How to roll with the punches: when things don't go as planned

Anytime scientists need to conduct research in an outdoors environment, there are so many conditions that could change and alter the original plan. In order to be a scientist, you need to have the ability to bounce back when the original plan is no longer an option. That's something we had to do yesterday and today. Stefan was conducting research on lobsters and the correlation between their size and the size of the barrel sponges or corals they choose to inhabit. We arrived at the Long Key State Park, which is the site where the research was going to be conducted. However, within the first ten minutes of exploring the waters, we realized that there were little to no sponges or lobsters left in this habitat to observe and the waters visibility was too low to see even a few feet in front of you. The amount of lobsters and sponges did not meet the criteria of the research and therefore would produce inaccurate or unreliable results.

However, just because the environment changed doesn't mean we give up and stop conducting research. We decided to make use of what we do have. So we planned to conduct new research in the Mangroves while kayaking. Yesterday, instead of the original plan, we went to a different beach with better visibility and snorkeled for about an hour. It was really cool because I was able to observe other organisms such as a trigger fish, some hermit crabs and schooling fish. I also saw the variability in seagrass beds. I saw some that had definitive barriers between the types of seagrass and some where multiple types were incorporated. I observed manatee grass, shoal grass, and turtle grass and also saw a merman's shaving brush and some oatmeal algae. We were able to make the best out of a situation that didn't work out in our favor and still made it a fun, educational opportunity.

Another variability while working outdoors is the weather. The weather is so unpredictable and can disturb the original schedule of your research. Today, they called for scattered thunderstorms due to the tropical storm off the coast. That will make for unsafe weather conditions especially because it creates faster currents that are harder for the people kayaking to paddle in. When the weather acts up, sometimes we need to assess a new game-plan and try something else or wait it out. The original place we intended to kayak wouldn't let us because of the unsafe conditions but we were able to adapt and find a new place where the waters were a little calmer and we were still able to kayak and even paddle board!

To learn more about weather unpredictability click here.

To learn more about lobsters in the keys click here.