Homeward Bound

Well, it's my last day on this awesome adventure. We weren't able to do transects on the coral reef because the sea is too rough today... a storm is blowing in. So instead we went spelunking in an underwater cave. We saw stalagtites and stalagmites and bats and shrimp and translucent fish. It was really cool.

I'm sad to leave but I also can't wait to come home and share more stories with you.

Thanks to everyone who commented on this blog and thanks to everyone who helped make this trip possible: especially Bruce, the Hartleys, the Pleunes, Wells Fargo, and Mom.

See you all soon!

Global Climate Change and Coral Reefs

I found out two new ways that global warming can cause bleaching on the reefs.

I already knew about increased ocean temperatures and ocean acidification being a problem (see my very first post down below), but it turns out that sedimentation is also to blame and drought and storms in Africa can impact coral reefs when dust storms blow dirt all the way over here.

Sounds pretty far fetched until I learned that most of the soil on San Salvador actually got here from just that method. Global climate change and deforestation in Africa is accelerating the dust storms which could be one of the impacts on the reefs. This just goes to show how complex climate change can really be.

Another impact could be changing patterns of ocean circulation which would make coral reproduction different. Research "thermohaline circulation" or "ocean conveyor belt" for more info.

I also really appreciated the comment about polar ice caps and ocean pH. Whoever wrote that was really thinking!

The ocean is basic and polar ice caps and glaciers are both neutral or slightly acidic, so the melting of that water into the ocean would also cause ocean acidification. So that could be a double whammy for the ocean.
Keep those good deep questions coming!!

How can we ensure that our samples are random?

If you haven’t read “How the research works” down below, do it, then come back up and read this.

I got a question about how we make sure to take random samples. That’s a bit of a toughie. It’s important to take random samples because that is how we get an accurate average. It’s pretty hard to not just swim over to the prettiest looking spot and drop the point intercept frame there. But of course, “pretty” isn’t very random.

Our lead scientist, John Rollino encouraged us all to come up with our own method of making sure we drop the frame randomly. I’ve been closing my eyes and just swimming a few strokes and then dropping the frame. Can you guys think of any other good methods for dropping the frame randomly?

Shea says no to conch

Well, with most of the votes tallied a clear majority of you thought I should forgo the conch. The current vote is 50- just say no 24-slurp it up. I appreciated some of the thoughtful comments about how one person can make a difference. I also liked the comments that tried to weigh out the relative good and bad by eating the conch. Either angle leads me personally toward not eating conch. When I weighed it out avoiding conch is no huge loss for me (I'm not even sure I would like it anyway), one minor win for this threatened species (sure it's only one organism, but what if everyone on earth just said the same thing... soon it would be bye bye conch, an ultimate example of "Tragedy of the Commons" where each individual does what is best for themselves without looking at the bigger picture.

I had a traditional Bahamian meal yesterday that I imagine was just as good if not better: pidgeon peas and rice, spicy fish fritters and guava cake. Today I'm going to try to get the grounds person at the research center to wield his machete and get me a fresh coconut from one of the trees on the campus.

In general, I'm already having an amazing experience and don't need to spoil myself any further. So, because of your votes and my own reasoning, I happily forfeit the conch experience.

How the Research Works

We're measuring density of coral, which has been declining over the last 20 or so years. We do this with two different methods. The picture is of me taking point-intercept data. Basically you randomly drop a grid in different places on the reef and then you count and record what's under the ribbons: hard coral, soft coral, algae, sponge, sand, or rock.

If you do this over and over you can get good measurements for coverages. If you do it year after year you can see if the coral coverage is going down.

We also use transects. These are specific lines that we swim and count the various coral and look for bleaching. I'll tell you more about this tomorrow after I actually do it.

pH in the Bahamas: What’s up with this data?

