Post-doctoral associate Todd Barsby explores a coral reef

Four Georgia Tech scientists and students know what it's like to live in a fishbowl. They spent 10 days in November living underwater in a 47-foot laboratory studying how sea creatures called grazers affect seaweeds and corals.

Tech's "aquanauts" — Georgia Tech professor Mark Hay, postdoctoral associate Todd Barsby, PhD student Deron Burkepile and research specialist and technician Alex Chequer — joined two other scientists aboard the Aquarius ocean laboratory in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Aquarius, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is deployed three and half miles offshore at a depth of 60 feet next to spectacular coral reefs, where scientists studied and explored the coastal ocean.

Hay's team used its experience in marine and chemical ecology to set up experiments and make observations on how parrot fish and surgeonfish affect seaweeds and corals. The grazers play a crucial role in coral reef ecology. Their preferred prey — seaweeds — often defend themselves against being eaten by producing a variety of noxious chemicals. These chemicals can taste bad or affect the digestion of grazers in such a way that they avoid eating certain species, or they will take only a bite or two before looking for something else to eat. The results of repeated interactions among grazers and defended seaweeds ultimately shape the way coral reefs look and function.

Online journals and photographs of the 10-day mission, available at http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/, gave insight into the mission as it went along.

printer-friendly version of this article