The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Kayak and Canoe Adventures
Chipola River Paddling Trail | The Ovens and...
Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...
Wacissa Springs Adventure | Kayaking a Wild Florida...
A Geologist’s View of the Apalachicola River |...
Upper Chipola River Kayak Adventure | Ghosts &...
Tate’s Hell & the Apalachicola River Delta |...
Kayak Scouting Mission on the Ochlockonee Water Trail
Merritt’s Mill Pond | Kayaking and Spring Caves
Kayaking the Apalachicola River with my Four-Year-Old Son
Canoeing the Aucilla: A Red Hills River Steeped...

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef

Roctober!

by David October 22, 2010
by David October 22, 2010 6 comments
Dr. David Kimbro FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

IGOR chip- biogeographic 150I went to graduate school in northern California. Locals along the coast of NorCal used to refer to the month of October as Roctober because it was the most beautiful time of the year.  Well, I think the Forgotten Coast should also be privy to this monthly description because things have been beautiful around here this month.  Looking at the oyster reefs, I get the sense that things are really starting to get busy in there.  But I wonder if the ecology on oyster reefs in NC is starting to slow down.  Where are predators really having a big effect? We shall soon see.

For the past week, we have been trying to figure out how to do a lot of ambitious seeing and learning on all of our reefs.  All three teams (i.e., NC, SC/GA, and FL) need to not only sample fish and invertebrate predators on reefs (for the second time and in the dark…all because of the timing of tides in the autumn), but each team also needs to simultaneously squeeze in an experiment.  Oh, I just remembered that we also need to pay attention to other things that can explain oyster patterns: oyster food in the water (phytoplankton), water temperature, tides, and sediment properties.  So, add those to our to-do list as well!

Because this will be a ton of work to do in a short amount of time, we are sending a new crew member of the Florida team (Alicia Brown) up to help out the South Carolina/GA team.  We are going to send her up with a video camera, so it will be fun to get a glimpse into their lives over the next week.

P1010298

Jon Grabowski holds up a fish for Tanya to measure. David was Jon's lab tech at UNC.

In addition, one of the leaders from North Carolina (Jon Grabowski) has been down with us in Florida for the past week to help make sure that all three teams are doing the same thing.  While he was here, we also worked with a wonderful assistant up in Georgia (Caitlin Yeager) to figure out how to manufacture our experimental products.  The first part of this experimental puzzle involved figuring out how to remove baby oysters (spat) from oyster clumps in the field and to attach them to a standardized surface (tile).  Across all of our sites, we all want to start out with oysters of roughly the same size and age; otherwise, differences in our experiments among sites could simply be due to differences in starting oyster size or density, rather than to differences in predator diversity etc.   After we get all the spat attached to our tiles, we then built (well Tanya built most of them- thanks Tanya!) structures to put around our tiles, or not…

Tile Experiment

A partially open cage (cage control) that lets predators eat the oyster spat.

Our first structure was built to exclude all predators from munching on our oysters (i.e., predator cage).  Our second structure was a modified exclosure that mimics physical characteristics of the exclosure, but still allows predators to munch oysters (cage-control).  Finally, we have naked tiles that receive no structure or cage.  At 2 sites in NC, 2 in Georgia, and 3 in Florida), we will put each of these ‘treatments’ on all of the reefs (15 tiles/estuary or 105 tiles total).

But why do this crazy experiment thing?  Well, we will come back each month and monitor the traits of oysters and their survivorship.  With these results, we will compare survivorship or oyster traits from cages to that of the naked tile (“control”) to see if excluding predators improved oyster survivorship.  But because any improvement of oyster survivorship by the cage could simply be due to the physical structure (not to predator absence) providing shade during low tide or somehow changing flow (and food delivery), we will then compare cage results to that of the cage-control; now we can tell just how important predators are.

Another cool thing about the cages is that it may exclude predators from eating oysters, but they will not prevent predators from affecting traits of the oysters through intimidation.  So, do the traits of oysters surrounded by cages in Florida (maybe more oyster consumers) differ when compared to caged oysters in NC (maybe fewer oyster consumers).   Or, perhaps it’s that FL has more oyster food this time of year than NC and that better explains trait differences in oysters, not predators.  Or, maybe larger fish predators in Florida means less oyster consumers and less influence of oyster predation in Florida compared to NC, where there may be fewer large fish predators to eat the smaller crabs that love to munch on oysters.