Note: all of the following data was taken before I puked in the ocean this morning. (Who knew you could get seasick without being in a boat?) Since my puke is fairly acidic it’s possible that I single-handedly wiped out a few coral, but John Rollino, the key scientist here reminded me that the ocean is quite large and that my little regurgitated H+ ions probably have about a mile between each one right now. Other nice people on the crew also kindly reassured me that I was not the first person to puke in the ocean.

So, regardless of any contributions from my bodily fluids, what is going on with the pH here in the Bahamas?

Here is data from one of the sites where scientists (such as yours truly and pukey) have been both tracking the coral populations and measuring pH.

Chemistry students: your assignment is to draw some conclusions from this data. Look for trends, graph it, do whatever helps you to visualize the situation and then write to me about it a few sentences in the comment section below.

P.S. if you make a graph it may be helpful to the scientists down here (and it may expand your understanding and skills). If you know how to make one on excel, do it and email it to me at shea@cityacademyslc.org

The data at this coral reef was taken 3x/year:

Date pH Date pH Date pH
Feb-95 8.2 Jul-95 8.2 Nov-95 8.4
Feb-96 8.2 Jul-96 8.0 Nov-96 8.2
Feb-97 8.3 Jul-97 8.2 Nov-97 8.1
Feb-98 8.3 Jul-98 8.3 Nov-98 8.4
Feb-99 Jul-99 8.2 Nov-99 8.2
Feb-00 8.2 Jul-00 8.3 Nov-00 8.1
Feb-04 8.3 Jul-01 8.1 Nov-02 8.3
Feb-02 8.3 Jul-02 8.1 Nov-02 8.2
Feb-04 8.3 Jul-04 8.2 Nov-04 8.1
Feb-04 8.2 Jul-04 8.1 Nov.04 8.23
Feb-05 8.04 Jul-05 8.03

Should I eat Conch?

Hey foods class and any other budding culinary ethicists. Here’s my first food dilemma of the week: Eat the conch or don’t eat the conch.

Conch is the first local food/delicacy I’ve heard about here. Generally the food at the research center has been of the canned or boxed American kind so I was sort of excited to try something new. You may have heard of a conch shell: they’re the big spirally ones with a peeled back lip. Conch the food lives in conch the shell and is a mollusk, kind of like clams. The local traditional preparation is a sort of salad that has marinated vegetables and conch. Sounds good to me.

Problem is conch has been overharvested and there are not a lot left now. It’s on the red (avoid) list from the Monterey Bay aquarium who thinks that if we lay off the conch for a while they could come back and regain a healthier population. But they may never be available for mass consumption or mass harvest. So let’s take a vote: Should I eat the Conch? Put your vote in the comment section.

Sessile animals are even easier to take pictures of

Yup, these are animals. No feet, no eyes, no fur, pretty unstimulating social lives, and yet they fit the definition of the animal kingdom: heterotrophic, multicellular, etc.

Coral are sessile animals which means they don’t move. They do have mouths which they use to filter food from the surrounding water, but they also get much of their food from a symbiotic relationship with algae. So, basically, the coral just sit in one place their whole life, look pretty, and food is brought straight to them. Do you know anyone like that?

The coral and the algae together form a reef that is the habitat for thousands of species. Algae provides most of the food and coral does a nice job providing shelter. The research I am doing here in the Bahamas involves tracking the coral populations to see whether they are indeed bleaching and declining. So the ecologists who are in charge of the project are teaching us how to identify and assess various coral.

Here are a few of the coral we’ve seen. Yea sessile animals! I keep trying to take pictures of fish and they have no skills whatsoever in terms of posing. Coral on the other hand know exactly what it means to sit for a picture.

Smooth Brain Coral. Pretty perfect name eh?

Sea Fan: a type of soft coral.

Dead Man’s Fingers: this one looks a bit bleached in the picture, but it’s not, it was much more purple in person.

Slow Ocean Animals are Easier to take Pictures of

Hopefully I'll be able to catch some speedier ones as I get more practice, but for now here's a nice pokey, and lovely starfish. This was part of a sea grass ecosystem, not a coral reef.

