Thursday, August 28, 2014

Coral Reef Ecology 2014

The Coral Reef Ecology course has been taking place at BIOS for almost 25 years now, with this year‘s course being one of the most diverse groups we have had the pleasure of hosting. Twenty-two students from nine different countries: Brazil, Cuba, Canada, United States, Italy, Germany, Japan, the UK and Bermuda! The students varied in science experience ranging from undergraduates in their third year all the way to second year PhD students.

The main goal of the course was to allow students to explore the responses of coral reefs to the changing environmental conditions associated with projected global climate change scenarios. We walked the students through multiple scenarios using both lab and field based studies. We saw one of the more heavy wind and rain seasons for Bermuda this August, so when the weather cooperated the students were eager to dive right in (literally). Science diving was involved in every dive whether it was transects quantifying coral disease, a night dive to witness coral spawn, or a deep dive in search of the invasive lionfish for our dinner!


It was a pleasure assisting with the course as a teaching assistant and I am going to really miss this group. Thanks for the fun times guys!!

Sean



No comments:

Post a Comment