The Results Are In

Over the course of the semester a lot more time was put into this project than I had first anticipated. Hours were spent in the lab trying to identify organisms collected on the site, sometimes to no avail. Using all the resources around us- everything from field guides to pictures on the internet to simply asking eachother or Dr. Smith- we were able to ID nearly everything down to species, minus those tricky little polychaetes, oligochaetes and amphipods. As expected the restored site fared much better in terms of overall abundance, however each site contained 17 unique species- some of which do not overlap. This was surprising as I expected the restored site to contain a higher level of diversity on all scales. That being said, when the data was finally analyzed the restored site was both more diverse according to Shannon's and Simpson's Index and more even according to Pielou's Index.

Species Abundance based on Family Groups

There were some interesting finds when trying to identify the organisms. I found a crab that we were unable to include as it was already dead before it was collected that had been killed off by parasitism. I also found that when the green porcelain crabs were transferred to ethanol the body changed from green to red. Though classifying the organisms found in the sediment cores was a long and arduous task, it was made slightly better by how amazing and intricate the organisms were. Some of the oligochaetes we found could be identified by the black eyes on the tops of their heads. Even more strange were the polychaetes with tentacle-like structure seemingly streaming out of their heads. There was even a cute microscopic shrimp larvae to be found.

Sorting through a Sediment Core

Oyster Spat

Crab showing effects of parasitism

My sediment core identifying station

An interesting find on an oyster shell

Getting all the organisms ready for identification 

Callinectes sapidus in the field

Fiddler Crab found in the field

Fiddler Crab burrows