Seagrass, Soup of the Sea and Migratory Birds

Soup of the Sea

Plankton are organisms that drift with currents. Plankton can be plant-like phytoplankton or animal-like zooplankton. Most plankton are small, but even larger organisms are considered plankton if they live their lives drifting with currents. Plankton is found in freshwater and saltwater all over the earth, and it is very important to humans. 

Thank your plankton

Imagine your favorite seafood - shrimp - crab, oysters, fish ... thanks to phytoplankton, we can enjoy this mouthwatering cuisine from the sea. Phytoplankton provides two things that are essential for animals  (including us) to live. One is food. Like plants on land, they use sunlight and nutrients to produce food. They're the base of the food chain in the ocean. Many tiny animals eat phytoplankton and, in turn, get eaten by larger animals up the food chain. Without plankton, we would not have seafood. 

Now, take a deep breath. The second essential ingredient produced by phytoplankton is oxygen. Estimates vary, but most scientists agree that phytoplankton makes up a significant portion of the air on Earth. 

There's a zoo out there.

Zooplankton eat. Many eat phytoplankton, and many eat smaller zooplankton. They are an important part of the food chain. A shark may never eat plankton and has no idea it exists, but it depends on plankton for all of its food. 

Many zooplankters go through a metamorphosis. Some of them are plankton for part of their lives and then grow large enough to swim against currents or settle to the bottom. Those are called meroplankton. Holoplankton are plankton their whole lives.

You might recognize the adult forms of many meroplankters. See if you can match the adult forms with their planktonic forms below.

Broth of the Bay

Look up at Mobile Bay. These are some of the planktonic organisms that are common in the bay. 

Plankton is collected with special nets like this one. The nets have tiny holes and are pulled along the water's surface. 

Crabs go through metamorphosis, much like butterflies or frogs. The megalops is one larval stage for crabs. 

Bristle worms get their name from their many bristles that are used for movement. They are related to earthworms. 

Dinoflagellates are phytoplankton. Some of them can glow like fireflies. Some make toxins that can be harmful to humans when there are lots of dinoflagellates in the water.

Diatoms are phytoplankton. They produce glass-like skeletons that are used in a variety of products. The grit in your toothpaste might come from diatoms. 

This is a nauplius, a larval form that is common to many different crustaceans, including barnacles. 

Copepods are thought to be the most abundant animals on earth. 

They are found in salt and fresh water and even in damp soil. 

They are incredibly strong for their size.

Saving and Restoring our Seagrasses

Threats to Seagrass

Nearly 80% of all seagrasses in coastal Alabama have been lost since the 1950s. 

A constant threat to seagrass beds is scarring created by boats' propellers and anchors. When boaters navigate across shallow areas or anchors. In seagrass beds, deep scars are created that can take years to recover, leading to erosion and further loss of seagrass. Poor water quality is also a major factor that poses a serious threat to the health of seagrass. For example, excessive sediments in the water limit the light perpetration necessary for plant survival.

How can we protect our seagrasses?

What are we Doing?

To help propeller scars heal and protect seagrass beds from further scarring, local partners are implementing protection and restoration projects throughout lower Perdido Bay, including Little Lagoon, the island near Perdido Pass and Ole River.

No motor and sensitive seagrass area signs will identify seagrass beds to help boaters navigate through or around shallow water sites containing seagrass. 

The scientist is using bird stakes to attract local waterfowl whose guano deposits will provide natural fertilizer to the propeller scars to promote the growth and expansion of surrounding seagrass.  

What can you do?

Be aware of idle or raised motors and poles when navigating through shallow areas.

Set anchors in sandy areas, avoiding seagrass beds.

Obey No Motor Zone or Sensitive Seagrass areas signs: wade, troll, pole, or kayak when navigating through these areas to your favorite fishing or beach spot. 

Seagrasses Coastal Nursery Habitats

What are seagrasses

Seagrasses are flowering plants that live in the shallow waters of every continent except Antarctica. 

Seagrass beds containing shoal grass and turtle grass are found in Alabama's calm and shallow coastal waters. 

Why are seagrasses important?

Seagrass beds provide food and protection for juvenile fish and shellfish, including many economically important species such as speckled trout, redfish, blue crabs, and shrimp. 

Many types of waterfowl feed on seagrasses, as do threatened and endangered species, such as manatees and green turtles.

Seagrasses help stabilize bottom sediment, filter runoff, and absorb nutrients from surrounding landscapes. 

Alabama's Coastal Connection

Migratory Birds

In search of food and shelter

Each fall, millions of birds leave North America and cross the Gulf of Mexico to spend the winter in South and Central America and the island of the Caribbean. In the spring, they make the return flight to their Northern American breeding grounds. Alabama's Gulf Coast provides an important rest stop for these travelers. Stopover areas are a key element in maintaining bird populations. 

With increased development along the entire Gulf Coast, tracts of diverse, forested lands such as these are disappearing. 

Migratory species, as well as resident birds, use this diverse landscape for foraging, resting, and evading predators. Birds must find enough food to provide energy for the long-distance flight to nesting sites far north. Migratory butterflies are dependent on food such as paw, paw, and passion flower larval growth. Songbirds feed on insects and berries, while shorebirds hunt for invertebrates in the mudflats. 

