Taylor Clem: All right. Wonderful.
Taylor Clem: Thank you for joining us today on board. Today we're going to be talking with Dr. Savannah Barry she's part of the nature coast. Biological Station in Cedar Key Florida.
Taylor Clem: Savannah. Thank you for joining us. How are you
Savanna Barry: I'm great. I'm really happy to be here. I've always wanted to be on a podcast and this is my first one. So I'm super excited
Taylor Clem: Excellent, yeah. These are. I mean, they're really fun to record, um,
Taylor Clem: I want to. So today we're going to talk a little bit about what like the nature coast biologic station is and some of the research and cool things that you're doing and
Taylor Clem: Luckily, you know, I'm familiar with some of the research and a little bit of your background, but could you tell us a little bit about yourself. I mean, you're a Regional Specialized agent and custom ecosystems, but
Taylor Clem: I mean, that's a very broad term. So tell us a little bit about your background and how you're doing what you're doing now.
Savanna Barry: Sure, yeah. So I am originally from Virginia and I moved to Florida for graduate school, so I did my undergrad at UVA and biology. And then I
Savanna Barry: Came to graduate school and did a Masters and PhD and fisheries and aquatic sciences with Tom Fraser at us.
Savanna Barry: And during that time, I worked a lot on seagrass ecology and so I did work in the Caribbean, but most of my work actually focused on the Big Bend or the nature coast of Florida.
Savanna Barry: And so pretty much seagrass seagrass seagrass has been my background before I got into this job which anyone who's familiar with extension will know
Savanna Barry: That makes you a generalist immediately. So now I work a lot more on things like Citizen Science
Savanna Barry: programs that allow people to get involved in doing science and helping scientists and demonstration projects on various habitat restoration and I'm sure we'll get into all of that, but my background is really pretty much basic ecology and seagrasses
Taylor Clem: That's excellent. So I do have to ask, so you're, you're from Virginia, and he ended up with an interest in aquatic ecosystems. Was it. I'm assuming you're
Taylor Clem: You're familiar with the Chesapeake Bay Area. Then, because that's the only really connection. I can make with just immediately for with Virginia and water.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, right. I mean, so I am from a landlocked County and Virginia, but we visited the Chesapeake Bay and
Savanna Barry: We ate lots of blue crabs and oysters, growing up and I really learned in high school actually about how the Chesapeake Bay was really a shell of its former glory and that made me really upset because
Savanna Barry: We Virginians are very proud. And I felt like that was something that had been robbed from us. And I wanted to make sure that didn't happen in other areas and
Savanna Barry: Really my naive goal when I was young, was to become part of saving the Chesapeake Bay, which, of course, now I'm down here in Florida, but that was the original impetus, yes. And that's an iconic estuary. It's, I believe the largest estuary in the United States. So, yeah.
Taylor Clem: I feel like we could probably have a full conversation on how the success stories of the Chesapeake Bay and the work that's been going on there are the past like 30 years
Savanna Barry: By
Taylor Clem: So that's that's excellent. I know because
Taylor Clem: You know, when I think of aquatic systems.
Taylor Clem: Here in Florida, you know, we have water all around the state. I mean, with the freshwater sources or saltwater the coastal areas, and they all have a strong relationship with one another. And I know since this is kind of like your forte. Can you tell us a little bit about like
Taylor Clem: Florida water resource, especially if we're thinking about, you know, seagrass areas are that Big Bend area nature coast. Why is it so important. So, Florida.
Savanna Barry: Yeah. So one of the biggest lessons I had to learn coming from Virginia to Florida was that the geology is completely different in Florida than most of the rest of the United States. We have a limestone base.
Savanna Barry: To our state here in Florida, and Virginia. It's mostly a granite bedrock and so
Savanna Barry: Here in Florida. That means that because we have a more porous geology, it makes our water resources, much more vulnerable over a much shorter period of time to the things that we humans do on the land.
Savanna Barry: And because Florida is one of the most populous states. We've got lots of housing developments. We've got lots of
Savanna Barry: Farms and AG, we have just a lot of human activity. Right. And a lot of paved surface and things like that that cause a lot of the pollutants that go along with everything that we do.
Savanna Barry: To be able to flow off into our surface waters, but also percolate through that limestone geology and coastal ecosystems are unfortunately the end receiver there. The last there. The last stop for all of those pollutants. So every step along the way.
