Every morning I wake up and I am eager to see something that I know is very special. The natural wonders that I have seen on this trip are something that I will never be able to see ever again in my lifetime. I personally love adventure, getting up every morning and going out and learning is healthy for me. I get stagnant and bored if I don’t go outside or use my life to the fullest every day. This schedule of this trip as been perfect for me. Waking up at 7:30 A.M. and being ready to go at 9:00 A.M. is the life that I wish I could live every day. I have really enjoyed all the field trips that we have done. My favorite parts of the trip have been diving and seeing the large reefs will elkhorn coral and staghorn coral. I have been amazed by the color and the sheer size of these corals. I thought it was interesting how I was able to notice how some of the coral was bleaching. I would see on same brain corals how bleaching was slowly affecting the color, where half of the coral would be alive, and the other half would not be alive. I thought this tied nicely into the discussions that we have been having in the climate change class about fossilized coral and how it shows were the sea level once was. When we were out on these large reefs, I was noticed dead coral structures that weren’t white but were turning to limestone slowly from red algae synthesizing the calcium carbonate structures, and when the sea level regresses, these fossil reefs will be part of a new land mass in the far future. It was very interesting to me to see how above the water; the ocean is a lifeless desert to humans. However, once you go under the water there are entire ecosystems built around these coral reefs. I personally have never been in an area where there is so much biodiversity. When I worked at the Georgia Aquarium, I was able to study coral reef ecosystems where I could look inside an artificial ecosystem where environmental conditions where perfect. I am extremely grateful to have had to opportunity to see alive coral as well as dead/bleached coral here in the Bahamas. Without the opportunity to see how anthropogenic processes are affecting these underwater ecosystems, it would have been harder for me to really understand the extent of these problems, since we are only on a small island where we have only seen 7-8 coral reefs, compared to the numerous reefs throughout our ocean. I have really enjoyed how coral reefs have been tied to the geology of this island, and how the island was formed not just by geologic processes, but by the help of living organisms and biogenic processes.
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