey.
| Follow the link to learn more about the UF/IFAS NCBS Undergraduate Summer Internship program. Read more intern blogs here. |
Featured image credit: UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones
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