Posted on behalf of Hannah Sinclair, 2019 Summer Scholar

Being here at the South Slough Reserve has been an interesting and exciting time! During my first week here my mentors Jamie and Deborah send me off to trail the researchers that work on the science projects here at the South Slough. On my second day here, I went with researcher Shon Schooler to see the work that they’re doing with Green Crabs. Schooler and his team have been monitoring this species to check their population growth and how they are affecting habitats in Coos Bay area. European Green Crabs are invasive species that affect many ecological communities around the world and over the last few decades, and they have hit the west coast!

My next day I went with Jenni Schnitt to see their work on Seagrass Net biomonitoring! The reserve monitors seagrass to check the well-being and health of Seagrass Meadows as seagrass provides essential habitats for many invertebrates here.

Later, the following week I went with Ian Rodger to help and understand the remarkable work on eDNA here at the South Slough.  As they’re using the information collected from eDNA to create a catalog of the species in the reserve as well as showing the tidal regime effects on eDNA sampling.

And lastly, I went with Alice Yeates to see their project on Eelgrass Monitoring as eelgrass has been decreasing in this area more and more, which has heavy impact on the ecosystem. Oregon State University, Oregon Department of Fish and wildlife, and the US environmental protection agency are working to create a map of the distribution of eelgrass throughout the Coos Bay estuary. Hopefully these new maps will show the progression of eelgrass coverage over the last couple of decades and what we need to do to protect it!