Savanna Barry: That water is gathering up more and more of that unless we have natural systems in place to sort of absorb and capture those pollutants. So in systems that have been highly modified, which describes most of our state here.
Savanna Barry: We have a lot of adulterated pollutants just going straight out into our coastal ecosystems, which can cause reductions and light.
Savanna Barry: Which is the main driver of seagrass loss globally and also in Florida.
Savanna Barry: And it reductions in light come generally from algal blooms that are fueled by specifically nutrient pollution, but there can also be sediment pollution. If we have a lot of development and
Savanna Barry: You know, loose sediments going out that can create shading to by having more particles in the water. We call that turbid it. But yeah, so yeah.
I
Taylor Clem: That's one of the points that I always like to talk to bring up with people is, you know, especially so many people from Florida.
Taylor Clem: Are transplants. I'm a transplant. You're a transplant. I mean, there's a lot of native Floridians, of course, but I always like to talk about our relationship with water. And I think you hit a key point that sometime has missed is that
Taylor Clem: Every Floridian I mean every everybody is directly connected to water, no matter where you live. If you're in a watershed spring recharge area, but I mean I feel like especially so with
Taylor Clem: Floridians because of exactly what you say you're talking about the limestone and there's that direct connection and link between
Taylor Clem: developed areas are homeowners or whomever it is with the aquifer. And I mean, here in electric County we have multiple sinks, where the water or superficial water just goes straight into the aquifer and
Taylor Clem: I mean, that has a huge impact on water quality and, you know, and a lot of cases our coastal systems are the receiving end of a lot of those pollutants in there. In, in some cases, higher quantities or they're just it's it's more severe. I guess it's a good way to put it.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, and a lot of other Austrian systems around the country. It's more more of surface water runoff. That's the concern. But here in Florida, we have to deal with both that and the groundwater pollution that can occur and because
Savanna Barry: Florida's geology is different from the rest of the country. I think you're exactly right, that a lot of our transplants don't
Savanna Barry: Don't have that knowledge inherit knowledge about that. And that's really important to remember. And what's interesting about the nature coast where I'm based is we actually are sometimes called the springs coast, especially
Savanna Barry: Southern Region. Yeah, and that's because we have a lot of high magnitude springs.
Savanna Barry: That feed directly into the coast through coastal rivers. So in a lot of England springs. It's just sort of a spring.
Savanna Barry: And maybe it flows into a fresh water River, but we have a lot of springs that flow directly out and create estuaries and so all that groundwater pollution has even more direct conduit to our area here, and especially the southern nature.
Taylor Clem: And I could see how I mean you're talking about plant material and, you know, we can benefit from having like the ecosystem services. So seagrass has a huge role to play. I can help with maintaining that
Taylor Clem: Ecosystem. But if it ends up being impacted
Taylor Clem: Negatively through the algae blooms are you talking about turbid it in the water.
Taylor Clem: You know, we lose that value of that that system, not only for water quality, but also the biodiversity in other flora and fauna that live within those systems.
Savanna Barry: Yeah so seagrasses are really important. I mean, the estimates that are out there for Florida or that between you know 80 and 85% of our commercially and recreationally important species.
Savanna Barry: Depend on cigarettes for at least part of their life cycle. So that includes things like ad group or that people love to fish for offshore that they may not connect directly with
Savanna Barry: seagrass meadows, but it's also our spot at sea trout and redfish and some of our most valuable sport fish and a lot of people
Savanna Barry: Do that for fun or even some people depend on those fish for their living so yeah seagrasses an important part of the of the puzzle. But there's also oyster reefs and
Savanna Barry: And marshes and other parts of the whole system that's all connected, as you said, you know, Floridians are all connected with the water, but the water also connects all of those different habitats together.
Taylor Clem: Right, so like we we isolate some of these habitats, just for us to try to understand them, but in actuality, they're they're one big system that all benefit and work in cohesion, with one another.
Savanna Barry: Yeah that's right and and to give an example of that, you know, marshes are that fringe area that
Savanna Barry: Are right at where the freshwater meets the soul, and they have a really important role to play in capturing some of those settlements that are coming out of their rivers and capturing some of those nutrients so that they don't just flow straight out.
Savanna Barry: Into the marine waters where they can cause the worst issues. So the marshes help out the seagrasses by improving water quality and if you lose that buffer of marshes, then you're putting your seagrasses and other
Savanna Barry: More marine saltier resources at risk. So that's just an example of the connectivity that occurs.
