Madison Bommelaere                           Fred Howard Trip
9/23/2016

            While snorkeling the waters of Fred Howard beach park in tarpon springs we encountered many different forms of life. The ecosystem at Fred Howard was a mangrove fringe. The beach was loaded with mangrove seeds that floated from the park area across the lagoon where the coast was littered with mangroves. The warm shallow water proved to be a thriving ecosystem full of fish, sponges, rock formations, and soft corals. On this field trip we started by using a seine net to survey what we can catch on the shore. Next, we snorkeled the waters where I found conch shells of the molluscs that had either grown too large for those shells or have been eaten by other organisms. I also observed many species of fish like pin fish, sheep head and mullet along with many soft corals and sponges. The majority of the ocean floor was covered with turtle grass, shoal grass and manatee grass that were home to crabs, small fish and other organisms that require thick grass as shelter and food. Grass bottoms are a great ecosystem that thrives because of the high nutrient and shelter cover. After snorkeling we went to the other side of the beach to examine the dunes and shore. We learned how the dunes were created and why its unlawful to pull the wheat grass. The wheat grass' roots are all connected and intertwined which makes it impossible just just pull a couple wheat grass' which would destroy the dune providing shelter. The dunes are created by sand being trapped in and under the intertwined wheat grass roots. More and more trapped sand collects from the wind blowing the sand and collects enough to ultimately create a dune. Dunes are important to coastal areas by protecting the beach from too much water intrusion and high energy storms. Last but not least we looked through the swash zone just where the water and the beach meet for animals like the coquina, which is a small bivalva that burrows in the sand on the shore and has beautiful shells.
             This was a very fun and informational trip and I honestly did learn quite a bit