The western end of the Fort Morgan peninsula is an important stopover site for migratory birds and has become a nationally known hotspot for birders. When adverse weather forces birds to the ground during a spring "fallout," the birding can be spectacular, although treacherous for the exhausted birds that must find a safe place to recover. 

Bird species commonly seen during migration include vireos, warblers, flycatchers, buntings, and hummingbirds, The Monarch butterfly migration can also be breathtaking during fall when weather conditions are favorable. 

Alabama's Coastal Connection 

Permeable Parking 

A better way to go 

Combined sewer systems are remnants of the country's early infrastructure, and so are typically found in older communities. Combined sewer systems are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. Most of the time, combined sewer systems transport all of their wastewater to a sewage treatment plant, where it is treated and then discharged to a water body. Heavy rainfall adds stormwater so that the wastewater volume in a combined sewer system exceeds the capacity of the system.

Combined sewer systems are designed to overflow occasionally and discharge excess untreated wastewater directly to nearby streams, rivers, or other water bodies. 

These combined sewer overflows also contain untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials, and debris. 

The expansion of impermeable surfaces associated with urban sprawl and automobiles has so increased the stormwater volumes that the combined systems are being separated at great expense. The result is that stormwater runoff that used to receive treatment at the plants is now being delivered to receiving streams and coastal estuaries like Mobile Bay.

Water running off of roads, bridges, and parking lots has been estimated to be the largest volume of untreated wastewater in this country. Even twenty years ago, the Federal Highway Administration estimated that 25 million tons of rubber wear off the nation's tires every week -50 tons/week in Alabama. Since rubber is biodegradable, the process of biodegradation consumes oxygen when it occurs in streams and estuaries. Also of concern are the heavy metals found in steel-belted radial tires, oil, antifreeze, or even transmission fluid. 

The parking lot at the Estuarium allows all stormwater and associated contaminants to percolate down through the gravel, providing an enormous surface area for microbial treatment of the waste, returning it to the water and carbon dioxide. Any contaminated waste that remains cannot reach the shallow freshwater aquifers that lead either to the Bay or Dauphin Island community wells because an impermeable membrane four feet down traps it and sends it through a filter system that removes the hydrocarbon contaminants. The water and any overflows of the system then flow into a detention pond where the vegetation, including the common cane and other plants, remove any nutrients that contribute to low dissolved oxygen levels in the Bay.

Hardeeville Jasper County South Carolina Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

What it takes to sustain the Wildlife Refuge

These  markers are along the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive

Prescribed Burning for Public Health and Safety

The industries in Savannah and Port Wentworth, Georgia stand above the horizon, less than three miles away from this overlook. A wildfire in Savannah National Wildlife Refuge could threaten these communities. Wildfire produces tons of smoke and ash, which spread for great distances. Airborne particles of organic matter and carbon in smoke are pollutants. They threaten persons with asthma and other respiratory ailments. Smoke pollution also impacts transportation. At night, smoke settles near the ground, lowering visibility on highways and at airports. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service uses prescribed burning to help prevent wildfire and air pollution in nearby communities. When necessary, trained crews burn this marsh and adjacent lands to reduce the accumulation of “fuels” (dry grass and wood). This process significantly reduces the chances of wildfire and widespread smoke. Prescribed burns are short-lasting and are scheduled so that smoke disperses away from populated areas.

Plantation Cistern

Plantation Cistern

2. Plantation Cistern

This small island of trees was a slave community on Recess Plantation, which bordered Laurel Hill Plantation. Called a hammock, it was a small area of high ground in a sea of wetland rice fields. The round brick structure, just ahead in the woods, was a cistern that stored drinking water and perishable foods. The cistern was needed because well water in the area often was unfit to drink. Rainwater probably was collected from the roofs of six slave’s quarters and funneled into the brick-lined reservoir. The cistern was about seven feet deep. A wooden lid kept out animals and debris. 

 Explore Recess Hammock 

Look for Chinese parasol trees with pale green trunks and 5-lobed leaves. The Asian trees were planted for shade on Low Country plantations. Notice periwinkle, a purple-flowered vine once cultivated as ground cover. Watch and listen for birds — warblers, thrushes, wrens, and sparrows — that nest and feed in the hammock’s mature hardwoods. 

Rainwater was collected at slave quarters and funneled to the cistern.

Rice Field Trunk

3. Rice Field Trunk 

This water control structure is called a trunk.  It is similar to trunks used to manage water flow to and from plantation rice fields. At Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, trunks are operated to set water levels in impoundments (reservoirs). 

 A trunk is a long wooden box with a heavy “flap gate” at either end. This dike crosses over the trunk. Only the gates and their support structures are visible. The gates facing the canal and the field are often kept closed. 

 To flood the nearby impounding: The trunk’s tide creek/canal side gate is raised. Raising tidewater flows through the trunk and forces open the opposite field-side gate, letting water into the impoundment. When the water reaches the preferred depth in the impoundment, the water pressure pushes the field-side door shut. Both gates are kept closed to hold water in the fields.  

