The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • 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
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Kayak and Canoe Adventures
RiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River
Lower Lake Lafayette: Kayak Tallahassee’s Hidden Swamp
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

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • 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
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef

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

by Rob Diaz de Villegas June 1, 2011
by Rob Diaz de Villegas June 1, 2011 1 comment
Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

IGOR_chip_predators_NCE_100IGOR chip- biogeographic 150I’ve come to Saint Augustine to get the last of the footage I need to finish the In the Grass, On the Reef documentary, and we’ve come a long way from where we started from on this blog.  One year ago today, this site went live and Randall and David introduced you to their research.  The oyster study had just gotten its grant from NSF and we went out with David as he walked out into Alligator Harbor in search of study sites.  It was a slow, messy day- but a necessary first step.

P1030569

Phil sprays clean a bushel of oysters, the second step in a three step process to remove tiny mud crabs from the many crevices throughout an oyster clump.

A year later and David & co. are preparing an intensive experiment (described in detail by David earlier) to kick off year two.  It’s a far cry from last May, when we saw David, by himself, figure out how he was even going to get to the sites.  He and his crew are essentially building 21 enclosed oyster reefs (12 in Saint Augustine and 9 more in Jacksonville)  populated by different configurations of animals.  Most of these animals have to be caught locally (With a couple of exceptions: the clams were purchased from a hatchery and some catfish and toadfish from SA will be used in Jax).   The crew has to be in total control of the quantities of smaller intermediary consumers, the small mud crabs and oyster drills that live in the nooks and crannies of oyster clumps.  This means defaunating (removing critters from) almost forty bushels of oysters.  And during the process, all of the toadfish, catfish, blue crabs, stone crabs, crown conchs, mud crabs, oyster drills, oysters, and clams have to be kept alive and healthy.  If the crew takes too long getting this set up, they could start losing some of their participants.  And then of course, when they’re done in Saint Augustine, they’re doing this again in Jacksonville!

P1030557

After Phil finishes that bushel, he and Hanna have to get to these. About this many were cleaned out last night as well (in the last step, David looks through every clump and tweezes the crabs out).

It’s a lot of repetitive, painstaking work.  Especially with a camera in your face.  Many little things can and do go wrong; and, as in the case of the tile experiment, sometimes you have to redesign your experiment.  To me, the real value of this enterprise has always been that you get to see science as it really is.  It can be messy.  It can be frustrating.  But it can also be illuminating, and rewarding.  I appreciate that David and Randall let us document the ups as well as the downs.  It can’t be easy having someone (and by extension, many other someones) looking over your shoulder as you work.  I know I’d have a hard time if someone were watching me edit the program- the process of streamlining story threads can be unwieldy and choppy at first, and in retrospect the way I should have shot certain things becomes more obvious.  But you work around your challenges and the process becomes more enjoyable.  I imagine it’s the same for an experiment as it is for  TV show- when it comes out right, it’s worth the headaches you overcame to get it there.

As for the show, it’s a good mix of nature footage AND scientific process.  We’ll work to maintain a balance in upcoming videos between footage of the animals interacting in the various habitats we cover and the work done to understand them.

Below is the schedule Tanya came up with to get this experiment done.  I always find the planning that goes into these things to be instructive.  Like the October schedule, circumstances cause them to deviate, but this is the starting point:

Sunday 5/29/2011 – make spat tiles, collect focal clusters, mark/measure focal clusters

Monday 5/30/2011 – One team (Evan, Phil, Hanna) goes to JV to re-install cages and retrieve flow blocks (low tide: 2pm).

Second team (Tanya, David) stays in SA to finish focal clusters, spat tiles, and trapping. Collect some SA oysters for defaunating upon return from JV (if possible).

P1030567

Using miniscule tags meant for tagging bees, David and Tanya tag the clams they'll deploy in the experiment. Thirteen down, seven-hundred-and-seven to go!