Taylor Clem: Mm hmm. That's excellent. I think that's important picture to paint, because sometimes that's lost on. I mean, just in general, you know, you've tried to think of what's that bigger system and how is it, how are they all interconnected because they are
Taylor Clem: And you bit you did mention like the sport fishing.
Taylor Clem: You know, we talked about water quality. A lot of it has to do with the mental impacts of maintaining ecosystems. But, you know, we're talking about Florida economy.
Taylor Clem: So much of that is dependent off of fresh, fresh water or, at least, sorry, clean water, a high water quality and so having healthy ecosystems.
Taylor Clem: I know the number of top my head, but I just know that tourism, at least with regarding the sport sport fishermen is rather significant within the state.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, and I think there have been new numbers released, but I, I know that a recent report was something around seven and a half billion dollars annually that comes from saltwater fishing in the state and that's
Taylor Clem: Yeah, it's
Savanna Barry: I think it might be up to 9 billion in the most recent report I don't don't quote me on that because I haven't had time to read it yet, but it's billions for sure.
Taylor Clem: I mean that's that's significant i mean if i if we're talking about water quality, you know, the environmental part of it is very, very important. But obviously, we can see a huge economic impact.
Savanna Barry: As well. Yeah. And I mean, just to put some more numbers on it. There are more than 4000 licensed saltwater Fishing Guides in Florida.
Savanna Barry: And so that's already 4000 jobs that we know are directly tied to that. And that's not counting any of the bait shops or any of them arenas or boat service industries.
Savanna Barry: That then are created from all of those charter captains running their boats all the time. So it's a huge multiplier and and a lot of jobs directly dependent again on those fisheries, which, as you said, are linked to the water quality and the habitat quality.
Taylor Clem: And then I mean we can always speak to the public so much about like why why did. What are some of the best things that you love about Florida.
Taylor Clem: And summit, so many of the activities, especially the outdoor recreation activities are directly tied to water quality. So, I mean, that's a significant number that's really cool to point out, but I want to segue. I want to jump into. So we really talked about
Taylor Clem: Water, of course, and the importance of the coastal systems, but
Taylor Clem: How do we tie this in so you are part of you are a faculty member
Taylor Clem: With the nature coast. Biological Station in Cedar Key. So, and I'm jealous that you get to live and work in Cedar Key because that's one of the coolest towns, but tell us a little bit about like how does the nature, the nature coast. Biological Station fit into all of this.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, so the nature coast. Biological Station, or in CBS that we can say for short. It was, it's a yeah it's a relatively new Research and Education Center at the University was founded in 2015
Savanna Barry: And one of the reasons for that is because this region of Florida, the nature coast, which we roughly, think of
Savanna Barry: Us between and clukey and the St. Mark's river has an extremely high dependence of jobs on natural resource quality. It's something like 13% of people in these counties depend on forestry, fisheries and water based
Savanna Barry: Activity to make up their livelihoods and statewide it's more, it's closer to one to 2%
Savanna Barry: So this is a huge
Savanna Barry: Area for natural resources and the natural resource economy in the state. And so there was a an interest from ISIS to try to support that.
Savanna Barry: You know, environmental quality being sustained in this area. It's one of the last undeveloped regions in Florida is actually, I think the least developed coastline in the continental United States.
Savanna Barry: Only only Alaska has less developed coastlines in this area, Florida, which is remarkable. And so it's a really special system.
Savanna Barry: And economically. It's an important system for the university to be focusing on. And so that's why it was founded, but if this actually has a really long history and the nature coast and in Cedar Key. Most people are familiar with Cedar Key clams.
Savanna Barry: And the clam industry year was supported in a very big way by ISIS extension. So
Savanna Barry: And then also various water quality monitoring programs that have been going on for decades. And so the station was really a way to bring some
Savanna Barry: More focus and cohesion to efforts that had been underway for a while but give folks from main campus and another visiting researchers kind of a home base at a place to base more effort and research out
Taylor Clem: Well that's significant so
Taylor Clem: And can you tell us a little bit about because I know there's that tie in with you if if this extension and that role and trying to pull all those programs together and the Sea Grant Program was part of that as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that seed grant program.
Savanna Barry: Yeah so Sea Grant is kind of a play on land grant. So if people know the history of extension. They know that you know the universities were given a land grant and to focus on developing
Savanna Barry: Strategies and things for agriculture, but then later in the 19 I'm going to miss speak here. I think it was the 1970s.
