Hello my name is Sofia Suesue and I am an intern here at OIMB for the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (SSNERR). I was born and raised in Hawaii and fascinated by the ocean and it’s creatures my whole life which eventually led me to study oceanography. I love going free diving, hiking, and pretty much anything that lets me go outside. Before starting this internship I recently graduated from Windward Community College with an associate's degree in Natural Sciences. During my time at Windward I was able to conduct research on coral bleaching, photosynthetic sea slugs, and estuary water quality after extensive mangrove removal. One of the reasons I want to study at OIMB is to experience a marine environment that is much different than anything I have seen before. Another reason was to be apart of South Slough’s extensive monitoring of the nearby estuary, which includes research on climate change and the habitats of various species within. This summer I will be mapping the endangered salt marsh plant bird’s beak (Chloropyron maritimus ssp. palustre) throughout the South Slough estuary. It is listed as endangered by the State of Oregon. To get started, my first day I went to the Distant Water Fleet site and learned how to identify bird’s beak along with several low-land marsh plants, which grow near bird’s beak. An interesting thing to see was that there was a species of pickleweed here too and it is also edible! I was also introduced to the GPS I will be using to map bird’s beak, the device and program to create maps seem pretty advanced but I am excited to learn more about them. Throughout the rest of the week I got to help out with other research projects taking place at SSNERR. These included collecting data from sensors set at several creeks that recorded the hydrology of the area and taking samples of eelgrass along with the sediment surrounding it. I even got to start collecting data for my project! My mentor, Ali Helms, and I kayaked to Ferie Ranch marsh, a location that was reported to have bird’s beak years ago from the SSNERR Site Profile (2006). Although we did not find the plant there we took soil samples, measured soil salinity, and recorded the sample sites with the GPS. This data will be used to compare Ferrie Ranch marsh to sites that do have Bird’s Beak in order to better understand the salinity and soil preferences of bird’s beak from different locations. It has been a bit difficult to keep track of all that has happened in the past week since so much has passed, but I already can’t wait for next week, stay tuned!
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AuthorI am an incoming third year student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa studying Oceanography. I’m looking forward to learning all I can about the Oregon Coast from this internship! Archives
August 2019
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