Day2/Week3

We had another group meeting today! Our transition period is coming to a close and our project ideas are starting to get rolling. Although we didn’t go out to the field, we were able to make sure that every student has an individual project. I finally figured out what I am going to be doing. It’s pretty exciting. After talking to Dr. Becker, I found out that investigating the seeps is going to be too large for a single individual. Therefore, Gordon and I are going to take on different questions once we get the first bulk phase of data collected, mapping the freshwater oceanic seeps.

So, tomorrow morning will be the first day out on the kayaks. Let’s hope that they won’t be too uncomfortable without seats. We are going to set up the conductivity probes and make a few sweeps along the shore to see if we get any obvious salinity changes. If things are working out, we will probably test a few other variables and try to pinpoint the seeps. If we are lucky, we will also be able to locate vents and start characterizing them as well. The whole time, we will have synced GPS units with us so that we can accurately locate our conductivity data.

If all goes well, we will then focus on different areas. I will likely investigate the offshore environment while Gordon looks into the near-shore and shoreline environments. I want to take a closer look at how the seeps are affecting both the coral community locations/health as well as bathymetry differences.

I just finished my proposal. I am going to tinker with some Arduino boards. That’s all.

Too many scribbled notes.