Haley Culbertson '22

Research with Lisa Greer, Summer 2020

It's no secret that the world is constantly changing. However, this year we've all been thrown an unprecedented curveball which has required us to think on our feet and be easily adaptable. When it was made apparent that the ongoing pandemic was going to hinder plans well into the Summer, Dr. Lisa Greer began thinking of ways to have a productive season of research without making her normal 2,986-mile trip to Coral Gardens, Belize, home of endangered coral species Acropora cervicornis. Dr. Greer has studied the area since 2011, tracking population decline until a brief resurgence was seen in 2016, yielding the hope that the species would continue rebounding thanks to the conditions of Coral Gardens. However, the coral has recently been found to be going through a pandemic of its own known as coral bleaching, a phenomenon during which symbiotic algae responsible for giving the coral its color and strength dies and is expelled from the skeleton, leaving the coral weak and susceptible to breakage. Although unable to physically return to the island and investigate the breakout herself, Dr. Greer used the Summer to continue studying the environment of Coral Gardens and review her previous methods of population tracking.

Alongside four other undergraduate students, led by Ginny Johnson '20 and Dr. Greer, I assisted in the testing of lab methods and received experience analyzing and visualizing geological data. Using the University's remote desktop access, we practiced tracing live coral in photos taken during previous trips to Belize, while dreaming about the day we would get to suit up and dive in ourselves, to measure the precision of the methods Dr. Greer had been using in her lab. We then began to analyze pH, dissolved oxygen content, and temperature data from the previous eight years to attempt to understand the environment in which Acropora cervicronis seems to be thriving. We wanted to use the data we had to tell a story about Coral Gardens to provide more insight as to what this location has that gives the coral a better chance at survival in an effort to label the location a wildlife refugia.

This Summer has been a masterclass in communication and adaptability. Between internet connection issues, program problems, and scheduling conflicts, we learned both how to work with geological data and present it in a clear concise way and how to work with others under imperfect circumstances. We may not have had the experiences we thought we would when we signed up for Dr. Greer's lab, but we received unparalleled life experience that will help us as we continue to grow up in this ever-changing world.

Support provided by the Geology Department and the R. Preston Hawkins IV Geology Fund