 To drain the fields: The field-side gate is raised allowing water to drain out to the tidal creek/canal during low tide.

Managing Water for Wildlife Moist Soil Management

Canal

4. Managing Water for Wildlife Moist Soil Management

 Nearly three thousand acres of former rice fields are managed to benefit wildlife at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge provides 18 impoundments (reservoirs) with nearly 50 miles of earthen dikes and a variety of trunks (floodgates). Similar to the way water was controlled in plantation fields, freshwater from the Little Black River is raised and lowered in these impoundments to produce diverse habitats. The managed wetlands benefit fish, shorebirds, wading birds, and waterfowl–including nearly 25,000 ducks annually. 

 Aquatic management keeps wetlands flooded for several years to encourage plants with high food value and cover for wildlife. Aquatic impoundments also provide breeding habitats for birds, amphibians, and fish. These animals, in turn, are prey for alligators, river otters, ospreys, and bald eagles. 

Alligator

 Moist soil management produces shallow water and mudflat habitats. Water is drained during the growing season to promote plants preferred by wintering waterfowl, breeding birds, and other wildlife. Countless invertebrates that thrive within decaying plant litter provide valuable sources of protein for migrating shorebirds and ducks.

Using Fire to Benefit Wildlife

5. Using Fire to Benefit Wildlife

This freshwater wetland is a productive wildlife habitat. The scattered pond's diverse vegetation offers water, food, and shelter for countless birds and other wildlife. If left untended, however, the marsh will become clogged with a few species of invasive perennial plants. To preserve this ecosystem, the Fish and Wildlife Service uses a variety of management tools. 

One of the most effective tools is prescribed burning–the planned application of controlled fire, under an appropriate condition, for specific purposes. Here, burning is used to eliminate invasive and exotic perennials such as cattails, cut-grass species, and rattle-bush. Annual plants soon colonize the bare soil and yield seeds of higher value to wildlife. Burning also removes tons of dry, dead vegetation that could fuel a destructive wildfire.

Laurel Hill Plantation

6. Laurel Hill Plantation

Framed by three massive live oak trees, this grassy knoll was a home site on Laurel Hill Plantation before the Civil War. Savannah National Wildlife Refuge includes portions of 13 former rice plantations. Ten including Laurel Hill were located in South Carolina. Laurel Hill was nearly 400 acres in size and belonged to several owners during the years of rice cultivation in the Savannah area (1750-1860). The most prominent owner was Daniel Heyward (1810-1888). He was a nephew of Thomas Heyward Jr, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of Nathaniel Heyward, the greatest rice planter of his day, who once owned 10 South Carolina plantations and 2,000 slaves.

Motorists are welcome on the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive, off of S.C. 170, which meanders along four miles of earthen dikes through managed freshwater pools and hardwood hammocks. Many hiking and biking trails are also available to the visiting public. 

Some of the critters we saw 

Birds

Orange Snake 

trees along the trail 

alligator 

The Savannah NWR Visitor Center is located on U.S. 17, seven miles north of downtown Savannah, Georgia, or seven miles south of I-95 at Hardeeville, South Carolina.

We stopped at the Visitor Center watched a ten-minute video, walked through the museum and gift shop, then rode through the Wild Life Refuge. 

 Visitor Center 

Chapter 3 Making a decision

Chapter 3

Sally’s passion for history got her a scholarship to South Africa. She would be helping and observing the ways of life of the people in Africa especially the children.

Her plans were to live in Africa for one year.

Sally was very delighted about her upcoming trip and could not wait to tell John. 

Sally and Billy had been estranged for many years and their boys were now rambunctious teenagers.

Her sons Sam and Thomas were thrilled about living in Africa. 

Both boys loved creatures both great and small especially the endangered animal.

The family would be leaving at the end of the boy’s school term, which ended May 30.

March was a bitterly cold month and Sally had just a couple of months to make sure that she and her boys had everything they needed for their upcoming trip.

They would need several shots to prevent diseases and passports for travel, which sometimes it can take several months to receive.

Sally was going to miss her weekly calls to John. 

Sally secretly hoped that John would accept the position her University was offering.

Cambridge University wanted to send someone with a Ph.D. in farming to Africa.  

They wanted to teach the local people to farm and harvest their vegetables with the use of irrigation.

John had just received the package from Cambridge inviting him to join the research in farming in Africa.

Sally had said that she was going to Africa to teach and her boys would be there to help whoever went on the farming scholarship.

Would John has enough time to get his passport, & shots and be able to fly to Africa with Sally and the boys?

John was troubled about making the right decision

Should she go or should he stay? His mind was muddled right now; maybe he should sleep on that thought.

John did not want Sally and the boys to go alone.

He knew she could take care of herself for she had taken self-defense classes and the boys were big and strong.

John loved farming, the environment, and people.

This would be a great opportunity for him.

John could experiment with his new farming techniques on fertile and infertile soil.

John would be getting a grant from Cambridge as well as keeping his current position.

John tossed all night, thoughts running through his mind.

The sun came streaming into his bedroom window. It was time to get up.

John had made his decision.