Day 2

So today since I was lax on pictures yesterday you get two posts for the price of one! Unfortunately this one probably won't have any pictures... maybe later! I do have some pictures, but they'll have to wait til the next time I'm at the Marine Institute. Trailer wi-fi is waaay bad.

So about the island itself, and the marshes. Today was basically my day just to learn the systems and the ropes, so to speak. Spent basically the whole day just wandering the marshes observing. This is easier said than done. Remember the mud from yesterday? Some of it is much... squishier than the rest. I was up to me knee at one point. Nonetheless, very cool. We hit several marshes - Airport (so named due to its proximity to a small, overgrown airstrip), Dean's Creek, and Lighthouse (see Airport). Yesterday was mainly a marsh called Oakdale.

The marshes are made up mostly of one particular grass type with other species interspersed. The main plant is marsh cordgrass, Spartina alternaflorens. Most of the research being done focuses in some roundabout (but usually fascinating) way on how we can keep this particular plant thriving. The marsh itself has short, intermediate, and taller Spartina zones. These zones in terms of elevation are backwards - high, medium, and low. The low marsh, where the tall Spartina is, tends to be at or around creekbeds, which I would have loved to explore more but the mud gets very soft and almost untreadable due to the water around them.

Our crabbies, from our last post, are spread out amongst these zones. Marsh fiddlers tend to be everywhere, munching goodies straight from the soil. Sand fiddlers are similar but seem to be associated with the dryer, flatter, less vegetated areas. Purple marsh crabs tend to prefer certain soil types, and the two mud crabs prefer tall Spartina and to some extent mussel mounds, another feature of these marshes. There are also marsh periwinkles, Littoraria irrorata, a very important grazer of the grasses.

I got to try my hand at catching some of these guys, with reasonable success (as seen in the previous post). A few pinches, though. Was fun.

The island itself is a bizarre but fascinating place. It's mostly uninhabited - the only route in or out is by ferry. There are some residents - the descendents of slaves that originally resided here - that live in a historic area called Hog Hammock. There's also the University of Georgia Marine Institute, who the lab I'm working with is associated with. And then there are oddities.

The R.J Reynolds Mansion, for instance. Originally owned by the head of Camel as well as a number of other tobacco companies. This is in contrast to the myriad of dilapidated, abandoned structures dispersed throughout the island, including but not limited to: a greenhouse (I'd love to explore), some sort of animal enclosure (possibly chicken), etc. I will post pics when I have them. They're delightfully overgrown and urban-decay-ish, for lack of a better term (since this island has nothing one could consider "urban")

And myself? I live in a trailer, with a pair of fellow undergrads. Every aspect of the trailer seems to point to it being a relic of the '70s. It is truly ancient. But cozy.

...I should really get back to researching a topic for my project.