May Term Class: Marine Biology

Sunday May 5, 2019 It is a tradition for Goshen College groups to go to the local Baptist Church by the station and sing hymns. Saturday night we had a mini rehearsal and figured out the strengths and weaknesses musically of our group. We definitely struggled at the beginning! However, by Sunday morning we had … Keep reading »

Saturday May 4, 2019 In our first class of the day we learned about sponges. Here in the Keys at the hardbottom site (where there is little soft sediment and sand) we visited there was an abundance of Spheciospongia vesparium (loggerhead sponge), Ircinia campera (vase sponge) and Gorgonians (sea whips and sea fans). At this … Keep reading »

Our first research project today was collecting Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans, floating brown algae that harbor many species. Within these sargassum communities there are the Leander tenuicornis (sargassum shrimp), Portunus sayi (sargassum crab), and the Histrio histrio (sargassum fish). Sadly no sargassum fish were found in the group I was in. The next community … Keep reading »

This morning, we woke up to calm waters and bright sunshine. The first agenda of the day was a lecture on the importance of seagrass, which plays an analogous role to that of grasslands on the terrestrial environment. A single acre of seagrass absorbs the equivalent of the effluent nutrients from 490 people, sequesters 7,401 … Keep reading »

  We have another wonderful group of marine biologists taking the May-term class this year at the J.N. Roth Marine Biology station in the Florida Keys. Here is the “before” picture of our group… expect the “after” picture to include investigators that are a bit more tired, sun-burned (hopefully not), and the wiser about marine … Keep reading »

Thursday May 17, 2018 This morning (Thursday) students presented the results from their independent research projects in the form of both a written paper and a poster. The posters were printed and displayed for students to use in explaining their research projects to the public at an open house event we hosted in the evening. … Keep reading »

Monday May 14 and Tuesday May 15 – Final research days The day started a bit slower than usual. Strong coffee was poured into mugs, blistered feet shoved into sandals, and sunscreen slowly lathered into tanned skin. Quietly, we piled into the pontoon, heading out to continue data collection for our ever looming research papers. … Keep reading »

Sat. & Sun. May 12-13, 2018 Saturday students successfully identified 50 marine species of algae, echinoderms, cnidarians, sponges, etc. We needed an afternoon in Key West as a deserved break! Sunday students sang at the church – Happy Mother’s Day moms! After breakfast we had an hour lecture on spiny lobster ecology. After this, we … Keep reading »

Friday May 11, 2018 We started off today by packing our lunches, then with our snorkel gear ready we walked to the Keys Marine Lab. Many of us never had visited a coral reef before the coral nursery the previous day, so we were excited to visit more established reefs. The first reef we visited … Keep reading »

Thursday May 10, 2018 Today has been the highlight of this Marine Biology May term. (The whole trip itself is a highlight but this is a higher highlight.) We had the opportunity to visit the Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF). We learned tons about the decline of coral reefs over the past decades. I’ve learned that … Keep reading »