Savanna Barry: Because we just had our 50
Savanna Barry: year anniversary and secret. The federal government created the seed grant program. So we are responsible for doing coastal extension, similar to how the land grant program areas are responsible for doing extension in terrestrial systems.
Savanna Barry: So initially it was focused a lot on commercial fisheries, but as our the makeup of our coastal Industries has shifted. There's been a lot of focus on
Savanna Barry: recreational fisheries, tourism and sustainable tourism and then even Citizen Science and getting the public involved.
Savanna Barry: And it really varies by state what which secret programs focus on which audiences, but we're one of the biggest secret programs here in Florida, because we have some of the most coastline and
Savanna Barry: There actually are also cigarette programs for the Great Lakes, even though it's not the ocean, but they do have a lot of coastline. So
Savanna Barry: It's a great, great program.
Taylor Clem: But I think that's, you know, one of those things where we hear that term a lot that Sea Grant. So I think that really kind of helps kind of paint that big picture for us and
Taylor Clem: So the, the Biological Station and see grant programs just had that 50 year anniversary and you have is has been working out there for a while.
Taylor Clem: So what are some of like the big success stories that have come from in CBS sense you know it was started doing some research for work out there.
Savanna Barry: Yeah. Well, there are several that come to mind. I mean, we already mentioned the clam industry, which is probably the biggest one. It's something like a $50 million annual industry Justin Cedar Key alone. So that's a big deal.
Savanna Barry: But in five years we've been able to accomplish a lot at the Biological Station, we've
Savanna Barry: Brought in a lot of grant funds to do pilot habitat restoration projects focused on things like propeller scarring and sustainable shoreline management's at marsh restoration
Savanna Barry: With the goal of protecting property at the same time. And so we have some really cool demonstration projects out there that help managers design future projects and help people see what's possible sort of to
Savanna Barry: mitigate some of the damage that's been done, even though this isn't that developed of a coastline. We have a lot of shallow water and we do have some urban coastlines that need to be restored and so showing people how that's done.
Savanna Barry: I think we've done a great job right out of the gate of being able to do that. There have also been some really cool successes in terms of fisheries management.
Savanna Barry: So I work a lot on habitats and plants, but other faculty at the station work on recreational fisheries questions and
Savanna Barry: Ecosystem modeling and they sort of are looking at harvest rates and trying to help managers make better decisions or more informed decisions about
Savanna Barry: Say fish bag limits or size limits or things like that. And so we've had a few examples horseshoe crabs and sea trout and even smoke come to mind as a
Savanna Barry: Species that the management agency in the state has directly consulted us on and partnered with us on research to make better decisions. So, you know, changes in policy. They may not seem like a success to some people.
Savanna Barry: But it is when it is America. Yeah. Yeah. When, at least.
Savanna Barry: For features sustainability. So, that's awesome. Cool stuff that we've been working on.
Taylor Clem: I you mentioned something that I think is really important. You mentioned the citizen science because when we talk about extension, you know, it's not necessarily just
Taylor Clem: Doing research, but it's really how do we engage the public. How do we engage the public an outreach to really communicate
Taylor Clem: You know, not only the research and sign that's happening with us. But what are those changes and how to get them involved. And when you mentioned Citizen Science
Taylor Clem: I kind of like, ooh, I want to talk about that, but that's interesting program. And I know that you have some Citizen Science projects going on right now.
Savanna Barry: Yeah so Citizen Science is really perfect for extension because it allows us to
Savanna Barry: engage our stakeholders and give them education and training, but also a way to contribute to some really longer term outcomes. So the horseshoe crabs.
Savanna Barry: Thing that I mentioned before about fisheries management that actually came from Citizen Science data. So our biggest citizen science project is called Florida horseshoe crab watch and
Savanna Barry: It was founded here in Cedar Key of with collaboration from FWC and and faculty member and you have biology.
Savanna Barry: And but now it's a statewide program and FWC has a full time staff member dedicated to this program and
Savanna Barry: People from all around the state are collecting data on nesting horseshoe crabs and that data was directly used in a stock assessment for horseshoe crabs and so
Savanna Barry: We've heard from our volunteers that knowing that their data is going somewhere useful and important makes them feel like they want to participate at a higher level. It's not just for fun.
Savanna Barry: Like this is really management.
Savanna Barry: quality data. Another example of that is the coastal Lake watch sites that we have. We call it Water Watch, since it's not the lake, but we have people out there.
