Benjamin Glass
It seems like only yesterday that I wrote about our first snorkel at Clam Gardens on Lizard Island, but here I am weeks later, on the plane home to America. Our time on Lizard and in Townsville was a whirlwind of learning, exploring, eating, and fun, and I will recount some of the main events here. After settling in at Lizard Island we were joined by Tyler’s Ph.D. supervisor, Brad Eyre from Southern Cross University. Brad was an animated and funny man, and he helped us learn about concepts including total alkalinity through lectures and exercises in the field. I had never heard of reef sediment dissolution before, and it was eye opening to learn from Brad’s wealth of experience studying this process on reefs around the world. While I have often discounted sand as a relatively static and unimportant part of coral reefs, I now understand that processes like sediment dissolution impact reef chemistry and, by extension, the biology of reef organisms including the corals that I study. I will never again see reef sands and think they are unimportant! After Brad’s departure we were joined on Lizard by Morgan Pratchett, coral ecologist from James Cook University (JCU). Morgan taught us about coral reef ecology through lectures and field activities, including a field demonstration of how to perform point and belt transects. We also learned about coral identification from Morgan and used the Indo-Pacific coral ID guidebook to identify some corals on the reefs around Lizard. It was great to learn from Morgan, and I am sure that I will carry the knowledge gained during his visit with me throughout the rest of my career in marine science. Shortly after Morgan’s departure from Lizard we were joined by Nadine, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Tasmania, who came to the island to learn about total alkalinity and chamber incubations from Tyler. Nadine was a relatively quiet but welcome addition to our group; she spent time with us at the house and gave an interesting talk on her research surrounding ocean alkalinity enhancement. While Nadine worked on her project, we also began working on our own projects in pairs. Piper and I undertook a project investigating patterns of prolonged bleaching in the corals around Lizard, while other groups worked on diverse topics from fish behavior to sea cucumber sediment processing. Our last few days on Lizard were a flurry of data collection, coding in R, and soaking up our last drops of sun and fun — including a strenuous but rewarding hike to Cook’s Look. Overall, spending time at Lizard was a once in a lifetime experience, and I hope that my future path might someday see me return to the island. After our time on Lizard we progressed to the last leg of our trip in Townsville, where we stayed in a beautiful villa and did fun activities around town including a trip to Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary, a tour of the incredible Sea Simulator at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and lectures from faculty at JCU about their interesting social-ecological research. As we enjoyed Townsville’s quaint delights, we also began to prepare for our final presentations, which we presented to Morgan (a reunion!) and two researchers from his lab on our last night in town. I was incredibly impressed by all the data that our group was able to collect in such a short time on Lizard! While our time in Australia has come to an end, this trip equipped me with invaluable knowledge and experiences, as well as many new colleagues and friends. I will sorely miss snorkeling on the reef, sunset beers, group dinners, stargazing, and so much more, but I find great joy in knowing that our shared experience will link our ragtag group together for life.