An excellent day in the field

July 18th, 2012Blog0 comments

Max Overstrom-Coleman

by Max Overstrom-Coleman (ZEN exchange fellow) on July 10, 2012

To be honest it is actually the 11^th, but as I sit up writing this at just a shade past midnight, time seems more irrelevant than ever.  I am still feeling energized from the tremendous amount of work James Douglass, my host site mentor here in Massachusetts, and I accomplished. Today we completed the sampling for the main ZEN experiment at our site.  It is days like today that reinforce my love for field-work and marine science.

As I drove onto Nahant this morning the tide was halfway through its ebb and I was mentally going over the plan for what was sure to be a long day.  As we envisioned it we would be in the water by about 0900 (the low was at about 1100) and our list of objectives was ambitious:

• Sample mesograzers (collect samples underwater from each experimental plot using standardized grab bags)
• Collect 10 eelgrass shoots per plot for three different analyses (1 for an analysis of epiphyte loading that would have to be done that night)
• Sample the percentage cover and canopy height of eelgrass in each plot
• Collect all of the experimental materials (bags of nutrients, plaster, and seagrass litter) to assess treatment loading and eelgrass decomposition

At this point in the season James and I are getting into a rhythm with each other.  I feel like we are becoming a good team, and our ambitious plan seemed completely reasonable.

Dorothy Cove in Nahant, MA

With the Northeastern Marine Lab dive truck loaded up with coolers, kayaks, dive gear and sampling equipment, we arrived at the site at a perfect tide height.  The cove was empty except for a small family splashing in the shallows.  It turned out that, as usual, when people show up in SCUBA gear, kids in the 8-12 age group lose their minds.  I know I used to, that’s why I got certified the day I turned 13 (that was 20 years ago next week – wow I’m getting old!) and volunteered as a research diver the summer I turned 16.

Max collects samples from the ZEN experiment in Massachusetts

It was immediately obvious that we were suddenly celebrities and it was a great opportunity to explain what we were doing and why, both to the parents and children.  I think it is extremely important to communicate with the public about our research; they have to understand why it is important and see our passion.  How else can we expect them to fund the science we consider so essential?  In reflection, that interaction may have been one of the most important things I did today.

Max’s dog Jackson patiently watches the scientists work

The sun was cooking up a hot day and it did not disappoint – I made serious strides on my raccoon tan.  Before too long we were overheating and had to get in the water.  I’ll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but to those of you out there who have spent that kind of time on and in the water, diving, sampling, and executing a scientific plan, I tell you honestly, it went totally smooth.  By the end of it we were pretty spent and plenty hot, and it felt long but we did it without any of the usual snafus – dropped / lost / forgotten / broken gear, adverse conditions, etc…  What I call an excellent day in the field.

Max scrapes epiphytic algae from eelgrass leaves in the lab

With coolers loaded to the brim, we made it back to the lab just as we were crashing from lack of food.  But after a thorough wash down to scrub off all the mud and sand that gets everywhere, and a hasty bite of food, we were back at it, preparing samples for preservation and immediately processing others. As the sunset bathed a few straggling clouds in a range of oranges and purples we were engrossed in scraping and filtering epiphytes for chlorophyll analysis, feeling pretty proud of all we accomplished. Just another day in the life of a marine ecologist.