Clearwater Beach

Clearwater Beach Dune Study

Clark Blackson

9/24/15    2:00PM

Atmosphere – Very Sunny, Near Zero Clouds

Temperature – 88 F

Humidity – 50%

Wind - 7 – 10 mph

This Thursday we went to Clearwater Beach to study the flora and fauna residing on the dunes, beach and shore line. We pretty much immediately saw a Tortoise right off the trail, but he quickly scurried off into a dune covered densely in Sea Sunflower as well as Sea Oats.

While roaming down the beach to our destination we ran into plenty of Seagulls and snowbirds alike.

Once we made it to our plot on the beach we were all split into groups of 4 and divided to perform different tasks in collecting data on the dunes and shore. First my group went higher up on the dunes and spotted some Dollarweed, Beach Morning Glory, Inkberry, and Poor Mans Patch.

After that our group began creating a beach profile. We did this by measuring how far the beach drops as you move from the Primary Dune towards the water. Using a huge roll of measuring tape and a meter stick we recorded the height and soil composition every 10 meters.