St Johns River focus of new The Science Of … video series

A series of six new videos focusing on the St. Johns River has been released by The Science Of … in partnership with the Marine Science Research Institute, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, and the local Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission office.

The videos cover a variety of topics crucial to the river and have appearances by four students: marine science graduate student Shelby O’Brien; marine science major Hannah Knighton; biology major Janel Palomo and chemistry major Kyla Siemens, along with faculty and volunteers.

The centerpiece of the videos is entitled “Sun, Fun, and Science on the St. Johns’’ and is a look at the recent Science on the St. Johns event sponsored by the MSRI.

“The event was developed to allow us to expose the general public to what we’ve been doing at MSRI and help them understand some of the issues and problems we have with the St. Johns River,’’ MSRI executive director Dr. Quinton White said.

Also in the series:

• “Counting Fish with the FWC’’ is a look at an independent study of fish populations in the St. Johns, St. Marys and Nassau rivers.

  

• “Plankton’’ demonstrates how scientists collect plankton from the river and shows some St. Johns plankton under the microscope.
• “Algal Blooms” gives an overview of blooms which can cause so many issues with the river’s ecological system, as well as efforts by the St. Johns Riverkeeper and research at the MSRI.
• “Microplastics in Your Home, in Our Rivers, in the Ocean’’ offers an explanation as to what microplastics are and how they enter the waterways.
• “Vibrio bacteria in local oysters and water’’ details the bacteria as found in Sisters Creek, a tributary of the St. Johns River.

“Part of the mission of The Science Of… is to highlight events and activities in Northeast Florida that focus on science, nature, and conservation.  Being able to highlight Science on the St. Johns was particularly gratifying since our students were front and center explaining research projects, and the science-based advocacy efforts by the St. Johns River were quite visible” said The Science Of… program director Dr. Anthony Ouellette, professor of Biology.

The St. Johns Riverkeeper has incorporated the microplastics video on their Microplastics Awareness Project page and the algal bloom video on their Algal Bloom Sampling Team page.

The Science Of … is funded by the EPIC program of Jacksonville University.

– Jim Nasella