When John and I first discussed a feasible idea for the project, we came up with two possible focal points: Christmas Tree Worms(Spirobranchus Sp.), an invertebrate filter-feeding worm, and Cowrie snail(Cyphoma gibbosum), a marine gastropod that feeds on gargonian corals. Our study for the Christmas Tree Worms would be a quantitative assessment of the amount of different species of worms with respect to coral type and depth. We would survey several different beaches and also collect gps, conductivity, and backscatter data from each site. To designate the area of the field site, we chose an arbitrary maximum depth of ten feet which we marked of on a rope. We then pulled a tape measure out to the measured ten foot mark, to obtain the length of the site from the ten foot depth up to the high tide line. Using the measuring tape as a reference point, we included all corals within approximately ten feet of either side plum line and counted the number and color of Christmas Tree Worms on each coral.
Our first site and 'test' site was at Bachelor Beach. All the logistics of figuring out the depth and measuring the approximate dimensions of the study area went smoothly, but we came to realize after our first attempt at surveying that there were simply way too many color of worms to keep track of or attempt to identify. So John and I had to refocus our study into something a little more feasible. We noticed during our first survey that there was a distinct difference in the abundance of worms in shallow water to the abundance of worms in deeper water. So now instead of counting the different species, we are just going to count the abundance, but zonate the study area by depth. Hopefully this will be a little more practical than exact species identification, which even by photos would be rough at best. If this still is too difficult to do, another option we knocked around was surveying the percentage of gorgonian corals with a Cowrie present for several different sites. Either way its going to be a really sweet project.
