Work Week Volunteers Needed
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Join us for a Work Week at Forfar!
IFS will be hosting two upcoming work weeks at the field station in preparation for the 2017 season for volunteers interested in helping with work around the station.
Questions you may have:
When is it?
The work weeks will be November 12-1 9, 2016 and December 17-24, 2016.
What will volunteers be doing?
We have a very long list of items to complete during the off-season but Cardo and his staff are working hard to complete what they can. What remains will likely be tasks that include painting, repair of wooden structures, brush clearing, and tree removal. Volunteers will work ~8 hours a day, Sunday-Thursday. Your evenings will be free to do what you want with at least one night snorkel courtesy of IFS. Friday will be a full boat day to go out diving or snorkeling.
Who can come?
Anyone able-bodied and willing to work hard to improve the field station!
How much will it be?
Get yourself to the field station and it is free! We will cover the lodging and food for the week in exchange for your hard work!
If you are interested, please contact Matt at the office with questions (office@intlfieldstudies.org or 614.268.9930) and complete this online Registration Form.
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Coral Restoration in the Bahamas
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In an intense 9 day workshop held at the Cape Eleuthera Institute in August, IFS was represented by one of our Forfar Interns, Ahmed Mendez. The workshop was titled, “Reversing The Decline of Bahamian Coral Reefs: 1st Coral Workshop 2016” and was led by the Perry Institute for Marine Science and the Bahamas National Trust.
Using reef restoration methods developed by SECORE, the participants collected coral spawn and fertilized thousands of Acropora palmata eggs, and got larvae to settle from at least two brooding coral species – Undaria agaricites and Favia fragum. Additionally, AGRRA (Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment) training and surveys were performed around the South Eleuthera reef. We are excited about the positive results from the coral propagation and restoration efforts so far in the Bahamas. IFS will continue to partner and assist with the ongoing efforts. There is hope yet that we can restore, protect, and reverse the decline of our beloved coral reefs.
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Bioacoustics Monitoring on Andros? Maybe…with your help!
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With our ever-changing environment either from habitat destruction, climate change, and/or overhunting, we are losing species diversity and noticing changing behavioral patterns among some our most sensitive species. It is important to learn as much as we can about elusive species while we can. Another way of monitoring species is to use bioacoustics data. Sieve Analytics is working on a project that will establish acoustic biodiversity monitoring stations across the globe. This project is called ARBIMON (Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network). This is an important project that will gather audio data throughout the world, process and analyze the data, and provide important insights into the ecosystems where stations are established.
The ARBIMON project consists of self-powered recording stations, and the ARBIMON II Bioacoustic monitoring platform. The recording stations consist of a cell phone in a custom protective case, an external microphone, data connection, and an attached solar panel. The ARBIMON II Bioacoustic monitoring platform is a phone app used to collect the audio recordings. The audio recordings are stored in a repository that can be accessed by researchers who can interpret and decipher the audio recordings to determine what types of animals and species are present in the recorded environments.
The goal of this project is to establish an effective worldwide ecosystem monitoring network that can provide us with new information regarding land use change and climate change on biological systems. As Sieve Analytics states; “Society does an excellent job of monitoring weather globally, and making this information available to anyone with an internet connection. It is now time to do the same with biodiversity by establishing biodiversity “weather” stations everywhere.”
Sieve Analytics recently reached out to IFS to ask for help in reaching their current funding goals. A Kickstarter campaign for the ARBIMON project was launched on September 1 with a goal of $80,000. If this goal is surpassed, additional stations will be established. This is where Forfar Field Station comes into play. There will be a “dollar voting system” put into place, and all donors will be eligible to vote for their site of choice for the next monitoring station. This system will allow for 1 vote per each dollar donated. Forfar is one of the eligible sites that will be considered if the goal is reached. If this project interests you, please consider visiting the ARBIMON Kickstarter page and donating!
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