Wrapping it all up

After an exciting and educational four weeks, the MIT Sea Grant Ocean Science Internship program came to a close, and the interns wowed the Sea Grant Staff and their families, as well as a few other visitors, with a presentation on their research on the Boston Harbor Islands.

We spent the last few days frantically finishing our research projects and putting together a slide show that we hoped would be informative, as well as visually-pleasing.  In preparation for our presentation, we read up on how to do an effective powerpoint presentation.  Some experts cautioned against using bullet points, while others saw them as imperative.  Some advised using the 6 x 6 rule, while others admonished such dogma as nonsense.

Should we inject humor into our presentation?  The assessment of biodiversity and introduced species is serious business.  Still, we couldn’t help interjecting our suggestion for mitigating the effect of the recently-introduced Asian Shore Crab:  Looks delicious!

One blogger even listed eating cake as a requirement for a successful completion of a scientific talk.  Luckily, we had that part down, as Isabelle brought in a topical dessert, which was not only beautiful, but delicious as well!

As the new internship coordinator for the summer, I had many goals for the program.  Coming from a rigorous graduate program, I was excited that from the beginning of the program, these students had an in-depth understanding of biological concepts that allowed us to tackle really sophisticated ecological issues.  I wanted to emphasize that although we think of science as being static and definition-driven, there are many issues that even biology’s greatest minds cannot come to a consensus on.  How do we evaluate the health of an ecosystem?  How do we define biodiversity?  How to we manage invasive species?  Not only were they were able to appreciate the complexity of these issues, they also brought original thought to discussions of these issues.

Even with extensive understanding of these concepts, any ecologist will tell you that this knowledge can’t always prepare you for conditions in the field.  Being a field ecologist comes with a unique set of challenges, and I also hoped that my students would come away from this program understanding not only how to execute a field survey, but also understanding that things almost never go exactly as planned.  Sometimes your equipment spazzes out when it gets too much salt on it.  Sometimes the ferry taking you to your field site doesn’t come on time.  Sometimes you come back to your lab and find that your data doesn’t even come close to fitting a normal distribution.  In ecology, as in many fields, flexibility, quick thinking, and creative solutions come with the territory, and by getting out and doing actual scientific research, these students gained what I hope was a lesson in what it means to be a scientist.

So, to wrap everything up, I want to wish the interns best of luck and thank them for making it a delight to come to work every day!

 

 

 

Shrimps Galore

Last week on a transect survey at Lovell’s Island we found a shrimp in a tide pool. We took photos in the field and released the unknown, egg bearing shrimp.  Upon returning to the lab we tried to identify it from the photos, and we found it almost immediately: the European rock shrimp, Palaemon elegans.  It was a perfect match; the translucent body, the dark striping and the tell-tale orange and neon blue claws were all present.  Unfortunately, the European rock shrimp belongs in Europe.  It was an alien invasive.

The First Shrimp We Found

Sure wish we hadn’t released it now… it was full of eggs.

The European rock shrimp is a fairly recent invasive,  first sighted on the East Coast in 2010  in Salem and Gloucester, MA.  However, this is the first time it has been sighted in the Boston Harbor.  To make sure  that it really was a European rock shrimp, we went back to Lovell’s Island to collect samples.

We didn’t think we would be successful: we had found one shrimp, in one tide pool, on one day. We were wrong.  We weren’t even finished unpacking our gear when Chris McIntyre, our resident shrimp expert, found one adult shrimp. And then another. Within a couple minutes we had several whirl bags and a Tupperware container full of twitching, wriggly, egg bearing shrimp that all looked exactly like the European rock shrimp.

Net full of babies

Rock Shrimp in a whirl bag

Wriggly tupperware

Since there was such an abundance of adults and babies (one sweep of a tide pool with a net caught over 20  baby shrimp) Chris decided to take the shrimp to U. Mass, to see which native fish would eat them. We brought a few back to the lab, preserved them in ethanol, and they promptly turned bright red.

