10 days, 10 nights: Day 2

Nighttime on the Atchafalaya Basin levee brought a cacophony of sound.

In addition to tree(?) and cricket frogs, we heard the rumbling of bull frogs and the occasional hoot from a barred owl.

The next day, Dr. Keim gave us a tour of some of the flood control structures around New Orleans, such as the Bonnet Carre spillway (below), which releases extra water from the Mississippi into a floodplain. Marshes inside the floodplain have fresher water and higher plant diversity than marshes outside the floodplain. We also toured ghost cypress forests, which are former cypress forests where the trees have been killed following the anthropogenic introduction of salt water. In many cases, the dead trees remain standing, with just their leafless trunks sticking out of the water.

10 days, 10 nights: Day 1

I recently returned from co-teaching a field course on wetland ecosystems of the southeastern US. For 10 days and 10 nights we traveled across the southeastern states, visiting a variety of freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems that could be classified as "wetlands."

The class crashed at my house the first night so that we could hit the road early in the morning.

The next day we canoed in Atchaflaya Basin, a swamp in southern Louisiana. Our tour was led by Dr. Richard Keim from LSU (in the front of the canoe on the left).

The basin is one of the largest remaining examples of a pond cypress-tupelo riverine swamp.

Next: New Orleans

Restoration, nutrients, and insects

How do insect communities develop in restored marshes? How does plant diversity and nutrient availability influence insect assemblages? Post-doc Chuan-Kai Ho is addressing these questions in a new experiment.

Small mounds of Spartina alterniflora were planted in a brackish marsh restoration project near Port Arthur, Texas. Spartina alterniflora is a common marsh plant, but as the competitive dominant, it may exclude other plant species. Will that impact the insect community?

Some mounds will be left intact.

Some mounds will be clipped (below) to remove the Spartina alterniflora canopy and (hypothetically) allow other species to colonize the mounds. Some of the clipped and unclipped mounds will be fertilized to evaluate how nutrient supply influences insect assemblages. The red arrows on the photo below point to beetles that live in the marsh canopy.

A parting shot for the end of the day.

Congrats to Allison

Graduate student Allison Parnell won Best in Category for the Marine Resources Management Division at the TAMUG Student Research Symposium last week. Good job, Allison!

The saga of the Spartina that fell over continues

This week, we surveyed restored marsh mounds at Port Arthur. Last July, some of the mounds appeared to be overgrown with Spartina, and the plants were growing over the edges of the mound and falling over. All of the plant material eventually senesced during the winter, but the centers of those mounds now have dense new green growth. Decomposing senesced material around the edges will probably raise the elevation of the mound edges and facilitate the outward spread of the marsh plants. To quantify this spreading potential, we will assess accretion rates to determine the rate of marsh growth.
This observation suggests a hidden benefit to using this strain of Spartina: Maybe its rapid growth will increase marsh spreading rates?

Some of our research "fleet": a pirogue and a towed inflatable for samples.

Seeking Graduate and Undergraduate Field Technicians

Seeking Graduate and Undergraduate Field Technicians to work on a Recreational Use Attainability Analysis of streams in the Brazos River Basin. This TCEQ project being conducted by Dr. Kirk Winemiller in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and Dr. David Scott and Dr. Scott Shafer in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences will sample 727 miles on 31 streams.

Duties include

Participating in field training April 18, 19, 25, and 26

Working most, and preferably all Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between

May 1 - July 31, 2009

Driving project vehicles

Staying in hotels 1-2 hours away from College Station

Working independently in 2-person teams

Following a standard scientific sampling methodology

Navigating to sampling points using maps and handheld GPS units

Collecting recreation and habitat data on stream segments

Conducting interviews of people using streams

Entering data on field sheets and handheld field computers

Maintaining field equipment

Desired skills include

Ability to swim

Hiking in rough terrain

Paddling canoes

Towing a boat trailer with a full size pickup truck

Experience with Microsoft Excel

Applicants will be hired based on

Availability during periods needed for the project

Prior work experience

Experience working outdoors in tough conditions

Hired field technicians will generally work between 10-13 hours per day at a pay rate of $15/hour

To apply, please email/drop off resumes with attached references to

John Baker

Email glacous@ufl.edu

Room 110c Heep Laboratory Building (Bldg 511)

Kirk Winemiller Aquatic Ecology Lab

Texas A&M University

Seagrass work on TV

For my postdoctoral work in Florida, I studied nutrient impacts on seagrass beds. This segment of a local television show featured our work. Each clip is about 5 minutes long.
Nutrients in Florida Bay Part 1
Nutrients in Florida Bay Part 2