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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
    • 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
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        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
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Seagrasses and Sand FlatsWildlife in North Florida- Critters Big and Small

Horse Conchs Rule the Seagrass Bed

by Rob Diaz de Villegas June 28, 2011
by Rob Diaz de Villegas June 28, 2011 0 comment

In the Grass, On the Reef: Testing the Ecology of Fear

Premieres on WFSU-TV Wednesday, June 29 at 7:30 PM, 6:30 CT.  In high definition where available.

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

IGOR_chip_predators_NCE_100This clip is a short segment on one of the predators featured in this program: the horse conch.  It’s practically an ecosystem onto itself, as you can see in the video’s poster frame above.  Barnacles, crepidula, bryozoans, and other marine creatures that affix themselves to hard surfaces settle on its shell.  In the video you’ll see its bright orange body as it roams the seagrass beds of the Forgotten Coast.  And you’ll see it eat another large predatory snail, the lightning whelk.

The coast is a rough place.  At least it is for mollusks and crustaceans.

Just think about it.  When people are in their homes on Cape San Blas, St. George Island, or Alligator Point- enjoying the sun, sand, and water- they are surrounded by violence.  And we benefit from this violence!  Stone crabs gobble down mud crabs, those mud crabs don’t eat oysters, and we have more oysters to clean the water and to eat ourselves (after they reach maturity).  Crown conchs eat periwinkle snails (pictured to the right), and the cordgrass making up coastal salt marshes flourishes and continues providing habitat for commercially important fish and preventing erosion.  And for every snail or crab eaten, many more might be scared and alter their behavior.

It’s strange to think that these little critters have such an impact on us (Read a post by Dr. Randall Hughes on the financial value of coastal ecosystems).  They affect the food we eat, the economy of the coast.  They affect the physical coast itself, as the marshes and oyster reefs build the edge of the coast by holding sediment.  This is why David Kimbro and Randall Hughes are out their studying it, and why we decided to make a program about it.  And also, honestly, those critters look pretty cool!

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Bay Mouth Barcoastal ecologyconsumptive_nonconsumptivecrown conchFlorida State Universityforgotten coastFSU Coastal and Marine Labgulf of mexicohorse conchLightning Whelkmarine biologymarine ecologyperiwinkle snailspredatorpreyscienceseagrass bedsturtlegrass
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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 in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

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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.

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My Garden of a Thousand Bees features renowned wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn, who, with the world in lockdown during the summer of 2020, turned his exceptional macrophotography filmmaking skills on his own tiny backyard and the surprising number of wild bee species that live there.

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