Week 7 was the beginning of a new course, Marine and Coastal Ecological Research, led by Professor Elizabeth Boyle.  This class not only consists of a lot of reading material for class discussions, but it is also combined with field research followed by actual laboratory work from samples of water and sediment samples taken on those field trips.  This was a particularly exciting week for me because my Independent Study is Salt Marsh Zonation of three separate marshes here on Nantucket.  The field trips this week were to Medouie Creek and Folgers Marsh were we learned how to do zonation as a class.  We were grouped into 6 groups and I had the pleasure of working with Richie Corado and Timchi Khamdy.  We all put on our waders and in a brisk and windy first day we headed to Medouie Creek to do some zonation!  The following field trip was to Folgers Marsh where we also did zonation and soil and water sampling that we did some testing of in the laboratory at UMASS Boston Field Station located on Folgers Marsh.  Here are some pics of the Folgers Marsh field trip.

On a side note, time is flying by and I can’t believe we are more then halfway through the semester!  One more week to Spring Break!

Folgers critters

Group Activity

Folgers Marsh Tidal Creek

Did you not get your fill of me finding dead things within other dead things from my last post? Well, you, my dear friends, are in luck! Whilst out on a lovely stroll through Folger’s Marsh in order to assess how my precious bivalves were weathering the storm (coincidentally all I saw was dead shells), I came across a newly deceased S. Reticulatum, colloquially referred to as the purple marsh crab. This was of particular interest to me on this adventure of morbidity because we had just read about these adorable little creatures who, as it turns out, are a large cause of loss of S. Alterniflora in higher marsh zones. I must admit that I was quite pleased with my finding. These crabs are nocturnal, which is why despite our best attempts these past few days to poke them out of every marsh hole my team happened to literally and figuratively stumble across, we found nothing. I only happened upon a solitary crab, so I do not fear any cause for alarm in their population. It just makes me think maybe I should change my name to Thanatos. As a final point, I feel it necessary to add that for such a small decapod it carried a large stink.

The first week of costal ecology has been very intense but I enjoyed every moment of it (with the exception of my group’s reliable soil sipper fails). I’m thrilled to finally do some field work out in the marshes, collecting soil samples and doing transects. Professor Beth Boyle is very informative and her style of lecture is engaging. However, the conservation of angular momentum of Beth’s class added to independent study and capstone projects has rotated of the winds of this semester into dizzy and forceful tornado. Hang on tight!

Every Monday we are treated to a speaker and a catered dinner, by the talented  Chef Stacy. This week’s speaker was Sue Rocca from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDC); her presentation was supported by Scott Leonard of the Nantucket Marine Mammal Conservation Program, and Captain Blair Perkins of Explore Nantucket. Scott led of the discussion with this passage from Moby Dick: “…and as human infants while suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if leading two different lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal nourishment, be still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscence; even so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards us…”  The quote illustrates an essential point about how humans should view the other species of animals, specifically mammals, in context of the environment; We are not distantly related, but are remarkably close! Animals, specifically whales, experience emotions and have complex and nuanced social interactions just as we do. They just have a different situation on the planet than we do. Sue’s presentation focused on the successes of the WDC as well as the challenges the organization experiences dealing with legally conserving the mostly coastal habitat of Right Whales. Since the collapse of whale populations in the Atlantic after the advent of Whaling, populations have not recovered well. Only recently have developments in research methods allowed a deeper study into what is left of whales, globally but, specifically in the Atlantic. WDC is doing great work advocating for all species of Whales and Dolphins and it was extremely informative and inspiring to be reminded of the tough reality faced by othe rspecies of animals around the planet.

Please check out WDC’s website @ http://www.wdcs.org

And be sure to check out the local, Nantucket initiative  @ http://www.nantucketmarinemammals.org

The dorms at the field station at this time of year is a great place to get away from the hectic pace of our dorm rooms here in town.  On Sunday I jumped at the chance to grab my book bag and head to the station for some solitude and much needed focus study time devoted towards my Independent Study.  Here are some pics of the outside of the dorm house and some of the surrounding landscaping.

After finishing hydrology on Friday we are now officially at the mid way point of our Nantucket living lab semester. I would like to give a special thanks to Professor Douglas for an amazing three weeks of hydrology. To celebrate our accomplishments we went to the UMASS field station on Saturday afternoon to grill some food and enjoy the outdoors. I have been eager to try the ocean kayaks and was able to do so along with Richie Corrado, Sarah Jacobs and Llewin Froome. We decided to make the trek across Nantucket Harbor to the third point of Coatue Wildlife Refuge, which was a great experience.

View of Nantucket Harbor from Coatue’s Third Point

Ending of Hydrology was a relief that the test went well for myself, so i figure a relaxing weekend was the trick.  This weekend I was able to try out something I’ve never experienced before, Bird-watching.  I had a great time and was able to identify and learned of new Nantucket birds that are year rounders on the island.  The Umass field station trail was the perfect path to catch different birds in there habitat, water, land and air.  The pictures above are a little off the trail but myself and Jeremy Raynor wandered off trail a little bit making the adventure even more fun.  Can’t wait to do more of it, because all I see in the city is pigeons and seagulls.  Our trek back to the station, we were greeted by portobello mushroom burgers and beverages from all our hard work.  Thoroughly enjoyed this weekend, and while we were on our adventure we were able to see input and output flow of a stream flow. (shout out to Hydro, Ellen Douglas).

So hydrology came to a swift end, it was informative and nice to have such a lovely professor such as Dr. Ellen Douglas. With the start of a fresh new month and a new class, Costal Ecology  with Professor Beth Boyle I am uber excited for this class and the adventures to come.