Hopefully this discovery will help in the mitigation of the European rock shrimp, and stop it before it takes hold of the Boston Harbor Islands.

 

 

Whale Watch!

In order to break up the monotony of staring at excel files and other small boxes with numbers on screens, we went on a whale watch! Two hours after we came up the elevator and into our conference room we all filed out to go beyond our beloved harbor islands and see some of the largest animals in the Massachusetts Bay area. On our way out, it was sweltering hot but we were quickly cooled down by the cool breeze provided by our speeding boat.

After the boat ride out we spotted a pair of humpbacks that were feeding nearby. We learned how to ID Humpback whales and Kate even was able to tell us their names – Pele and Eruption!

 

Soon after we found another group of 4 Humpbacks, and a couple of smaller Minke whales playfully dashed around the boat. Kate was a wealth of knowledge pointing out various bird species and whale features.

After about an hour in the presence of Humpbacks we had to head back into the harbor. Our gorgeous day suddenly turned cloudy and as our boat was slicing through the water we were treated to a wonderful lightning show. As we huddled under an awning to keep dry on our way back, we gave ourselves the tour of the Harbor Islands we had heard 5 times before. Once we disembarked we got completely soaked, stopped for a little hot chocolate and headed back to MIT. We ended a very exciting day with a little data entry and then all headed home.

Mystery Tunicates and Shrimp Invaders

Data Entry

We had a very productive week on the Harbor Islands and gathered a lot of data. The focus of this week is taking the data we collected in the field and manipulating it into a form that will be useful for the National Park Service and other scientists. We compiled our data in the standardized format that the Park Service uses; Noting the transect location, quadrat number, which side of the transect it was on, and all species found in each quadrat. As we entered our data into the database we kept an eye out for any trends on which we could focus our own more individual research questions, as well as looking for overall trends on which to perform statistical analyses. We also entered our beach profile data and made graphs that show the overall slope of each of our transects. All the water quality data that we collected was analyzed and entered into our database. We performed titrations on samples collected the week before in order to study the level of biological oxygen demand vs. the original dissolved oxygen content of sample areas.

Brainstorming research question ideas.

Data sheets, samples for identification, and a field guide.

Today we took all the samples that we collected in the field down to the lab where we used the microscope for identification purposes. We were able to identify all our samples except one mystery tunicate. We made a very exciting find today. It turns out that the shrimp we found on Lovells Island is Palaemon elegans, otherwise know as the European Rock Shrimp. Ours was the first specimen to have ever been documented in Boston Harbor. P. elegans was first found in Salem Massachusetts in 2010, which makes it a relative new comer to the area.

Winkling to Determine Biological Oxygen Demand (B.O.D)

Determining invasives/ non native species found in this year’s survey versus last year’s.

Low Tide on Lovells

After a busy week of field surveys, the MIT Ocean Science Interns headed out to Lovells Island for one more transect survey on this quiet harbor island.  Getting to Lovells is no small task.  First, we pack up all of our gear and hop on the subway to Downtown Boston, carting our equipment-filled buckets through the Financial District until we arrive at Long Wharf.

After catching a connecting ferry from George’s Island, we arrived at our field site about an hour before low tide and got straight to work.  We found that, compared to Spectacle Island, there tends to be a lot more life in our quadrats, particularly as we move closer to the water’s edge.

Today, we found a creature not yet seen on any of our intertidal zone surveys.  Lurking quietly next to a rock was a shrimp!  After enlisting the team to corral and finally capture the specimen, we quickly discovered that this was an egg-bearing female.  We carefully photographed and documented this individual so we could get a more specific species identification back in the lab and released this exciting find back into its home in the mid-littoral zone.

The team works together to capture a shrimp

Today was also a remarkable day for crab abundance.  In one 1/4 meter quadrat we found over 20 crabs.  Each crab is identified to the species and sex, and the width of its carapace is measured using digital calipers.

