4-14-14 Oceans of Disney: If you want to Spring out, Spring out; if you want to be Free, be Free

Hello everyone!

So much to talk about!

So since my last blog post I have finished Winter Quarter 2014.

The biggest triumph of that quarter was passing physics! (Woo done forever... er at least in my undergrad... with math-based classes!!)

I also did a large original research proposal in my Marine Ecology class with a group of 3 other Marine Bio undergrads. The final paper was bout 16 pages and we had to present it to our professors (giants in the world of kelp forest and rocky intertidal ecology). It was a ton of work but definitely gave us an idea of what being a scientist is actually like. I wrote most of the hypotheses and was sort of the head of the group as I've taken more classes on invert physiology, taxonomy, and ecology. This is the presentation we made that helps explain our project.

Then for Spring Break I went on a Disney Cruise with my mom in the Caribbean. It was completely amazing. Being on that ship is just so relaxing and fun that we never want to leave. We made some good friends while on board and had a great time in Cozumel where we we went Scuba Diving and in Cayman Islands where we got to boat out to a sand bar with lots of Sting Rays. Both were great experiences and have me excited to get going on finishing my scuba certification here in California!

Surreally Beautiful Caribbean Sunset from our room

Me and Mom after getting to pet some sting rays in Grand Cayman

This is us in our Scuba Gear - Pictures were too great not to buy! 

Me with an awesome Stingray Statue in Grand Cayman

This is where we got to go Scuba Diving in Cozumel, Mexico.
They employed a reef-saving system called Reef Balls which are essentially giant concrete soccerballs.
They have spaces cut out and allow different fishes and invertebrates to live upon them,
essentially supporting the reef without having to worry about coral bleaching, etc. 

Mom and Me in Cozumel next to our ship - the Disney Wonder.

Oh mom, sewing on deck 10.

Disney Cruise Line <3

Because, how often do you get to combine drinking with Mickey Mouse? 

After the cruise we headed to Disney World for a few days. This is Epcot!

Mom and me posing with Timon and Pumbaa during Epcot's Flower Festival.

Epcot!

I completely fell in love with the architecture and designs in Epcot's Morroco

The day we got back from our amazing Disney trip, my boyfriend Cameron came up with half of his stuff to move in with me! It's been really great to not be long distance anymore, and now Ramona has someone to play with while I'm away at school.

Of course the next weekend we had to go back to get the other half of his stuff, and since it's not every day that I'm in Anaheim and as if I hadn't had enough Disney already - We went to Disneyland with Alison and Jeremiah. 

A great shot of Ali and Jeremiah I captured on my new DSLR

Posing with the Ferry!

Castle!

We came back home and I started up a new quarter here at UCSC. This is my last quarter before I study abroad in the Netherlands in the fall, but more on that later.
Right now I'm taking Intro to Photography - which required me to get a better camera, so you may notice that now these pictures are DLSR worthy (even if the picture-taking itself is slightly spotty).
I'm also taking Marine Mammals, which means I get credit to look at pictures of whales, dolphins, and seals all day, I mean it's not my favorite school of Marine Bio but I'm certainly not complaining.
My 3rd class is my Senior Exit Requirement - Marine Ecology Field Lab. Basically we go on field trips instead of lecture and collect data and learn about field methods. The second half of the quarter will require me to run my own experiment and test my own original hypotheses - definitely something that will be scary, yet awesome.

Marine Ecology Lab - Left is Baleen and Right is live, in the bone, real Narwhal skull and horn, which is really a modified tooth. Cool stuff. 

I'm continuing my Internship at NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service.
Basically I sit behind a microscope and count eggs (pictured below),
 and this quarter this also extends to measuring eggs digitally on a computer
 and cleaning out rockfish tanks in the aquarium room! 

Microscopic Rockfish larvae. So cute :)

My Professors showing us how to filter out sand so we can count
the Sand Crabs, Blood worms, and other inverts hiding within the sand.
Keep in mind this is around 7:30 in the morning.

A cameraman followed our class out there in the early cold.
He was doing a piece on Sea Star wasting disease,
a disease devastating Sea Star populations throughout the Pacific which I wont go into here.
 My Prof (the guy in the middle) Pete Raimondi is an Invertebrate Ecologist
and spoke about the disease on the beach.  

