6/19-6/25

On Monday, I got to start our first predation assay and start collecting data (yay). I went out with Shelby in the morning and began putting out the squid pops at our previously scouted sites. We had three repetitions of each marsh edge of either a slope, slump, or escarpment, to make a total of 9 sites. After putting 10 squid pops at each site at high tide we then waited 3 hours before we went back to collect them. However, a giant storm decided to roll in around this time so I had to wait around 4 hours instead. After the storm, I went out by myself (along with a student from the class doing her own thing) and collected the squid pops. I marked the absence or presence of any squid on each marker at each site. I used our GPS coordinates to find my way back to each one as the grass is insanely hard to look through. I hope to start analyzing this preliminary data soon and to start to get an understanding on how marsh edges are affecting consumption :P.

On Tuesday, I started looking at the mud crabs we collected at each of the oyster survey sites from last week. I took data on their species, sex, and the prevalence of a disease called Loxo. After going through 3 sites I started to work on finishing the crab tethers for my predation experiment tomorrow. I tethered about 75 crabs onto their stakes with the buoys I previously had attached. This took me about 12 episodes of Arrested Development to do and now my back hurts. 

On Wednesday, I had another busy day in the field. I started by going out with one of the students from the class to place my tethered mud crabs. She helped me place 8 tethers at each of the 9 sites I had used in my other predation assay with the squid pops. 'Twas a bit of a cluster, but after using some olympic level mental gymnastics we were able to get everything out. The crabs' only goal in life it seemed was to get as tangled as possible but we eventually got them all where they needed to go. After 4 hours, we came back to collected them and marked how many had been predated. This went much smoother than the deployment operation (thank Karkinos). We then went out again to deploy her tethers at her locations since she needed a low tide. We saw one gator and a snake while in the marsh.

Thursday was pretty chill ngl. I finished up making more squid pops for my predation assay I am going to deploy tomorrow. After that, I finished collecting data on the infected crabs I was looking at on Tuesday. I also measured their carapace widths today and plan to deal with that data in the future. 

On Friday, I went out to place my squid pops for my third predation assay. I went out with another researcher on the island on his canoe to place the squid pops from the water at the marsh's edge. It was a little difficult at first but eventually we got it down. After four hours I went out with one of the PhD students to collect them. It took us a little to locate some of the markers, but by using some amazing recall skills, I found them all. After that, I met with Shelby to go over our data sheet and finished up the day with some data entry.