Savanna Barry: collecting water samples monthly in these areas that are so rural and DP has limited resources and so they can't cover all of the areas that need to be sampled and because Lake watch is such a well established program.
Savanna Barry: The data they collect can also inform management, where we can be an early warning indicator. If we're starting to see some of these problems that we know plague so many other areas of the state. And so, you know, when I
Savanna Barry: Think about citizen science. I think that if you're going to ask people to give their time and volunteer their effort the data they collect should be going somewhere.
Savanna Barry: And that's a philosophical difference that some people don't share some people think that just
Savanna Barry: Having people go through the motions of science gives them more connection to it. And I do believe in that, but an extension. We're really supposed to be creating changes in
Savanna Barry: Our communities. And so that's why I personally focus on management quality citizen science, but there are so many opportunities out there for people
Savanna Barry: To participate in all kinds of Citizen Science. And I think all of it is great, but here at the station we kind of again are always looking for ways we can partner with managers and try to help cover data gaps in this really important area of the state, but often overlooked.
Taylor Clem: I want to ask you know if
Taylor Clem: I want to ask more about some of your research, but say someone wants to get plugged in, or wants to participate in some of the citizen science, like with the horseshoe crabs, or water watch or lake. Watch how, how can they do that.
Savanna Barry: So we have a website. If you just Google nature coast. Biological Station, you can find our website and our extension tab on the homepage will take you to
Savanna Barry: various sections that I've been talking about. So we have that information. Also, I don't know if you can make my contact information available to people in the description of the recording.
Savanna Barry: But yeah, people can email me, we have
Savanna Barry: A lot of opportunities for people and sometimes also for our habitat restoration. We have volunteer events with marsh planting and things like that that are a little bit harder to predict, but the portion crab watch is every fall and spring.
Savanna Barry: And the water sampling is monthly
Savanna Barry: Yeah so. So those kinds of things are always available for people to be involved in
Taylor Clem: Excellent, yeah, I've, I've done some I haven't done any of the horseshoe crabs citizen science, but I have actually participated in like Lake Lake watch program before. And that's actually a lot of fun. It kind of gives you an excuse to go out paddling or do something fun.
Taylor Clem: And then you get to
Taylor Clem: You know, take some water samples. It's really easy to do. So, you know, I'd encourage anyone to try to plug in and try to do any of that citizen science that's happening around them, but
Taylor Clem: You know, with some of the other research that you all are doing. I know that you mentioned, like the continual research with some of the fisheries, what are some of the
Taylor Clem: Other notable research that's happening, and not in your at the research station or the Biological Station. Sorry, and that you would like to kind of highlight
Savanna Barry: Yeah, so probably one of the main things that we haven't talked about much yet is the impacts of climate change and changes.
Savanna Barry: In water and land use in the swanee basin and so Cedar Key is that this really interesting latitude in that it's a transitional zone for many species.
Savanna Barry: From tropical to temperate and so we call that an eco tone. So it's this transitional zone.
Savanna Barry: And we've been seeing in this region of the state of increasing dominance of mangroves, which are normally tropical species because they can't tolerate freezing and
Savanna Barry: They have been coming more and more into this area. So we've had folks that have partnered with us with either intern projects or things like that to look at that.
Savanna Barry: At the ecology of how that's going to change our system, or even just track and map that over time.
Savanna Barry: Looking at changes in biology or chemistry between mangroves and marshes, because we really do think that this is going to be a continuing trend, even if we do happen to get a hard freeze that knocks the mangroves back we pretty much think they're here to stay, because of
Savanna Barry: The temperature trends, we're seeing, but there are a lot of other species that come along with that there are things like Rosie eight spoon bills that are nesting here.
Savanna Barry: And the Wildlife Refuge just mostly researching though the sort of the bird, the changes in the bird populations but
Savanna Barry: A major project that has captured a lot of people's interest here it has been studying the dynamics of the range expansion of the common snuck which is a really important sport fish, especially in South Florida and
Savanna Barry: Traditionally, people didn't target them much north of Tampa Bay.
Savanna Barry: But again, similar to mangroves in the last couple of decades monitoring programs. I've been seeing snuck more and more
Savanna Barry: Even throughout the year all size classes which indicates they may be spawning here locally.
Savanna Barry: And so we've had several projects here that have been led by our director and other faculty, looking at the genetics of the founding copulation to see if they differ from the Tampa Bay region, which we found that they do, or they found
Savanna Barry: That they do.