Also! The fish aren't all bright colors (see blog below). It's just that the camoflaged ones are, duh, hard to see. Can you find the fish in this picture?

Biodiversity: they’re not kidding.

Coral Reefs are known as one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. In one day in the desert you can expect to see a couple of lizards and a couple of birds but below is what I saw in just my first 20 min in the coral reef. I’m not at all saying that coral reefs are better than deserts… I would never betray my Utah loyalty with such sentiment, but the reefs critters could probably give the desert critters a few fashion tips.

Day one:
2 different graceful, flowing sting rays
loads of bright yellow fish with purple heads
a flat turquoise fish the size of a platter…wow.
skinny fish with green and white stripes: stripes are always slimming
psychedelic blue fish that looked like it was dunked in glitter.
Butter-stick sized fish with a luscious yellow head, dramatic black zigzag, and blue tail
Emo punk looking anenome waving long black spines in the surf
Simple yet classy black fish
A mega black and white fish with mega mega lips
A sea cucumber that is named after donkey feces (it doesn't win the attractivity award)
Iridescent blue, green and silver striped fish

In short, it would appear that all of these guys missed the memo on camouflage. Their strategies instead seem to be either: 'don't eat me, I'm far too beautiful to be delicious' or 'yeah, I know I'm an easy target, so I'll just hide in these coral'.

Wish you guys could see it... I have yet to hone my underwater photography skills to where I can capture it with a camera.

Testing the Waters

Today I'll surprise my neighborhood pool lifeguards by getting totally suited up to swim a couple laps and test out the flippers and mask so generously lent to me by Maddy Hartley and family. I think their confused stares are preferable to the piranhas and fecal coliform in the Jordan River, or the currently frigid Great Salt Lake.

But, somehow, I'm not sure if the Sorensen center pool will really give me the ocean practice I'm looking for. Sure it's a pretty big pool with all sorts of bizarrely interesting and colorful life forms frolicking about, but from a water chemistry perspective I expect some significant differences. Which brings me to our first essential question: How is the Sorenson pool not like the ocean?

I'm not going to beleaguer this question, but for anyone out there who still questions the usefulness of their high school chemistry education, check out all the chemistry you need to know to manage a pool.

One difference that I have noticed between the Sorenson pool and the ocean is an apparent difference in size. Based on weeks of investigation I've come to the strong hypothesis that the ocean is indeed larger than the Sorenson pool, though I will have to wait until I land in the Bahamas on Saturday to verify this hypothesis. If the ocean is indeed as large as it looks on various globes (on which I can easily find the ocean but have difficulty locating the Sorenson pool) then I would imagine that you need an even greater understanding of chemistry to figure out what's going on there.

Coral Reef Chemistry

So let's cut to the chase in terms of some of the science. Coral reefs worldwide are suffering.
Since 1980 bleaching of coral reefs has become widespread. This doesn't have anything to do with bleach as in the chemical it just means that algae which provide corals with their food and color leave the coral and the coral turns white.


Coral often die soon afterwards. Two of the strongest hypotheses for why coral bleaching has reached endemic levels recently are higher ocean temperatures and lower ocean pH.
Here's a Update on Coral Reefs from the scientists I'm working with.

Dissolved gases- you know that solids can dissolve in water, and if you've ever partaken of a carbonated beverage you also know that gases can dissolve in water. Since the industrial revolution the ocean has been kind enough to suck up about half of the CO2 we humans have been adding to the atmosphere. If the oceans hadn’t been doing this, global climate change would probably be a lot worse than it currently is. Thank you oceans! But are the oceans becoming too carbonated? It’s not yet to the point of swimming in soda (that would be super carbonated) but what are the issues?

Ocean Acidification- as oceans absorb human-made CO2 from the atmosphere they turn that CO2 into carbonic acid. Thus, the oceans are getting more acidic. Their pH is going down. This is one possible reason for the decline of the coral reefs.

Here’s a National Geographic article about CO2 in the oceans.