These past months have gone by in a flash - well, sort of... I've been working away trying to wrap matters up on the thesis front. Things are a bit slower overall than I would like them to be, but I am moving forward, one baby step at a time as a friend likes to put it, and it's the forward motion that matters. The sticker that hangs over my desk at work "I WILL GRADUATE" is inciting me more than ever to keep going. Because yes indeed I WILL GRADUATE - and it will be this year!
Writing a thesis must be one of the hardest things on can do - but it is such a special thing, and an incredible luxury as well; to be able to focus on yourself and your thoughts so intently. It is easy in the fury of it all, the absolute exhaustion from lack of sleep, the wanting to well and truly rip your hair out, the feeling you're about to lose your marbles, the loneliness... in all of that it is easy to forget that it is indeed a choice I made ( I was and must ahve been crazy indeed!!) and that I am fortunate to have been offered the possibility of pursuing higher education the way I have :o)
The support I have been receiving from friends and family is unparalleled - makes me smile, feel humble, and incredibly incredibly fortunate.
In addition to how much I am learning about my field, marine ecology, this experience is consolidating so many experiences at a personal level too. I many ways it is about finding out what one wants from life, what your strengths and weaknesses are in their most raw form, how to deal with them and shift things so as to truly learn to accept yourself for who you are and make peace with that - whilst embracing the challenges that lie ahead.
Last night, or early this morning rather, I submitted a draft of my chapter 4. This chapter focused on the role of grazers - and particularly the role green sea turtles might be playing in Hawaii. It is a truly quite interesting story, even if I do say so myself!
My study "site" (in " " as I've never actually been there!) consisted of the National historic park of Kaloko Honokohau. It is located on the west coast of the big island and supports a rather healthy and diverse coral habitat as well as plenty of fish (though not very many commercial species), urchins ... and yes you guessed it green turtles. In actual fact it looks like the green turtles are running out of food (turf algae). And this is what I was set out to test -- whether the turtles are in actual fact going hungry. I addressed this question using ecosystem modeling. The ecosystem model then also served the additional purpose of aggregating all currently available information on marine community linkages in the park so as to serve as a "baseline" in face of ongoing and proposed development . In other words it would allow researchers to see how the system will change in the future due to increased pressures on the park- think increased fishing pressure and elevated nutrient concentrations in the coastal waters - and more importantly to "test" how these impacts may affect the processes of the system fundamentally. It should also allow them to test how different management scenarios may in turn help maintain resilience of the system.
And this is where the story gets interesting - in analysing the data, what became apparent is that urchins, fish and turtles all seem to be more or less at carrying capacity - i.e., they are currently limited by food.... and all three groups eat the same thing -- algae. Yet how they eat it and specifically what type of algae they eat and where they eat will be key to understanding how the reef may respond to predicted changes due to development pressures. The turtles seem to only consume turf algae growing in the shallows. The fish are throughout the park but probably do not feed too much at depth. Urchins are everywhere (possibly concentrated in the shallow portions as well) and are the most indiscriminate foragers of them all - which means, in the advent of increased nutrient loading they might be 'most' important in controlling stimulated algae production (algae like nutrients a lot, think of fertilisers and plants!) Certain species of urchins however have the potential to 'overgraze' the reef - i.e., in consuming algae they often also remove parts of the reef framework, and should they be overabundant on the reef they could hasten its erosion.
So currently they are all competitors for the same limited resource... and so all play an important role in maintaining the resilience of the reef - or its ability to withstand change; and it s probably those distinct niches they occupy in grazing that is especially important to the reef's health.
I am looking forward to hearing back from my committee & collaborators in Hawaii-- though understandably am anxious as well!
Today I am taking it easy -- my brain feels too sluggish to do anything much. But tomorrow it's back to it -- food consumption chapter here I come!