Savanna Barry: But then also, where are the snow going in the winter, because the waters do get below their thermal tolerance in the winter. So there's some really cool tracking studies going on and
Savanna Barry: A lot of species use the groundwater the springs as their mo refuge in snook are doing that. And so, characterizing where they're going and
Savanna Barry: overwintering in the swanee river and stuff like that. So all of these ecological questions of how these range expanding species are interacting with our coastline and other members of the system.
Savanna Barry: Are just sort of that just gives you a flavor of some of the things
Savanna Barry: That our folks are working on.
Taylor Clem: So are we seeing a snuck over winter and some of those like first magnitude springs in the swanee
Savanna Barry: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give away too much because this is new.
Taylor Clem: Research, but
Savanna Barry: We are finding the folks that are working on this project, Charlie, Martin and his postdoc Ashley McDonald and our director Mike Allen. They've tracked smoke throughout the winter in this region. I'll just say that I don't want to steal their punch line.
Taylor Clem: Right, that's what that's
Taylor Clem: That's you, that's strange that's, I mean, I mean, that's all associated with climate change warming waters and then they're moving with those
Taylor Clem: Those mangroves. I mean that all kind of goes back to, well, are they associate that is that movement associated with mangroves at all or is it just boiling water. Do you know
Savanna Barry: offhand, Tom. I actually don't know the answer to that.
Savanna Barry: It's probably more of a tip since
Savanna Barry: Both of those species are associated with temperatures. It's probably more so that, but actually snuck are even more sensitive to temperature than mangroves.
Savanna Barry: Their minimum temperature is I think somewhere around 50 degrees. I could be speaking but whereas mangroves can tolerate down to freezing pretty well.
Savanna Barry: Even though it's not their optimal
Taylor Clem: But right that's, that's interesting. That's a, that's a pretty big impact. I mean, I think that's kind of an indicator, you know, we see
Taylor Clem: Even in the Inland part of the state. We're seeing shifting plants.
Taylor Clem: You know, we're seeing changing ecosystems associated with warming climate and
Taylor Clem: When I work with homeowners and they're talking about on the plant material that they want to use plants that we could have used here in Alaska county 30 years ago, we can't use anymore because they were right on that line of
Taylor Clem: That Southern temperate climate and now we're just a little bit too warm, and we're not getting the good cooler temperatures and just the summers fry them some of those plants so
Taylor Clem: We're seeing just a lot of shifting plant material.
Taylor Clem: But knowing that there's going to be a big environmental shift as well, you know, with mangroves and the fisheries, a lot of that we don't know how that's going to impact how you know mangroves can be very beneficial.
Taylor Clem: To the coastal systems. But how does that end up having does that end up displacing some of the other habitats. I guess that's all part of what we're trying to learn is what the impact is going to be
Savanna Barry: Yeah, there's a lot of research and not so much at the Biological Station here, but throughout the Gulf basin on what this transition is going to mean are there going to be winners and losers certain things that do better and mangroves and marshes.
Savanna Barry: A lot of people tend to think of mangroves and marshes is just analogous, you know, one is the tropical printing and the other is the temporary infringing habitat.
Savanna Barry: But there actually are some meaningful differences in terms of soil properties and carbon quality that are produced and
Savanna Barry: You know the actual physical structure is different with the root systems versus the stems and all of that. So there's a very active area of research on what that's going to mean
Savanna Barry: And as these other new competitors like snip become more common. What is that going to mean for red fish that typically would
Savanna Barry: Be in similar habitats. So all of that stuff is not known yet, but we do think there will be differences and of course mangroves are highly beneficial. They do a lot of the same functions as marches, they're just maybe slightly shades of difference and how they perform those functions.
Taylor Clem: Well, I think that's gonna be really interesting things to learn because I mean with that with that changing environment.
Taylor Clem: It's going to have a rippling effect on other things we just trying to understand what that's going to be as, you know, kind of up in the air, but I'm interested to hear more.
Taylor Clem: So if someone wanted to come to end CBS
Taylor Clem: You know, at least, y'all are in Cedar Key and when I tell people in a lateral County. How do you, or at least Gainesville, how do you get to the Biological Station, I say you go on Archer and you go straight and one of the road dead ends here there.
Taylor Clem: But
Taylor Clem: You all have programs you all are set up in such a way where people can come visit you.
