Week 5 UWF - Lexy Gabos

 Week 5 UWF - Lexy Gabos   

This past week in Pensacola was a pretty good wrap-up to an amazing five weeks. We focused a lot on understanding how the physical and chemical properties of primary and secondary rivers upland affect the waters we have near the coasts. This is a really important connection that I’m glad we emphasized at the end of this class, as we spent the first few weeks of the course focusing on the health of coastal waters around the state – most specifically looking at their water quality, species diversity, and habitat conservation. Naturally, understanding the health of ocean waters requires understanding the conditions and health of the riverine and estuarine systems which feed into them. We spent our first day this week going to a few different river/creek sites north of Pensacola and learned about the factors which impact their quality and health. We went to different parts of the same river systems that were miles apart, and I thought that was neat because it highlighted how much water these rivers are continuously moving, which eventually deposits into estuaries and then into the ocean. We saw how drastically our upland farming and development has polluted some of the rivers in this area, and how quickly a river system can become eutrophicated or anoxic. While it’s pretty disheartening to then consider how this affects downstream waters, we know that by decreasing the amount of pollution and nutrients which enter upland river systems, we can directly improve the quality of water which flows into our oceans. 

I had not previously spent too much time focusing on this aspect of coastal conservation because of a lack of exposure to river systems and geography in general, so I really appreciated the time we dedicated this last week to this aspect of marine biology. It helped me better see how interconnected our waters are, and how important it is to maintain, improve, and conserve as many different water bodies as we can. It is also definitely a good reminder for me to take any steps I can to lessen my impact on the environment.

Lexy Gabos

06/17/2021