MBFE Day 21 - Research continues and class is winding down

Sorry about the delay in posting, but I'll do my best to catch up...

OK, so this is Day 21 - 3 full weeks into the BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience.

Students spent the morning on research and some groups have even started some of the writing tasks they need to do for their research manuscripts.  Yep, there are all kinds of things going on.  One group spends its time in the marine measuring sediment sizes, taking depth readings and trying to catch elusive little fish while another group continues to monitor development of sea slugs and another group investigates possible impacts of acidification on developing chitons.

Here are a couple of photos of hermit crabs.  Two research teams are working on questions with these fun little animals.  Believe it or not these are two different species.  Take a close look and see if you can tell the difference.  Oh, they are using the same kind of shell as home, but they are different species all right.

In other news, this was our second to last BIO 314 - Marine Biology - lecture.  It's a fun one though, tropical communities.  How can we be done so soon?  Well, if we have class for 2-3 hours per day and we have class 19 days that's the equivalent of 38+ regular lectures on campus, so yep, it's about time to wind down.  Once we're done with those, students will be able to work on their research and writing full-time.

Stay tuned for more updates!