UWF - Final Blog - Eliannis S.

During these past five weeks we have been able to visit many of Florida’s habitats, such as mangrove forests/islands, seagrass beds, coral reefs, oyster reefs, rivers, longleaf pine savannas, and even shore bird nesting sites. All of these habitats are very different and unique, but yet still have several things in common. For example, each is home to a variety of species, some have high biodiversity and others low. Yet, for some reason the connection between these habitats that stands out the most to me, is how we humans have altered them in a negative way. We learned that seagrasses are marked by passing boats at the Keys and Vester, then we were able to actually see the markings with our own eyes using the drones at UWF. We constantly went over about how everything that we do on land affects our ocean, and we had the opportunity to see how this occurs at UWF, by visiting severals parts of rivers. Also, we were able to see how shorebirds have adapted to living on the side of a bridge that has much human activity going on, which was very strange to see. Overall, I think that this course made us more aware of the environmental issues that our planet is facing. It is one thing to hear about it on the news or during lecture in a classroom, and another to actually see it for ourselves. During our last week at UWF, we not only learned how the conditions of the ocean are affected by what goes on inland, but also how we can make a difference now and in the future. I am very thankful to have met all of the professors in this course, and to have visited the places we did and seen the things we saw.