Working out the details

On Tuesday, our interns started testing some methods.  Megsie, one of our graduate student mentors, is trying to understand the impact that the invasive mangrove forests may have on the invertebrate and algal communities in the pond (and hence food webs).  She is going to take measurements on the sediment depth, diversity of organisms in the sediments, and algal cover in areas around mangroves and areas that have already been cleared.  So yesterday was a day for the interns to practice the techniques - water depth, sediment cores, sieving for organisms, and algal quadrats along transects perpendicular to the wall.