Our brave interns aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and chase after these elusive, and sometimes aggressive, arthropods.  They range in size from minuscule individuals that require a magnifying glass to ID, to larger crabs that are nearly the size of our palms!

Overall, we have found that most of the crabs in our surveys are Asian shore crabs, an introduced species characterized by a square-shaped carapace.  Today, we also found several green crabs.  This species was introduced to the Atlantic Coast in the 1800s and is a voracious predator, capable of eating up to 40 clams a day.  They can be identified by counting the 5 spines on either side of their carapace.

After gathering a weeks worth of data, the team will return to the lab at MIT Sea Grant to compile and analyze their data, identify unknown specimens, and put together a final report.  The data that they collected will be used by the National Park Service and the MWRA as part of a long-term series of studies on the biodiversity of the Boston Harbor Islands.

 

Back to Spectacle Island

For the first time, today we were able to sleep in just a little bit.  Because low tide was around 1 pm, we gathered at the MIT Sea Grant office around 9:30 before heading out to the harbor.  After spending yesterday on Lovells Island, we returned to the (less interesting) Spectacle Island.  Once again, we took the ferry, hiked across Spectacle Island, and trekked down perilous boulders to get to the beach site, but eventually we arrived at our destination.  Today, our quadrat surveys were around the second transect line we set up at Spectacle during our site visit on Monday.  Today’s transect line was 80 meters long, our longest transect line yet.  Because we arrived at the beach about an hour before low tide, setting up the transect line was difficult.  The location of our end coordinate was several meters into the ocean.  The water was almost knee deep, and my pants were soaked when I tried to set the end point down.

Our transect line extended 80 meters all the way to the waterline.

While we waited for low tide to start our quadrat surveys, we measured the beach profile and water quality of the ocean water.  We have been analyzing water quality at each of our locations.  Our water quality probe allows us to measure temperature, salinity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen (in two different units).  We also measured turbidity and took some water samples back to the lab to incubate; we’ll later use them to measure the water’s biological oxygen demand.

The water quality probe occasionally gives us some trouble, but it is one of our most valuable tools for measuring water quality.

To measure turbidity, we compare a sample of ocean water to a sample of tap water.

The hydrometer is another piece of equipment we use to measure salinity in addition to the probe. Occasionally, we also use a refractometer to get a third salinity measurement as well.

The quadrat surveys went by a lot faster today because after two days of staring at squares, we’ve gotten a lot better at them.  In addition, there were fewer organisms to find on Spectacle Island in comparison to Lovells Island.  On the other hand, today we encountered a new species of clam that we had not seen before.  It was exciting, but we eventually were able to identify the clam in our field guide.

We found an Atlantic Surf Clam for the first time.

We finished our surveys pretty early, so a few of us swam at the beach while we waited for the ferry to take us back to Boston.  Thus came the end of yet another exhausting day. Tomorrow is going to be another long day, and we’ll be returning back to Lovells Island.  It’s Friday though, so it’ll be the last day of our long week in the field.

–Jeffrey

Our first visit to Lovells Island

After waking up bright and early (a little bit too early for coherent thought if you ask me) we caught the T and headed to Boston Harbor. Its a bit of a walk to the ferry, especially carrying giant, cumbersome, green buckets full of equipment.  But, thanks to the continued time-management skills of Kate Longley, we made it in plenty of time and got on the ferry without incident.

Unfortunately in order to get to Lovells Island we first had to make a layover at Georges Island. It was a forty minute wait, but the island had l-o-v-e-l-y wooden chairs overlooking the beach. Very relaxing. We read, we slept, we watched geese and then we missed out ferry. Apparently it had arrived five minutes early and left  unannounced. Luckily we got a ride from a wonderful two-man water taxi, who changed their route for our sake.

