[M.I.R.T. team projects][Argentina][M.I.R.T. home]
UCSC-MIRT students will form MIRT Research Teams as described above.
In this way, the s
tudents will benefit not only from
intensive interaction with people of similar age, academic level and interest
in science, but also individuals of a different culture, language, life
style. Guaymas is home to people from every corner of Mexico and all ethnic
backgrounds.
From an academic point of view , the students will be part of an on-going project devoted to the study and conservation of the most abundant marine vertebrates of the Gulf of California. Consequently students will spend part of their time in the field, and part of their time in a laboratory, interacting with Mexican students and scientists as well as MIRT faculty from UCSC. MIRT students will be expected to become familiar with their research topic prior to their arrival in Guaymas by conducting an extensive literature search while in the U.S., attending several lectures provided by MIRT faculty and attending at least a 2 week intensive conversational Spanish course.
Logistics.
Students conduct both field work in the Gulf and laboratory work at Guaymas. They will then board the R/V Don Jose( at the expense of CIAD and ITESM)with other US and Mexican scientists and students for about 4 weeks for the bi-annual census and sample collection of marine vertebrates in the central and northern Gulf of California. Most field work involves animal censuses, behavioral observations, sea lion and bird tissues from fresh carcasses, sampling and identification of fish and zooplankton, and gathering soil and water samples from critical location in the Gulf especially the extreme northern part in the Colorado Delta. Upon returning to Guaymas, participants live in student facilities with Mexican students at ITESM-Guaymas. ITESM has both sophisticated laboratory and classroom space for use by UCSC-MIRT research teams.
Objectives. The aims of the project are:1) to take students out of the classroom and into the field to census and observe animal behavior in the natural habitat, 2) to involve them with active research projects. 3) to teach them field and laboratory techniques and methods of data collection and analysis as well as how to write scientific reports.
Research tasks and objectives.
The following list of tasks provide an overview of MIRT student activities. The list is broken into 3 parts: 1) Population monitoring (censuses, counts, etc.), 2) laboratory work and 3) the specific MIRT TEAM project. Population monitoring may include: censuses, tissue sampling and collection, species identification, photography and identification of individuals animals. Special projects are those that address aspects of the biology of these three species (fin whales, common dolphins and California sea lions) that are of particular interest to the faculty or that are a major part of a graduate student thesis project. MIRT undergraduate students may choose one of these projects, instead of the MIRT TEAM project and if so will work on it under the guidance of a Mexican faculty member, graduate student researcher.
Field work
The students will participate in a 4 week scientific research cruise in the central Gulf of California, with a major focus on population dynamics, behavior and physiological ecology of marine mammals in the Gulf of California. During the cruise the students will:
Census fin whales, noting the presence of females with calves and general behavior (feeding, transiting, socializing, etc.), direction of travel, location, sea surface temperature in upwelled and in non upwelled waters, wind direction, weather and sea conditions.. If the animals are feeding alone or with dolphins and seabirds, a boat will be sent to collect samples of water (for euphasiids) and collect fishes and or squids to be analyzed in the laboratory.
Census schools of common dolphins again focusing on social and feeding behavior as notes above. If the dolphins are forming a ball together with seabirds and whales, a boat will be sent to collect samples of the dolphin's prey to be analyzed in the laboratory.
Census the population of California sea lions from boats in the different rookeries around the main islands in the Gulf. Disembark in some of them to collect scats. Analyses of the scats will be performed in the laboratory. Collect midwinter fishes and squid as well as zooplankton around the island, as well as in open water for further identification and analysis in the laboratory.
Upon returning from the cruise, at Guaymas they will work on the laboratory to process the samples, they will make small field trips to collect more fishes and squid, as well as to observe fin whales.
Laboratory work
Identification of the fishes and squid they collected as well as their preservation until further analysis.
Proximate analysis, energy content and mineral content of fish, squid and euphausiids and other prey items that form the major part of the diet of several marine mammal species which are part of the diet of fin whales, common dolphins and California sea lions. For these studies they will perform a comparison of different methodologies. They will be trained to keep detailed laboratory notebooks and quantitative analytical techniques both classic and computer based.
Species identification of fish otoliths( small ear bones used in diagnostic in fish species identification) and squid beaks taken from sea lions scats collected in the field.
Analysis of the census data and behavioral observations performed during the research cruise of the central Gulf.