An Early Start to the First Day of Sampling

            Due to the early low tide, we started sampling around 8:30 am on October 26, 2013. As part of the benthic faunal group, our first task was to deploy the settlement trays which will be used to analyze diversity and abundance of benthic invertebrates in the Tolomato River as well as oyster spat settlement. Six settlement trays were deployed. Three are located in the restored site behind reef 3, 6, and 8 and three are located in the non-restored site at similar distances from the shore as the trays in the restored site. Four bricks were placed in each tray (not shown in the picture below) in the corners with 2 out the 6 trays (1 in each site) having two bricks with 4 oyster shells attached with zip ties. These oyster shells will be the ones analyzed for spat settlement.

Settlement tray filled with oyster shells (1 bucket of oyster shells used)

            Next, we took 12 sediment core samples, 8 in the restored site and 4 in the non-restored site. For the restored site we took triplicate core samples for between reefs and behind reefs (3, 6, and 8) for fauna analysis. We also took triplicate core samples for sediment analysis. Due to the incoming high tide we did not get a chance to take counts for fiddler crab burrows, however, overall it was a very productive day. When returning to UNF, we had to stain and preserve our core samples for faunal analysis. This will take about a week before we can start identifying the benthic species found in the samples. We intend to start the fiddler crab burrow counts next Saturday and our settlement trays will be analyzed in two weeks from Oct. 26, 2013 in which oyster spat settlement will be counted.