One disappointingly short ride later, we arrived on Lovells island. It was quite a bit of a hike to get to the field site, not helped by the sand, the gravel or the occasional large cobble  stone that would sneak into our shoes.

The field site itself was wonderful. A relatively flat area that stretched further out into the ocean than the rest of the beach. We arrived there shortly before low tide so we were surprised at just how wet everything was. Across the site was a series of warm, interconnected tide pools full of large rocks. As awesome as this was for research, they made for slippery going and we had a couple of close calls.

View of the sie, and Isabelle and Pavlina setting up our transect lint

The research was excellent as well. Unlike our visit to Spectacle Island there were no “empty” quadrats. The tide pools were excellent for algae (specifically Chondrus crispus and Fucus) as well as periwinkles (at one spot we found over a hundred). We even found some tunicates!  Like Spectacle however, there was an over abundance of crabs. Introduced asian shore crabs, to be exact.  They were everywhere and it was always a scramble to grab them before they hid under new rocks.  Isabelle and Jeffery overturned one rock that had over twenty crabs underneath!

Scrambling for crabs

Bucket of over twenty crabs!

This particular crab was trying to steal Isabelle’s ruler.

Monster crab – the largest Asian shore crab we’ve found so far!

And afterwards we were treated to ice cream by Kate! I suppose one way to describe the day would be “crab-tackular” (please pardon the pun, I promise I won’t do it again).

~Carolann

Wrangling Crabs

Conducting a quadrat sample.

Today was when the real science began: Data collection. We met bright and early at the Sea Grant offices to make the trek, with all our gear, down to the docks in order to catch the ferry. Today we were lucky enough to be joined by Lily our resident filmmaker who took video footage of us as we worked and kept us entertained with stories of her adventures throughout the world.

Our field site. 

We squeezed onto the train with quadrats, transect tape, and meter sticks in hand to begin our day of science. We took the 9:30 ferry to Spectacle Island, and after a hike through grass and over rocks we made it to our field site by 10:15. The first thing we did was lay down our transect line, starting at a point predetermined by GPS. The transect that we did today measured 40 meters in length.Starting at the low tide line, we took a quadrat sample every 4 meters, on both the left and right sides of the transect tape, recording the abundance and variety of species that we found. Each quadrat, a quarter of a meter squared in size, was laid down perpendicular to the transect line a random number of meters away from the line. The distance of the quadrat from the line was determined using a random number generator so that we could get the most accurate data possible and avoid bias into our sampling technique. Once one of us had placed a quadrat it would be a madcap race to wrangle as many crabs as possible and put them in a bucket for later inspection. Before today I had no idea that there were so many of them or how small they could be. We found some smaller than 2mm. These guys were tiny!

A female Asian Shore Crab carrying eggs.

After the crab rodeo was finished we estimated percent cover of all sessile species and counted the abundance of all motile species, in each quadrat, and recorded the information on our data sheets. The most common sessile species, which we found today, were barnacles, blue mussels and several species of algae. Of the motile species the most abundant by far was the periwinkle, followed by the Asian Shore Crab, The Green Crab, assorted whelks, a couple of soft shell clams, and some red worms that have yet to identified. Next we moved on to the crabs. For each crab we found, we would identify the species, then the sex and then determine if they were carrying eggs before we released them. We took samples with us back to the lab of any species that we were still unsure of.

Wrangling crabs in a bucket.

Once we had finished our quadrat sampling we conducted a beach profile, which measures the slope and composition of the beach, and did some water quality work, which tested for dissolved oxygen, salinity, turbidity, conductivity and temperature in the water. Before we headed back to the beach to catch the 2 o’clock ferry, we spent some time exploring the tide pools near our transect site, taking pictures and collecting more data. We made it back in time to catch the ferry and ate our lunches on the boat. Once we got back to the office we sorted our data sheets, organized our samples and called it a day. Stay tuned for our adventures on Lovells Island tomorrow!

Water quality testing in a tide pool.