Tuesday 5/31/2011 – Bee tags arrive. One team marks/measures clams. Second team collects/defaunates 20 bushels oysters.

Wednesday 6/1/2011 – Morning: finish anything unfinished.

Afternoon (low: 4pm): One team installs clams, dead shell, tiles, focal clusters, spat sticks, ½ live shell. Second team collects/defaunates 20 more bushels oysters.

Thursday 6/2/2011 – Morning: finish anything unfinished.

Afternoon (low: 5pm): One team installs ½ live shell, takes sediment/water samples. If all predators have been obtained by this time: Second (larger) team collects mudcrabs, and all predators added to cages.

Friday 6/3/2011 – Morning: finish JV clams and tiles.

Afternoon (low: 5pm): Relocate to JV. Install clams, dead shell, spat stick, tiles. Collect focal clusters, and possibly oysters for defaunating.

Saturday 6/4/2011 – Dawn (low – 5:30am): one team collects/defaunates 16 bushels oysters. Second team measures/marks focal clusters.

Evening (low: 5:30pm): Install ½ live shell and focal clusters, collect more oysters for defaunating.

P1030573

"Defaunated:" these mud crabs are waiting to be added to the experimental reefs in precise numbers.

Sunday 6/5/2011 – Morning: one team collects/defaunates 15 bushels oysters.

Second team continues measuring/marking focal clusters (if needed).

Evening (low: 6pm): Install ½ live shell and focal clusters.

Monday 6/6/2011 – Morning (low: 7am): Everyone collects mudcrabs. Someone drives back to whitney to get blue crabs/stone crabs/toadfish. All predators added to cages.

Evening: JV montitoring, move data logger.

Tuesday 6/7/2011 – Relocate back to SA. Evening: SA monitoring, move data logger.

David’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Facebook Comments
biogeographiccoastal ecologyexperimentsFlorida State UniversityFSU Coastal and Marine Labmarine biologymarine ecologymud crabsNational Science FoundationnatureNSFoysteroyster reefpredatorpreySaint Augustinescience
1 comment
0
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Rob Diaz de Villegas

Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for WFSU-TV, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now he spends time exploring north Florida's forests, coasts, waterways, and the endlessly fascinating ecosystem that is the backyard garden. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

previous post
How much is a salt marsh worth?
next post
In the (wire)grass

Related Posts

What’s the deal with nutrients and oysters?

January 30, 2013

Day 4: October Oyster Push “Sweet Boat”

October 26, 2010

Crown Conchs, Parenting, and Walks Along the Gulf...

June 24, 2015

Fear and the Choices Oysters Make

February 6, 2013

The Apalachicola Oyster in 2016 | A Long...

October 27, 2016

Oyster Research Needs Your Help In Apalachicola Bay

June 4, 2013

Processing samples (August 23, 2011)

August 23, 2011

On the Road Again

September 8, 2010

Crown Conchs Overrun Saint Augustine Reefs

May 3, 2011

Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...

January 18, 2018

1 comment

Rob June 1, 2011 - 5:59 pm

As if to prove a point about the schedules changing, weather in the area has shifted today’s field activities until tomorrow at the 4:45 AM low tide. They will then, if all goes well, attempt to do their normal afternoon activities.

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

WFSU-FM Environmental Stories

  • Tallahassee’s latest urban reforestation effort brings new trees to Governor’s Park
  • Hurricane Ian’s estimated damage to Florida agriculture tops $1B
  • America’s largest underground springs gets even bigger with the discovery of another cave connection
  • DeSantis outlines second-term environmental plans
  • Deep freeze breaks pipes, creates water crisis across South

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


View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • The Wakulla Springs Wildlife Survey- a decades long look
  • Welcome Liesel Hamilton to the WFSU Ecology Blog!
  • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
  • Timberlane Ravine: learn to love dead trees (and trillium!)
  • The strange and dangerous love lives of zebra longwing butterflies

Archives

June 2011
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

WFSU Ecology YouTube

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

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