To pull off this extra work, my Florida team will divide and conquer over the next week and a half.  Out of a team of four, 2 people will trap and gill net while the other two folks will set up the experiment.   This will involve ½ the team moving a head of the other team members at certain points.  But we’ll all overlap at each site for at least a few hours, which will then result in interesting stories about what each team has been observing.  Because we want to share this circus show with you over the next week, we’ll post updates every day.  We hope that this gives you a feel of what it’s like to get all of this done (both the good and the bad!).

Well, I need to go stockpile some sleep.

See ya,

David

David’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
We want to hear from you! Add your question or comment.
Facebook Comments
Alligator HarborbiogeographicCedar Keycoastal ecologyexperimentsFlorida State Universityforgotten coastFSU Coastal and Marine Labgulf of mexicomarine biologymarine ecologyNational Science FoundationnatureNSFoysteroyster bedoyster reefoyster spatpredatorpreyroctoberpush
6 comments
0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
David

previous post
Days 1 & 2: October Oyster Push- “Just Gun it”
next post
Day 3: October Oyster Push “No Nap Time”

Related Posts

Oyster Study: Year Two, Under Way in a...

June 1, 2011

The Dirty Work

November 19, 2010

Notes from the Field: From Technician to Tourist

March 18, 2013

Notes From the Field: Becoming an Oyster Woman

January 23, 2013

Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...

January 18, 2018

Rehearsal is Over

July 27, 2010

Free Events Across Forgotten Coast Celebrate New WFSU...

February 10, 2014

Notes From the Field: Hermit Crab/Crown Conch Cage...

March 11, 2013

Coastal Critters and More at the FSUCML Open...

April 17, 2011

Growing Pains (bigger is definitely not always better)

August 2, 2011

6 comments

Ruth Smith October 23, 2010 - 2:57 pm

We are celebrating “Roctober” at a festival in Stonington, CT today!

Van Lewis October 25, 2010 - 3:53 pm

I use coated wire cages like yours (1″ x 1/2″) while purging clams and have watched spider crabs, excluded from the clams by a cage, reach through the holes with their skinny claws and crush clams from outside the cages, and eat the clams by pulling the meat through the cage. If you find your caged oysters munched, I would suspect over-reaching spider crabs. You may have to use smaller mesh to exclude their claws.

Van Lewis October 25, 2010 - 3:55 pm

I see now that your cages may be 1/2″ x 1/2″. That might take care of the spider crabs.

Way Back When On the Reef | December 7, 2010 - 3:49 pm

[…] sampling and down load instrumentation) as well as to check on the tile experiment that began 6 weeks ago. Props again to Tanya for getting us organized to go! Although, I have some anxiety about what […]

Day 4: October Oyster Push “Sweet Boat” | April 15, 2011 - 11:57 am

[…] of shell containing oyster spat (baby oysters) from clumps so that he could glue them onto tiles, as he described in Friday’s post.  I got a good look at what spat actually was.  You can see it in the photo here, basically a […]

WFSU | Public Media, PBS, and NPR for Northern Florida and Southern Georgia November 21, 2011 - 8:35 am

[…] is a time series from our first spat tile experiment, which you can read about in this post. As you may recall, this experiment was largely a failure because the adhesive we used to adhere […]

Comments are closed.

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more outdoor adventures, and an in depth look at our local forests and waterways by Email.

If you do not receive a verification e-mail, check your spam folder.

Category

New Backyard Blog: November/ December 2020

True bug nymph on mistletoe.

True bug nymph on mistletoe.

Twitter

Tweets by wfsuIGOR

iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist.org

Thumb
View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
  • Shorebirds in the Misty Morning | Surveying the St. Marks Refuge
  • New Red Wolf Breeding Pair at the Tallahassee Museum
  • Building Climate Resiliency in the Apalachicola Watershed
  • Biodiversity in the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines

Archives

October 2010
M T W T F S S
« Sep   Nov »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

WFSU Ecology YouTube

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

test title

this is the info in my test popup.