You don't know real cold until you run in and out of 50 degF sea water in windy 40 degF temperatures
 in the name of science. Next time I won't be forgetting my boots at home. D:

I think that has you all up to speed.

Future events look like this for me:

• I'll be in Atascadero during May 9-12
• I'll be at Ryan and Kristen's Wedding on June 7th
• I'm done with Finals on June 9th (also Madison's birthday)
• I'll be at King's River the weekend of June 14th
• I'll be at Haley's Bridal shower on July 13th
• I'm going to be leaving for Africa with my Dad/Family on July 14th, where afterwards I'll be going straight to the Netherlands to study abroad for the fall. I wont be back in the United States until just before Christmas in December. 

So if you would like to see me before I study abroad I will probably have some sort of party/event at my dad's house (though definitely not set in stone yet) as a sort of going away party. But anything else should be planned before the middle of July! I'll also be updating this blog (hopefully more frequently) while I'm in the Netherlands so stay tuned! 

Alright so some cool stuff:

• THIS has got to be the coolest weather site I have ever seen. You can play with all of the graphs and really compare to previous years and all over the world. Awesome!

• If you were ever curious as to why predators are important to their respective ecosystems, I now have learned some in depth reasons as to why we need sharks, tigers, bears, sea stars, wolves, birds, etc. 
• So to start this off picture a system at equilibrium. All this means is that everything in in balance. All species are doing alright and there isn't anybody getting pushed out or threatened. Another way of thinking about this is that all parts in the circle of life are moving equally, or there are no gaps.
• Now picture what happens when one species starts to grow uncontrollably. They grow outside of their bounds, they take resources from others, other species start going extinct, the system goes out of balance and there is a very possible threat of collapse.
• Now think about this. There are very few predators compared to the rest of the 'food' or vegetarians in the system. The predators eat those organisms that would otherwise grow uncontrollably. They keep everything in check. They are the system of checks and balances to the wild. This is known as the Keystone Predator effect, something you may recall me talking about when I discussed the importance of Sea Otters. 
• Ex) The Sea Star is much more important than you might think. When you look at tide pools, the most dominant life forms are Mussels and Barnacles. There are many other things living in cracks and pools like Anemones, Crabs, Snails, Chitons, Nudibranchs, Fish, Sea Grass, Green Algae, Honeycomb Worms, etc. There is an overabundance of life within these tide pools. However, Mussels and Barnacles threaten these other species. They are very good at taking up space and keeping it, thus preventing other organisms from living there. Sea Stars eat mussels and barnacles. They are massive predators. They eat them as fast as they grow back and help create open space within the tide pools. Those other organisms depend upon Sea Stars. They are the keystone predator. 
• This example is replicated all over the ocean and nature in general. The medium amounts of disturbance provided by the predator actually help the entire ecosystem stay healthy. 
• This doesn't mean humans 'over-predating' is a good thing, we still have gone way past the limits of normal, medium levels of disturbance.
• This means that we should protect the top predators in systems instead of killing them or wiping them out. (Dont kill sharks please we like those)
• This means Sea Star wasting disease, a disease that literally tears a Sea Star apart and kills them, has drastic unfortunate consequences throughout the coastal oceans and perhaps beyond, as our Tide Pools are important for our Kelp Forests as our Kelp Forests are important to our Fisheries as those Fisheries decide the fate of the ocean as a whole.

• Ecology is a broad subject which is interdisciplinary. It draws from economics, taxonomy, physiology, evolution, meteorology, and philosophy, among other subjects. In fact for a long time Ecology was not considered to be a real science as the data you receive is difficult to interpret due to a plethora of constantly changing, unpredictable, underlying factors. However what is interesting about Ecology is the importance of it and also its analogies to Human Economics. I had a really great discussion with my dad in San Francisco about the Economical Applications of Marine Ecology. As MINDBODY is about to go public, many of the same laws that apply to ecosystems also apply to corporations. The analogy has money as the 'food/resources' of the system while the term 'niche' stays the same. We were able to solve a few questions he had about the economics of MINDBODY while using the foundations of Ecology. Very fascinating stuff!