Note: For photos from the trip, check out our Flickr. All Pulley Ridge 2014 posts are from Michael Studivan

I am preparing the samples for their final trip back to the University of Miami, where they will be shipped out to the individual researchers. A ton of effort has gone into making this cruise a success, and we have 363 of samples to prove it!

As my first research cruise as part of my dissertation, I have helped conduct fast-paced science in a challenging environment. A typical day on the M/V Spree involved intense periods of sample processing on the 107° open deck, followed by hours of database entry, great food, and naps. We were visited throughout the day by interesting marine life, notably silky sharks, mahi mahi, flying fish, and dolphins. Each day is filled with interesting, memorable, and downright strange experiences, however, all of our ten days ended with a beautiful sunset. Until August (the next Pulley Ridge cruise)! :)

Note: For photos from the trip, check out our Flickr. All Pulley Ridge 2014 posts are from Michael Studivan

By now, we have headed back to shallower waters to sample a few sites in the Dry Tortugas on our last full day. This research cruise has been a unique experience in my academic life so far, and I already crave more. We have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time and are coming back with:

61 Montastraea cavernosa
73 Agaricia sp.
87 Stegastes partitus
13 other fish
74 Xestospongia muta
55 Halimeda

All of this is possible by the time, effort, and safety consciousness of the tech diver team. Their specialized gear known as rebreathers are a necessary tool for sampling at 200 feet, as traditional open circuit diving would require so much gas that the divers could not carry the cylinders to store it easily. Rebreathers work on the same principal as carbon dioxide scrubbers, by monitoring the oxygen levels you are breathing constantly, making fine adjustments to create a safe breathing mix using pure oxygen and a diluent gas. In this case, these divers were using a 11% oxygen mix (where normal air is 21%) with 63% helium, to counteract the potentially fatal response to high nitrogen and oxygen at depth. With rebreathers, the tech team is not only able to carry less gear in order to sample, but also extend their bottom time safely.

Note: For photos from the trip, check out our Flickr. All Pulley Ridge 2014 posts are from Michael Studivan

Sampling has been going very well and my freezer is beginning to be stocked with preserved samples. As expected, fish and algae are more common on the northern ridge and corals and sponges are more common in the central ridge. We have explored two sites that were not dived last year and were surprised with the number of Agaricia and X. muta samples.

What’s interesting about PR is that it’s not what you would consider a typical coral reef. Hard coral cover is extremely low, where algae and coralline algae is more common. The bottom is covered mostly by coral rubble with occasional sand patches. Unlike a normal shallow reef with high relief (ledges, crevices, structure), PR is more appropriately termed “Pulley Plain” by the tech divers. The depth is generally constant within a foot over the course of a dive. Most of the sampling sites are between 190 and 230 feet deep, through murky thermoclines and often-ripping currents. Due to the low light conditions, the few coral colonies are spread flat to capture as much light as possible. As a result, most of their skeletons are extremely thin and brittle, making sampling with human hands the most feasible option. Additonally, some colonies of Agaricia have been fluorescently colored, perhaps indicating symbiotic cyanobacteria with accessory photosynthetic pigments to capture even more light.

Courtney Klepac will be defending her Master's thesis on zooxanthellae from St. Lucie Reef tomorrow, June 24th at 2:00PM in LE103. Please join us as we celebrate her accomplishments and hear about her exciting research! 

Note: For photos from the trip, check out our Flickr. All Pulley Ridge 2014 posts are from Michael Studivan

We’ve been graced with beautiful weather as we’ve started sampling: flat seas, sun, great visibility, and low currents. To start, we revisited some productive sites that were sampled last year. However, our collections this time were not as large, so I went back into density records from last year’s cruise and previous ROV exploration to find sites that would have each of our target groups. With this new knowledge, we decided to head to the northern end of Pulley Ridge, where algal species and fish dominate. It is important that we collect the bicolor damselfish S. partitus early in the cruise since it is in its peak spawning season. A graduate student from the University of Miami’s RSMAS is examining this species’ reproductive habits.

Starting on Monday, we will move south down the ridge, where hard corals are more abundant. I hope to collect the majority of my samples here and in the Tortugas. These samples will add to the sample size from previous cruises, but our coral fragments are larger this year. I will be measuring the skeletal structure of the coral polyps so that I can quantify the morphological differences between shallow and mesophotic M. cavernosa. Hopefully in the next few days our sample freezer will become packed with corals!    

Note: For photos from the trip, check out our Flickr. All Pulley Ridge 2014 posts are from Michael Studivan

The 2014 Pulley Ridge Tech Diver cruise is underway on board the M/V Spree! The Pulley Ridge project is led by a collaborative group of principal investigators studying connectivity of different biological groups across Pulley Ridge, Dry Tortugas, and Florida Keys. I will be processing the biological samples that Rick Gomez (UM), Evan Tuohy (UPR), Milton Carlo (UPR), Mike Terrell (FLAQ), Casey Coy (FLAQ), and Mike Echevarria (FLAQ) will be collecting. We are aiming to hit some of the most biodiverse sites at Pulley Ridge (PR) and Tortugas Ecological Reserve (TER) that were sampled last year, as well as explore some new sites with previous remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) coverage.

The first days of the cruise were spent swapping out oceanographic instruments at three sites in between TER and PR. In addition, we deployed three drifters, which use a sea anchor to drift with ocean currents and record data about water movement in the Gulf of Mexico. Starting on 6/20, we will begin sampling for our target groups: corals (Montastraea cavernosa and Agaricia sp.), sponges (Xestospongia muta), fish (Stegastes partitus), and algae (Halimeda tuna). It will be my first experience with fast-paced sample processing using multiple protocols. Check back in the next few days for the results of our first collection dives!

The Voss Lab has recently acquired an exciting new tool to aid our research- a DJI Phantom 2 Photo Quadcopter! Our quadcopter will allow the lab to conduct aerial transects of our research sites, qualify and quantify our monitoring projects, and map new areas for research. 

The lab has been getting to know HBOI's campus better as we practice flying and master photography with the quadcopter. Aerial photos can be seen on the lab's flickr in the aerial photos album and videos can be seen on our vimeo. 

This week Dr. Voss and Dr. Hanisak of HBOI are in the keys team teaching the coral reef component of the 2014 Florida Institute of Oceanography summer course. The students will be blogging about their experiences here and you can follow the FIO twitter @FIOTweet for updates as the week progresses! 

PhD Candidate Michael Studivan was recently awarded the Bussman Graduate Scholarship from the Marine Technology Society (MTS) for his upcoming work with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) at Pulley Ridge and Flower Garden Banks on three research cruises this summer. This scholarship will help Michael take relevant courses at HBOI and continue his technical diver training. Congratulations Michael!