HSU student Andrew Musgrave completes four-week research voyage on the SSV Robert C Seamans.
Humboldt State University student Andrew Musgrave, a marine biology major at HSU, recently got the opportunity to sail 2,600 nautical miles from Pape-ete, Tahiti to Honolulu, Hawaii, to study the effects of climate change on remote Pacific reefs, according to a HSU news release.
The SEA Semester’s Pacific Reef Expedition coincided with what was predicted to be one of the strongest El Nino’s on record, thus it provided a rare opportunity for students to chronicle how these reefs respond to dramatic climate fluctuations, and to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on the subject,”.
Musgrave joined the class of 17 undergraduate students from a variety of academic disciplines that met up with SEA’s state-of-the-art ocean research vessel, the SSV Robert C. Seamans, a 134-foot brigantine, in Tahiti at the end of May.
The students became part of the ship’s crew with responsibilities for “standing watch, processing oceanographic samples, learning to navigate by the stars, and participating in round-the-clock operations. Perhaps most importantly, students learned how to challenge themselves and cultivate new skills in leadership, teamwork, and field research,” according to HSU.
The phenomenon of El Nino brings rising water temperatures and the potential for widespread changes to the marine environment, impacting both the ecosystem and the people who inhabit these regions. Students conducted snorkel-based surveys of local corals, fish, and invertebrates to help shed new light on the ability of these reefs, which support some of the richest diversity of species on the planet, to endure and adapt to global climate change,”.
You can see this story and more at HSU's official website: http://www.humboldt.edu/