Taylor Clem: And I brought we brought four H summer camps there before. But if someone wanted to come to end CBS. They have the capacity to correct and what are some of those programs that you all offer to the community.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, so we have a lot of events. And right now, obviously, things are a little bit in turmoil and we're not under our normal operations. But typically, we have a public education center downstairs where we have native species.
Savanna Barry: aquarium where you could see freshwater estuarine and marine species.
Savanna Barry: You know, sort of in an aquarium setting. It's very small room, but we've got a lot of information packed in there. And so that's
Savanna Barry: pretty much always available when we are open to the public.
Savanna Barry: And then we do various events. Open House events that where we invite researchers that are doing work to come and have booths highlighting what they're doing. And that's typically annually in September.
Savanna Barry: So keep an eye out for those events. We're actually going to be doing a virtual on this year just to make sure people still have that window into what we're doing.
Savanna Barry: And as far as K through 12 or four H programs. Those are mostly centered around the Seahorse key Lab, which is a lab that's located
Savanna Barry: Three miles offshore on sea horse key which is part of the cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. And we do offer boat trips and
Savanna Barry: Other experiences out at that lab and information about all of that is on our website.
Savanna Barry: And you can make increase about availability and it does book up quickly. But again, right now we're not under normal operations. But typically, there would be tons of opportunities for people to come visit us and see what we're doing.
Savanna Barry: And that's an addition to all of our extension programs and Master Naturalist classes and other citizen science trainings and volunteer events that we may have
Taylor Clem: Yeah, I have that I had a hard time when I was out there with the four H summer camp, because you know supposed to help with all the, the four acres
Taylor Clem: But I was way too involved. It's like I wanted to. We were looking at some of the fish like dissecting them and I was having too much fun. So I probably wasn't the best chaperone the be out there, but
Taylor Clem: I do want to, you know, the thinking about the Biological Station, it's a major resource. It's an Center for Research for Citizens. Citizen outreach.
Taylor Clem: And looking at how these custom systems are going to change because you were talking about how important the Biological Station is or how important sorry that nature coast area is to Floridians
Taylor Clem: So I want to ask, like, where do we go from here. What's that big. Next step, like with the Biological Station, what are we looking at in the future, like how the station is going to have an important role.
Savanna Barry: Yes, I would say our major research priority for the future has to do with changing freshwater delivery to our coastline and
Savanna Barry: We just were selected our director was the lead investigator on a grant from the National Academies of Science that just funded a 10 year effort to look at this and we're really excited for this to start and get underway.
Savanna Barry: But the basic gist of it is that estuaries are naturally dynamic, there are you know ebbs and flows of how much salt water or how much fresh water rather is delivered to that coast, but
Savanna Barry: Because of human modifications and also because of climate change those changes are getting more dramatic. So we have examples all over, Florida, like for example in Apalachicola we don't have enough fresh water being delivered
Savanna Barry: Whereas down in South Florida. We often have too much fresh water being delivered to those estuaries and so that can drop drastically alter the health of the history and systems and here in
Savanna Barry: The nature Coast region, we've been seeing some concerning changes in the base flow levels of the swanee river and that they've been going down on average per rainfall
Savanna Barry: So, even after accounting for differences in rainfall, we've been seeing that the delivery of fresh water to this area has been going down.
Savanna Barry: And there have been some major oyster restoration. I won't get into it but I encourage people to look up the loan cabbage reef restoration project that's a major priority that the Biological Station has recently taken a bigger role in
Savanna Barry: But in general, we need to understand how these variations and salinity that are caused by variations and freshwater are going to affect the health of our system so that we can help determine those critical minimum flows and levels.
Savanna Barry: Or basically water levels that managers need to maintain
Savanna Barry: To the coast in order to protect these vital resources and
Savanna Barry: With climate change some areas are going to get rainy or some areas are going to get drier and and also we have to account for development and all of the extra water that more population. And so this project.
Savanna Barry: That's again being led by our director here is really holistic in that it looks at all aspects of the system and is going to try to help make predictions, so we can better prepare
Savanna Barry: To help prevent some of those really horrible impacts that we're seeing in other areas of the state in the country that haven't necessarily understood those dynamics as well.
Taylor Clem: So, so much of the research of what you all are looking at isn't just going to be nature coast. It's going to be very extensive
Taylor Clem: For a
Taylor Clem: Pretty much a lot of Florida's coastal systems and maybe even beyond that to a certain extent.
