{"id":9132,"date":"2018-09-28T18:02:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T18:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9132"},"modified":"2018-09-28T18:02:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T18:02:48","slug":"students-dive-into-their-research-in-belize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9132","title":{"rendered":"Students Dive into Their Research in Belize"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Maria Elena Hernandez<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>UTRGV students studying abroad in Belize this summer explored one of the most famous dive sites in the world \u2013 the Great Blue Hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou dive down and it\u2019s just open blue, just beautiful,\u201d said Chelsea Pavliska, a UTRGV graduate student from Liberty Hill, Texas.<\/p>\n

The Ocean, Coastal and Earth Sciences major was one of the students enrolled in the coral reef ecology course in Belize, led by Dr. David Hicks, director of the UTRGV School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know very many places where you get to go diving for your research or diving for a class, like at UTRGV,\u201d Pavliska said.<\/p>\n

The Great Blue Hole is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest coral barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cA major portion of it runs across the country of Belize, so that\u2019s why we went to that country in particular,\u201d said James Stilley, a UTRGV graduate student from Covina, California, majoring in Agricultural, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear about the Mesoamerican Reef, but until you really get to the reef and see the drop-offs and see the different zones \u2013 it\u2019s hard to really picture it just from reading a textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students used data collected during the dives for their individual research projects.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe would have a short class in the morning. And then we would got out and do work for our research,\u201d Pavliska said. \u201cMy research project was on octocorals. I go out and sample, doing either scuba diving or using ROV (remotely operated vehicles), so this class really aligned well with what I\u2019m doing with my thesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stilley studied the revival of an urchin population that was almost wiped out a few decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found out coming back and writing the paper was that a new urchin has kind of taken over the place of the longspine urchin, which is\u00a0Echinometra virdis<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the reef urchin. And it might become the new dominant urchin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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UTRGV students studying abroad in Belize this summer explored one of the most famous dive sites in the world \u2013 the Great Blue Hole, part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, which is the largest coral barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere \u2013 during the Ocean, Coastal and Earth Sciences course on coral reef ecology. Students used data collected during the dives for their individual research projects. The course, led by Dr. David Hicks, director of the UTRGV School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, also took them to a tropical education center in the rain forest. (Courtesy Photos)<\/p><\/div>\n

The group\u2019s time in Belize wasn\u2019t limited to the barrier reef. They also stayed at a tropical education center in the jungle and adjacent to a zoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see the rain forests just as much as the reefs, and I was blown away by both,\u201d Stilley said.<\/p>\n

While at the education center, he learned researchers there are working on a project of special interest to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long-time dream of mine to help design and research wildlife corridors, especially for small cats and mesocarnivores,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the center are working on similar corridor plans in Belize.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of cool to see a reserve looking into building a corridor for that, and what parameters they\u2019re using,\u201d he said. \u201cAll that kind of brings it full circle, realizing that what you learn here is just as applicable abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on UTRGV study abroad programs, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.utrgv.edu\/ipp\/study-abroad\/index.htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UTRGV STUDENTS \u2013\u00a0STUDY ABROAD:<\/strong><\/p>\n