Saturday, 5/8/2010
Florida Panhandle residents, visitors, and business owners are wondering if and when the oil will arrive on their shores.
With the edge a little over 50 miles away, federal and state officials are in Pensacola today to address emergency efforts for the Deep Horizon oil spill bearing down on Florida's Gulf coastline.
Meanwhile, a pair of graduate research students from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have traveled from the Fort Pierce research campus to Pensacola to collect environmental data and field samples from the area's sensitive coastal marshes and seagrass ecosystems.
Katie Tiling and Glennn Coldren are students in the Integrative Biology Ph.D. program at Florida Atlantic University working in Dr. Ed Proffitt's lab at Harbor Branch.
Dr. Proffitt notes that Tiling and Coldren are engaged in the collection of baseline data on stress levels of a variety of marsh plants and animals that can be compared to stress measurements taken after the spill impacts the system if it does indeed reach the Panhandle. Seagrasses, oysters, intertidal snails, and several types of marsh vegetation are among the species the team will target.
A suite of laboratory stress measurement assays will be performed on the sample material back at Harbor Branch, including a technique called Comet Assay that quantifies DNA degradation as an indicator of environmental stress.
Field Dispatches
Wednesday 5/12/2010, 12:16 AM
Glennn Coldren and Kathryn Tiling "
Yesterday (May 11, 2010) we sampled two areas along the Big Bend. The first was along the St. George Sound where we collected Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cord grass) and Littoraria littoria (periwinkle snail). The second area was near the Florida State University Marine Lab, where we also collected Spartina alterniflora and Littoraria littoria (periwinkle snail).
Today we made our way back to the Treasure Coast, where we spent the day putting all of the samples we collected into long-term storage until we can analyze them.
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Monday 5/10/2010, 12:16 AM
Glennn Coldren and Kathryn Tiling " Today we sampled St. Andrew's Bay near Panama City. We collected the seagrassThalassia testudinum (Turtle grass), Spartina alterniflora (Salt marsh cordgrass) and the gastropod molluscLittorina littorea (Periwinkle). Tomorrow we will sample 2 sites in St. Joe Bay. Still no sign of oil yet.
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Sunday 5/9/2010, 12:07 AM
Glennn Coldren and Kathryn Tiling "We sampled Little Sabine Point, off of Gulf Breeze Island near the inlet into Pensacola Bay. We were able to collect Spartina alterniflora (Salt marsh cordgrass), Littorina littorea (Periwinkle) and Crassostrea virginica (Eastern oyster). We preserved these 3 different ways for a variety of analyses. There is no sign of any oil coming into the bay yet. Tomorrow we will be going to Choctawhatchee Bay, then to the St. Andrews Bay area if time permits. Also, there were swans in the salt marsh! We unfortunately collected no samples of these."
Saturday 5/8/2010, 10:40 AM
Dr. Ed Proffitt: "The 'Strike Team' is on site. . . Glennn and Katie are in Pensacola Bay and working with a colleague of mine, Darrin Dantin, of the USEPA Gulf Breeze Lab in choosing sites."
Meet the Scientists
Katie Tiling's doctoral research will focus on the population genetics and genetic ecology of the tropical seagrass Thalassia testudinum in Florida. Her work will focus on the importance of genetic diversity in recovering from disturbances and in the productivity and status of populations near the northern edge of the species' range compared to populations in more central locations She also serves at the elected Student Representative to the Southeastern Estuarine Research Society, an affiliate of the international Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation.
Glenn Coldren's research interests focus on species interactions, especially between salt marsh and mangrove plant species. In association with Dr. Proffitt and Dr. Donna Devlin, he completed a two-year field experiment in which the effects of several salt marsh plant species on mangrove survival, growth, and colonization was assessed. Future research will examine the specifics of mangrove colonization sites and interactions among plant species along latitudinal gradients. |
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