{"id":60285,"date":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-monitors-fish-returning-to-restored-coral-reefs-in-british-virgin-islands\/"},"modified":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-monitors-fish-returning-to-restored-coral-reefs-in-british-virgin-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/08\/uri-student-monitors-fish-returning-to-restored-coral-reefs-in-british-virgin-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student monitors fish returning to restored coral reefs in British Virgin Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNext up for Hillsborough, N.J., resident is NOAA internship in 2013<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 14, 2012 — Sarah Merolla took a scuba diving class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 last spring, figuring that it might come in handy once she becomes a marine biologist. She put her newfound skills to use sooner than she expected as she spent three weeks this summer diving twice a day on a restored coral reef in the British Virgin Islands to monitor whether fish populations have returned to the reef.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe reefs on Guana Island died decades ago from a combination of warming waters, damage from boats, and natural causes.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen the reef dies, the fish disappear because they have no habitat,\u201d said Merolla, a native of Hillsborough, N.J., who will be a 溏心vlog免费B站 junior in September. \u201cPrevious students have been restoring the reef with elkhorn coral, which is growing well, so now there is a lot of available habitat. My job was to monitor the reef to see if the fish have returned.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tUnder the guidance of 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Graham Forrester, Merolla focused her search on juvenile three-spot damselfish, a small reef fish that is known to prefer structurally complex habitats, such as elkhorn corals, during their larval stage. If juvenile damselfish are observed at the reef, it suggests that the larval fish have re-colonized the reef. <\/p>\n


\n\tEvery morning Merolla would dive for an hour to the reef 10 feet below the surface and take notes on the number of fish she observed and the habitat they were using. She repeated the process every afternoon.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBefore the elkhorn was restored, there were no juvenile damselfish, and now there are,\u201d she said. \u201cBy restoring the reef we\u2019re restoring the fish population there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tMerolla, the treasurer of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Marine Science Society and a member of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Wildlife Society, was thrilled with the experience her research project provided.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a really new diver, so being in the water every day gave me great experience in how to do research and take notes under water,\u201d she said. \u201cI really progressed with my diving ability and learning how to work under those conditions. And just being under water every day and seeing the animals was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tMerolla\u2019s research was funded by a Rhode Island Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program of the National Science Foundation. She presented the results of her research at a conference at 溏心vlog免费B站 on July 27.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 student won the Hollings Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in April, the nation\u2019s most prestigious scholarship for students studying the marine sciences. She will receive $16,000 toward her tuition for her junior and senior years at 溏心vlog免费B站, plus a paid summer internship next year at any NOAA research lab in the country. She hopes to intern at the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a little fuzzy about exactly what my future plans are,\u201d concluded Merolla, who has also conducted research at 溏心vlog免费B站 on sharks. \u201cBut I know that whatever I do, as long as I\u2019m working with marine animals, I\u2019ll be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tPhoto submitted by Sarah Merolla.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next up for Hillsborough, N.J., resident is NOAA internship in 2013 KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 14, 2012 — Sarah Merolla took a scuba diving class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 last spring, figuring that it might come in handy once she becomes a marine biologist. She put her newfound skills to use sooner than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}