I have now been in southern Mississippi for over a month and I figured it was about time to finally give those who are interested (the brave few who actually choose to read this blog) an update on my research (Note: my plan is to update this blog about once a month). As a recap, last month I started my PhD. program at the University of Southern Mississippi at their research lab (the Gulf Coast Research Lab) in Ocean Spring, MS. The primary research objective of my research is to conduct a Gulf-wide assessment of habitat use and habitat-specific production estimates of nekton in turtlegrass. The above objective may seem a bit of a mouthful, so please allow me to give a better picture of what my research is about. Seagrass (as the name implies) are a group of plants that grows in marine and brackish (salty) environments (Mind blown right?). In addition to be simply being awesome because they are plants growing in highly saline environments (i.e. extremely difficult environments that most plants can't grow in) seagrasses are also incredibly important because they serve as nursery habitats for juvenile nekton (i.e. marine animals that can swim against the current such as crabs and fish) many of which are important for commercial fisheries. One type of seagrass, turtlegrass (Thalassia testudinum) is particularly important in the Gulf of Mexico as it functions as a climax species (look it up) that provides habitat for a wide arrange of animals as well as crucial sediment erosion control (i.e. it holds the sediment together with its rhizomes and roots), and considerable primary productivity (it photosynthesizes and provides lots of surface area on its blades for other things to photosynthesize). Unfortunately, we know from multiple studies worldwide (I can send you dozens of article on the subject if you are interested) that seagrass environments are being severely degraded worldwide which naturally makes us scientists wonder about the effect of this decline on the organisms living in the seagrass habitat. Because many of these organisms, such as blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), are critically important as a food source for much of the US, it is particularly crucial that we develop a better understanding of the nature of the relationships between the nekton and their turtlegrass environments in order to design management and conservation strategies that preserve both the environment and the fisheries for the foreseeable future. Consequently, I am doing research to investigate how nekton are currently using turtle grass as habitat in the Gulf of Mexico.
If you were entirely lost by the long explanation above, do not worry, you are in good company. I too feel lost most of the time in the sheer scope of my project, but I am incredibly excited to see where the research will take me. I will be working with multiple faculty and government employees from multiple states, to conduct field samples, run isotope analysis, collect sediment samples, learn how to ID different fish, and do who knows what else for the next 4-5 years. I will also be doing the academic side of things, taking classes, passing checkpoints (such as quals and comps), writing a dissertation, and defending said dissertation, Is this ridiculous preponderance of work somewhat daunting? Yes, it is but also incredibly exciting to see where God is taking me.
To give those of you who aren't particularly enthralled with long scientific discussions something to actually look at I have put some pictures below of random happenstances as well as pics of a recent crab tagging trip I went on to help out a labmate with their research. For anyone who is actually interested in more of the details of my research I invite you to take a look at my advisor's website (http://www.kellymdarnell.com/).
Amazing sweet potato pizza that I made
New pantiers on bike
View of sunset on Biloxi bay from the Ocean Springs bridge
Some tagged blue crabs
The Mississippi Sound
