Setting the stage for TMEC 2018

By Chantale Bégin (TMEC instructor)
From May 6-20, 2018, 21 students from the University of South Florida will come to Soufriere, Saint Lucia, to learn about coral reef ecology and tropical marine conservation as they work with the Soufriere Marine Management Association (SMMA). Students will learn how to survey coral reef ecosystems using scuba diving, as they assess the condition of the reefs in and out of the SMMA. This will allow them to determine how reefs have changed since 2011, the last time they were surveyed. Because high sedimentation rate is known to be a major stressor to corals here, students will also participate in the sampling of sediment cores near the Soufriere River, and in measuring sedimentation rate at various sites around the SMMA using devices called SedPods (described in a future blog post). In early April 2018, `I worked with the rangers at the SMMA to dive at 18 sites inside and outside the marine park and deploy 3 sedpods at each site. These sedpods will be on the reefs for around 4 weeks before students in TMEC retrieve them next month and collect the sediment that has deposited on them, to be quantified and analyzed back at USF.