Crystal Beach
October 1st, 2015

Partly Sunny

Lots of clouds (Alto stratus)

Temperature 82 degrees F

Salinity was 28 parts per thousand (which means that fresh water was coming from rivers or streams)

Measuring the diversity of species in the different areas of the beach is our main goal today. There was a nasty smell which is given off from the anaerobic activity taking place(organism that does not require oxygen for growth). 

  First the class  walked onto the pier where you could see the different types of Subsrate as the mineral zone and then as you walked out you could see plant zone and at the end the dock you could see the animal zone  ,and I seen a good size stingray swimming on the bottom. Our group was on the front of the Mangroves and we did measurements in 3 meter increments utilizing the quadrant and measuring tape, and shovels in which our diversity score was .8999. We see a lot of different grasses, Turtle grass, manatee grass and shoal grass and salt grass was seen. 

Sea grasses were all around the water’s edge, along with sea foam and layers of Dead Sea grasses floating on top of the water   and seaweed algae were lying among the shoreline.  One group measured a different area along the along the pier, that had a more diverse population than that my group which was the mangrove group.  We found a lot of baby blue crabs, red worms, white worms and many small schools of bait fish. Found many pieces of grass that had small   microscopic white spots living on the pieces of grass. I found a piece of pneumatophores (black mangroves )that had is roots growing and had spouted on top. It must happen been mating season for the horseshoe crabs as I seen several today. At the end everybody identified the 3 different types of mangroves red, white and black mangroves 

The Black mangrove has narrow, egg-shaped shaped leaves with pointy ends. Although the leaves are dark green, they are often whitish. This is the salt that the tree pushes out its system.

The red mangrove and   its tangle of branches with multitudes of stilted prop roots makes it appear more like a grotesque shrub. The leaves of the Red mangrove are large and egg-shaped. The top of the leaf is dark green while the bottom is light green. The leaves feel waxy like a candle.

The white mangrove leaves are up to 3 inches long, elliptical (rounded at both ends), yellowish in color, and have two distinguishing glands at the base of each leaf blade where the stem begins.

Starting from the water to the land mangroves tend to grow from red at the (water) then the  black  and the white  and the the buttonwoods. 

 This was a great trip and a nice park