Savanna Barry: Yeah, a lot of the research we do we try to connect that and make the applications broader to
Savanna Barry: To the region and and then also it's not just coastal because when we're talking about the swanee River. It goes all the way up into Georgia. And so this incorporates a lot of those terrestrial and freshwater processes as well as the coastal ones.
Taylor Clem: And I think that's important because that can like bring us back to the very beginning of the discussion we're talking about the importance of water.
Taylor Clem: You know all Floridians everybody is connected to water and all Floridians are connected to water and, you know, talking about the swanee River.
Taylor Clem: Basin, that whole watershed area stretches up the northern parts of it is the Okey dokey.
Taylor Clem: And I mean,
Taylor Clem: So a lot of that water comes down and there's urbanising areas in there and that's going to have a huge impact on streamflow like you mentioned, so decisions that are made.
Taylor Clem: as the crow flies, maybe even like 100 miles away from the outflow of the swanee river has those impacts on what we're seeing. So I think that's an that's an a big important message to take is this research.
Taylor Clem: Isn't necessarily just the coastal systems. It's the we're looking at coastal systems, but it relates to everything that's happening upstream
Savanna Barry: That's right. And it has to be necessarily and you know some of the most important things that we can do in Florida aren't as fun to talk about US Fish and plants and all things we've been talking about things.
Savanna Barry: Like stormwater management low impact development, you know, reclaimed water.
Savanna Barry: Development requirements. All of these kinds of things can really make a huge difference because it all comes down to how much water and what's in the water that's flowing out to the coast and
Savanna Barry: Everything we do on land impacts that and we can be better. And there's lots of great technologies, about how we can be better than the average development today in Florida.
Taylor Clem: Absolutely, yeah. And it can be like little decisions like an individual decides to do a rain barrel or some type of cistern system that captures stormwater runoff. So then they can try to let that flow.
Taylor Clem: percolate into the landscapes or how they're managing our landscapes to help improve water quality rather than degrade it through best
Taylor Clem: Through bad management practices, but you can always go from those little decisions, all the way up to, or the policy decisions that you made to help packed for quality and quantity because, again, it's all tied to environmental health, but also the success of Florida's economic future.
Savanna Barry: Right. Yeah. And I agree. I think every little bit helps. I think some of those bigger policy, things are needed for some of these big developments, where there's a lot of money and a lot of
Savanna Barry: decisions being made at a high level, but it is true, every homeowner every little bit helps. Especially if you're nearby one of these sinks or if you're next to
Savanna Barry: A spring area Kings Bay comes to mind down into
Savanna Barry: This County. I mean, how you fertilize your lawn and kings bake and have direct impacts on the health of that day. And so it may seem small but it really does add up.
Taylor Clem: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Savannah. I want to thank you very much for joining us today. And I do want to ask if you have, like, any last message that you would like to share related to the Biological Station.
Savanna Barry: Um, I mean I guess I would just say that we've got lots more to come. And we have a lot of exciting things and I really hope that I'll be able to come back on this podcast and talking a little bit more detail, or even maybe have another
Savanna Barry: Member of our faculty here, join us for our conversation because there's we really just scratched the surface. Yeah, and I hope that people in Gainesville will come and see us when we're open for business again.
Taylor Clem: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's definitely piqued my interest. And my hope is that we will have you and others back on from end CBS, but I'll also use that as another excuse to I'll bring all the recording equipment out to you all.
Taylor Clem: I could visit secret key so
Taylor Clem: But anyways, thank you very much for your time today and
Taylor Clem: We appreciate all the research and everything that you do with the citizen outreach, etc. So thank you very much.
Savanna Barry: Great to be here.
Savanna Barry: And chat with you. Taylor. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Taylor Clem: And then that's when I'll cut the recording. Alright, cool, cool. That was a. That was pretty good. How did you feel doing that.
Savanna Barry: I thought it was good. I thought we got into a groove there. There was a couple things that I stats. I threw out there that I was kind of like not sure about but not bad enough that you need to cut anything
Taylor Clem: I mean, you give the caveat on the check. So, I mean, that's good. It's not like you're saying is this number.
Taylor Clem: Right.
Taylor Clem: So,
Taylor Clem: When I used to work a public sector for a city, my, my boss said, Never give specific numbers. Leave it vague, because then they hold you to it and you're screwed.
Taylor Clem: So he's like, unless you have that data that you can give them at that time. Don't say anything.
Taylor Clem: But anyways, so let me go ahead and stop the recording.
