Marine science students at Eckerd College recently got to present their Gulf of Mexico research findings at the school’s third annual Scientist at Sea Symposium.
Many of the students analyzed past data to find trends over the years, but they also went out to sea for a few days in May, collecting new samples from the water column and sea floor aboard the Research Vessel Weatherbird II.
A curveball was thrown into the plan this year, though: Hurricane Helene's storm surge disrupted their research analysis in September by forcing the waterfront college to close for about month.
“They were really happy to be back on campus, and we were able to do some additional analysis,” said Bekka Larson, a geological oceanographer at Eckerd.
“I think students are hoping to continue to work on them [projects] past the symposium, and maybe do some of the things that they didn't get to do because of the hurricanes.”
Students lost access to their classrooms and some equipment, but that didn’t stop them from completing what they could and presenting their findings at the symposium hosted by Tampa Bay Watch on Dec. 4.
Radioactive tuna
Seniors Liam Naylor-Komyatte and Ryan Coffey won the Scientist at Sea Presidential Outstanding Poster Award for studying radioactivity in Gulf tuna.
Helene's damage limited the sample size of how many fish they could study, said Naylor-Komyatte, but they still came away with important findings.
"We seem to have found that smaller juvenile tuna are living around oil rigs as protection from predators until they get larger and can move away from these oil rigs," he said. "And while they are living by these oil rigs, they are being exposed to higher levels of radioactive contaminants."
This could have big implications for commercial fisheries and tuna consumers, he said.
Naylor-Komyatte’s teammate Coffey said they both worked really well together.
“We keep lifting each other up. And I'm really excited for what our next projects will lead to because I know that we'll be keep pushing ourselves to do better,” Coffey said.
Climate impacts on plankton
Sophomore Hannah Burd and junior Mackenzie Cole received the APTIM Outstanding Poster Award for their study of how Atlantic Ocean temperature impacted two plankton species on the sea floor from 280 years ago to 11,600 years ago.
“Our oceans have slightly warmed over time. That being said, what we're really looking at is the fluctuation between the two [plankton], and we're trying to go further into our research… to look all the way back to the Last Glacial Maximum, so we will see a larger spike in the future,” Cole said.
The Last Glacial Maximum was a period of global cooling and maximum ice extent that occurred over 20,000 years ago.
The research partners were planning to look into Pacific Ocean plankton effects from warming as well, but Helene didn’t allow enough time for that.
“We kind of got set back because neither of us were on campus… to continue our research because we had to do microscope research and look at the sediment samples, and that was really put on the back burner for a while,” said Burd.
Red tide on the sea floor
Senior Elizabeth Kent wasn’t officially recognized for her work, but she had the interesting task of exploring how red tide blooms impact tiny organisms found along the sea bottom.
She found that toxic outbreaks of red tide can damage the health of micro-organisms deep underwater.
"Water column data and surface data is often studied when discussing red tide, but the ecosystems on the bottom of the ocean aren't studied as much, and there are currently some theories that red tide might be initiated from the bottom of the ocean," said Kent.
Kent is originally from Texas, which also suffers from red tide blooms, so she said this work is particularly important to her.
She wants to further explore why the phenomenon happens and how to resolve it.
“Coming to Florida in 2021 as a freshman, it was very impactful… everywhere you see the fish kills on the beach. And as a marine scientist, we talk about it all the time,” she said.
“It's very impactful because it affects not only the ecosystems, but our food source and our beaches, our recreation. It's prevalent in our lives as Floridians, so it's important that we know why it happens and how we can start to resolve it.”
Strength of the Florida Current
Christopher Vogt, a junior, received the Lynn Paxton Outstanding Poster Award for investigating the strength of the Florida Current through the Florida Straits, which is a body of water that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
He discovered that the typical method of measuring flow rate of the Florida Current was not actually measuring the value directly, but instead using the density.
The Florida Current itself only ranges from about zero to 700 meters, but Vogt was surprised to find a countercurrent that accounts for a 300-to-1,000-meter chunk underneath it.
So, he used the countercurrent information to get a more accurate measurement of water flow.
“There are plenty of other systems in the world where this could be used, given that they can have two sites on either side, correlate… not every current has that," Vogt said. "So the Florida Current is unique in that way, but there are plenty of others that can be used this method for.”
Characterizing water masses
One of the drivers of our ocean circulation is called thermohaline circulation, which is a 1000-year cycle, so it's really hard to track this from start to finish.
A way to track it is by water masses, or density of water. Deeper, colder water sinks down to the bottom, so it'll be denser and saltier, whereas on the top, will be warmer and a little less salty.
“I was trying to look at temperature and salinity as a way to identify these water masses and see how they changed over time,” said Clara Oxford, a junior who won the Steven Robert West Memorial Marine Science Award for her analysis.
“Thermohaline circulation and the way that water masses move, is just super important, because we are seeing that with climate change and the way that the oceans are warming, it's possibly moving faster, which can cause sea level rise,” she said.
“So, tracking these water masses is just not really done around here, and it's really just important to see how they're changing and see the impacts that they can have.”
