A Shellfish Aquaculturist’s Guide to Understanding/Identifying Harmful Algal Blooms in lower Chesapeake Bay

Audience: Local shellfish growers

Purpose: Understanding/identifying blooms that may be occurring in their area

Dissemination: So far, it will be posted on the VDH HAB Resources page, possibly the VIMS website, possibly the VMRC website, and I will personally distribute it to all the growers/industry members I work with

 

PDF of the Infographic (for electronic dissemination):

HAB Infographic-2ac3kw3

 

Word version of only the HAB ID table (for easy printing):

HAB Infographic printable-1p75trt

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urea Infographic

Two versions of this infographic illustrating the sources of the urea nutrient in the Chesapeake Bay were created: one to distribute at events and to use in non-scientific presentations and a second to use with a scientific audience. Both will be used teaching a wastewater course to educated individuals in the wastewater industry. For the final version the wastewater icon will be redrawn, as no directly applicable icon was found on IAN.

What the HAB is that?

An Aquaculturist’s Guide to Understanding Harmful Algal Blooms in the lower Chesapeake Bay

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Target Audience: Aquaculturists in the lower Bay.

Purpose: To provide information to local shellfish farmers about harmful algal blooms, their effects, and potential mitigation strategies. My outreach mentor, Tommy Leggett, is a local oyster and clam farmer, and he expressed interest in a quick and dirty resource for identifying whatever bloom might be hanging out over his oysters and whether he should be worried about it.

The Infographic: My primary focus points are accuracy and relevance to my target audience. In my limited space, I’ve tried to include some of the most important “fun” facts about blooms, information about common bloom-formers and their impacts, and resources growers can use to make reports and find additional information. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or technical skills to create all of the icons myself (I made the oyster:), and I may try to replace some of those pictured with designs of my own.

Additional Work: I am in the process of communicating with industry members and representatives, scientists, and VDH for feedback. I’m also still pondering the best way to distribute this graphic. When I have a closer-to-final draft, I plan to reach out to some industry groups and ask if I can use their communication resources (e.g. newsletters, websites, etc.)

 

Functional Diversity Outreach Activity

Luke Bassett

1/4/2015

 

In order to help teach the public on the importance of teleost diversity and inform them of the various diversity indices used to study biodiversity, I plan on creating an interactive activity for Activity Days at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and other local festivals. I plan to use laminated cards with common Chesapeake Bay teleosteans on the front side and details concerning their functional traits on the backside. My hope is that studying characters in actual fish will allow students to learn more about Chesapeake Bay inhabitants. Prior to the beginning of the activity I will give a brief explanation of the importance of functional traits and functional diversity. For younger students, I will relate these traits to the food web to help flesh out a background understanding on the topic. An individual or group will be given a set of cards and will then be asked to divide the cards into three to six groups based on appearance and/or functional traits listed. The amount of groups will be decided upon the older students themselves. For younger students, I will choose a specific number to make the activity easier. Likely, I will have younger individuals categorize fish purely by their appearance while older groups will use feeding, form and locomotion, size, and distribution characteristics as well. I may also have one group/individual categorize the fish purely based off the characteristics written on the back of the card while the other group/individual will categorize them based off individuals. I will then have the participants explain to me their reasoning behind their chosen grouping. After listening to them argue their explanations, I will explain the logic behind functional ecological groups and how they are determined as well as the fact they just created their own functional groups, albeit, in a simplified manner.

 

Target Audience

            My target audience will range from late elementary school students and their families to high school students. Younger students will focus more heavily on categorizing the fish based by appearances rather than traits listed.

 

The Activity and Project are included in the link below. Tracked Changes, Markup, or Review may need to be turned off depending on your word processor.

Bassett_OutreachActivity

Functional Diversity Educational Activity

Luke Bassett

12/4/2015

(Complete Functional Diversity Activity included in attachment)

In order to help teach the public on the importance of teleost diversity and infrm them of the various diversity indices used to study biodiversity, I plan on creating an interactive activity for Activity Days at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and other local festivals. Originally this activity was going to focus on creating a functional dendogram or phylogenetic tree using stuffed animals, but after meeting with Karen Akerlof, Kathy Rowan, and Janet Krenn, I decided instead to change the activity to one involving laminated cards as. Studying characters in actual fish will allow students to learn more about Chesapeake Bay inhabitants. An individual or group will be given a set of cards each with a different fish on the front and some characteristics and functional traits on the back. They will then be asked to divide the cards into three to six groups based on appearance and/or functional traits listed. Likely, I will have younger individuals categorize fish purely by their appearance while older groups will use feeding, form and locomotion, size, and distribution characteristics as well. I may also have one group/individual categorize the fish purely based off the characteristics written on the back of the card while the other group/individual will categorize them based off individuals. I will then have the participants explain to me their reasoning behind their chosen grouping. After listening to them argue their explanations, I will explain the logic behind functional ecological groups and how they are determined as well as the fact they just created their own functional groups, albeit, in a simplified manner. Depending on where I am in my research, I will also show them the functional dendrogram that I have created with the fish used in the game highlighted.

Target Audience

            My target audience will range from late elementary school students and their families to high school students. Younger students will focus more heavily on categorizing the fish based by appearances rather than traits listed.