Week 4 at USF St. Pete started out in the classroom learning about the open ocean. We learned about the types of organisms that inhabit the open ocean and how they cope with the challenges of living there. We also practiced our classification skills on a few preserved specimens. This prepared us for Tuesday which was research cruise day.
Tuesday morning, we boarded the R/V Weatherbird II and headed out 25 miles to the first sampling site. We were separated into five teams which each had a sampling responsibility. One team was responsible for deploying the CTD and performing many water quality tests on the water collected. Two teams deployed and collected the contents of two different plankton nets: Neuston and Bongo nets. The Neuston net collected only surface plankton while the Bongo net could collect plankton at depth. I was on the team which was responsible for helping deploy and retrieve the otter trawl. An otter trawl is a large net that is meant to collect organisms just above the sea floor. The doors of the otter trawl only allow the net to open at depth to prevent unwanted specimens. When the otter trawl was pulled in, everyone helped empty, sort, and identify the organisms caught. The same happened for the dredge. A dredge is a metal cage that is dragged along the sea floor to capture bottom dwelling and burrowing organisms. After the first site, we had a break, and repeated the sampling at an inshore site at night.
Wednesday consisted of clean up, data input, and project topic selection. On Thursday, we worked on our projects, had lecture on biodiversity, and went to the Florida Aquarium. At the Florida Aquarium, we filled out ethograms on a bird and two other organisms of our choice. On Friday, we had lecture on the deep sea, finalized our projects, and presented them. I enjoyed this past week at USFSP, especially going out on the Weatherbird.
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