- Isabelle

Rabid Raccoon?

At 8am we all trickled into the MIT Sea Grant office and readied ourselves for the exciting day ahead. This was our first field day! After carrying two buckets worth of equipment through the Boston T system, we were rewarded by a relaxing wait for the ferry.

After boarding we were given a short tour of the Boston Harbor as we made our way to Spectacle Island and even met a gentleman who had caught a Lionfish off the coast of Rhode Island! We disembarked the ship and headed to our site on Spectacle Island. The beautiful landscape quickly passed by and we then saw the picturesque little beach where we were recording our data from above. The only way to get down to the beach was by climbing 50 ft of massive boulders down to our transect sites. So we carefully scooted down the rocks and began placing our first transect. Guided by our GPS coordinates, we placed 3 transect lines of 80m, 45, and 40m in the small beach. while placing the second transect line we made a surprising friend, a raccoon! The little critter was about 30ft away from the end of our transect tape.

Rabid Raccoon?

Although we were a little concerned by a raccoon waddling around at low tide we continued to place and document the location of our transect lines. On our third and final transect line we completed a beach profile, and completed water quality testing.

Beach Profiling!

Carolann doing water quality testing!

After we tested the water at the base of our transect, we also decided to test the water in a large tide pool also on the beach. We photographed and recorded many of the species that we saw there including some tiny fish! Throughout the the day we picked up and sexed crabs and practiced our percent cover reading on a couple rocks. After we got to poke around at the tide pool, we had to return to the ferry. At the visitor center Kate learned from the park ranger on duty that the raccoons on Spectacle Island have actually adapted and come out at low tide to forage. Turns out the raccoon wasn’t rabid after all!

 

Getting Ready for the Beach

 

Surveying the Boston Harbor Islands requires a lot of tools and equipment. Our hands are going to be full.

Today was the last day in the office before we head out into the field next week, so there was a lot to do. First, we had to finalize our plans for the field. We came up with an incredibly long protocol, which includes all the steps we need to take when we’re out on the islands.  Out in the fields, we have three major goals: cataloging species biodiversity in the intertidal zones, assessing water quality at the waterfront, and mapping a beach profile.

Cataloging species biodiversity is by far the most complicated process.  In order to do so, we’ll need to establish twenty different quadrats (1/4 meter by 1/4 meter) along a transect of the beach.  The location of the quadrats needs to be completely randomized.  Once placed, we’ll assess each quadrat for its species richness and the abundance of each species.  In addition, we’ll pay special attention to crabs because those creatures tend to be really annoying.  They’ll be removed and placed into buckets where we’ll later identify their species, sex, size and whether they are carrying eggs.

Above are our buckets and quadrats. The quadrats are not very large but will serve as our random samples of the beach. The pink buckets will be where we throw the crabs before we measure them and examine them further.

Yesterday, we experimented a little bit with the water quality equipment, and we ran into a few speed bumps.  Hopefully, by next week, we’ll be able to use the equipment accurately to assess water quality.  When we get to the beach, we’ll be looking for water temperature, pH, turbidity, salinity, dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand.  We have a variety of tools to examine each of the qualities of water.

The beach profile is also a tedious process.  With the help of a laser pointer, some string and a few yardsticks, we’ll find the slope of the beach at every 5 meter interval.  Once the data is collected from the rocks to the waterline, we should be able to replicate the beach profile and slope with our data.

Next week is going to be an exhausting one, but it’ll also be very exciting.  We’ll have lots to carry to the islands, between all of our equipment and tools.  And hopefully, we won’t leave anything behind.

–Jeffrey

Above are a few of our measuring tools, including the caliper for measuring the crabs, the transect tape for creating our transects, and the yardsticks for creating the beach profile.

More tools: some sample bags and Tupperware for collecting and bringing back samples from the field, a probe for assessing a few water qualities, some laser pointers, some hand sanitizer, a hand lens, and a level