Weekly Reflection #1-St. Croix

This week has been a time of learning about island culture, science, and information about the Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/. The team is focused on coral conservation and restoration they have both in-water and land-based coral nurseries at the Hub. I have learned how important coral reefs are to the environment and our lives, not only for habitat but for island protection.  At the beginning of the week I was introduced to the teams, the on-land Scientists, and the Field Workers who scuba dive and re-attach, or re-plant the coral into the ocean after the coral goes through the process of getting cleaned, studied, and fragged. I learned how the Hub facility works, from the water being pumped out of the ocean into the tanks, then run through filters to clean out the bacteria in the water. I then learned how to test the water to make sure it's a healthy environment and learned about what kind of nutrients are important for the coral. The water tests are critical to the coral's health because they won't grow and thrive if they don't have the right amount of nutrients in the water and other chemicals to survive. This past week I tested daily the temperature, the pH levels, and the amount of NH4, N02, and N03 (Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitride). They showed me the process of how they cut, divide, and re-grow coral so that they can be more healthy and also over time healthy and increased in size. This is called Fragmentation, where you cut up a large chunk of coral into small pieces (size depends on the kind of coral) and it triggers an emergency growth and regeneration signal in the coral so that they grow rapidly. I would not have suspected that to grow more coral you actually need to cut up a piece of living coral so that they regenerate fast. On as quickly as the fourth day, the coral has shown growth and we started fragging more coral again Friday in preparation for the in-water team to take some of the coral out of the tanks and move it into the ocean next week. Once they find a patch of healthy coral in the ocean of the same specie they glue the fragged coral we grew to the substrate to create a new home and they will continue to bond together over time. In total, I have worked 35 hours this past week and am on track to complete my senior project and all my hours. Monday, I start working to create hurricane houses for all the tanks in the facility in order to prepare for June to November hurricane season. It is called hurricane season because of storms that come off the Saraha in Africa and get fueled by a warm ocean during this time of year.  Global warming has made it worse.  The protection is vital to the lab and its equipment so that everything is protected from a natural disaster.  All in all this past week has been great and I can't wait to see how my next week goes.  Below is the "hurricane alley" and you can see where we are.