Blog – Page 2 – Strong Coasts

October 21, 2020

Conducting Research During A Global Pandemic: Researching The Florida Reef Track During COVID-19

By Kris-An Hinds

So here we are, in the middle of what many people thought was going to be a potential apocalypse. Did I expect to be conducting research during this time? No. At the beginning of my adventures as a PhD student at the University of South Florida, I thought my biggest obstacles to graduating would be finding a way to balance and thrive in my personal, academic, and professional life. Being able to conduct research during a global pandemic was never on my list of worries. However, beginning in early 2020, the world was put at a standstill due to the now infamous severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 also known as coronavirus).

Before the pandemic, I was selected, as a part of an interdisciplinary team, to research coral reef restoration and monitoring solutions in the Florida Keys for the Summer of 2020. Our Florida Keys Strong Coast Challenge Grant is an interdisciplinary research study carried out by Strong Coasts Fellows, Kris-An Hinds (Department of Anthropology), and Michelle Platz (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering). The goal of the project is to add to our understanding of the Florida Reef Track as a socio-ecological system. As such, in the study we are exploring how researchers, practitioners, and policy makers can consider both social and ecological engineering factors when determining the best practices for coral reef restoration and monitoring programs.

Conducting anthropological research during a global pandemic has presented many challenges. As the project’s lead anthropologist, my biggest question was “how can we capture a community’s understanding of our research inquiries without being able to safely meet with the community in person?” Below are some of the considerations and approaches my research team and I are embracing during our ongoing project in the Florida Keys Challenge Grant.

Embrace going virtual with data collection

Restructuring of the data collection from our original pre-pandemic plan occurred in three different stages. The first step of restructuring how we would conduct this research was to reevaluate and modify the data collection methods. Initially, the project relied on using in person, semi-structured stakeholder interviews combined with participant observation to determine perceptions on coral reef restoration and monitoring in the Florida Keys. Due to the potential risk of being exposed to or exposing our participants to coronavirus, the interviews were restructured to a virtual format via a secure, encrypted online platform. This was accomplished by rephrasing the interview questions that relied on the participants interacting with their work environment into questions that allowed them to be descriptive in nature. As an added layer of security while using the online platforms, we enable the lobby/waiting room feature of the platforms we use. This allows us to monitor and limit who can access the interview. In addition to this, an unforeseen favorable benefit of switching to virtual interviews is access to a larger group of stakeholders. We are able to interview individuals who are usually harder to meet with due to their busy schedules.

We also worked with our university’s IRB to modify the consent process to allow for verbal consent. After agreeing to be a research participant, interviewees were emailed a copy of the verbal consent document for review. During the beginning of the interview, the research team would read the consent document verbatim and provide participants a change to ask any questions they had regarding the project. Individuals would then verbally state if they agreed to participant in the study and if the consented to their confidential interview to be recorded.

To prepare for virtual interviews, it was essential for us to create a remote space that would mimic the field environment and university setting. One of the ways that this was achieved was through the conversion of my dining room into an office space. Having a quiet space with adequate light was important to insuring good audio and visual quality for later data transcription and analysis.

Embrace the unpredictable

Be flexible. As cliché as it might sound, flexibility is essential to conducting research during a global pandemic. Using a virtual platform for data collection often results in unexpected technical and scheduling issues beyond our control. We found that the key to dealing with these issues was to troubleshoot the issues we could and ask for help for the issues we could not solve on our own. Extending ourselves the same courtesy that we would provide one of our research participants has been key in allowing us to maintain our mental health during this time. The research conducted during this time should not and cannot look the same as the research of the past. Keeping things in perspective has led to us collecting more fruitful and realistic data expectations. One of the ways that we are mindful of this is by incorporating debriefing sessions before and after each interview between myself and my research partner. We take this time to discuss the highlights of the interview, reoccurring themes that are already emerging, and topics mentioned that we want to explore further. Most importantly, we take this time to simply check in on how we are feeling that day. We reflect on how our own positions and feelings may have influenced our thoughts on the interview, as well as the probing question we used for clarification and follow up.

Embrace protecting participants and research team members

Although we are unable to conduct traditional participant observation, we have been fortunate to be able to travel to our field site for monitoring the technology testing portion of our research, while following university restrictions and guidelines. This comes with a great responsibility to limit the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19. As such, while in field, we prioritized embracing safe practices for ourselves and encouraged those around us to do the same. Some of the ways we are doing this are:

Limiting interactions with non-essential research personnel;
Always wearing a face mask and having face masks/face shields available for those that we interacted with;
Carrying hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies with us to ensure they were readily available in our cars, field bags, lodging, in our pockets, etc.;
Recording our temperature in the morning and evening to monitor for signs of being sick.

The future of research and life in a post COVID-19 world is still very unpredictable. However, working through this uncertainty has shown us that finding alternative ways to capture meaningful community- and stakeholder-driven research is possible. As we embrace more innovative and adaptable strategies for dealing with the unprecedented and unknown challenges that COVID-19 will create, it is important that we not lose hope.

Kris-An Hinds, Strong Coasts Fellow, following CDC guidelines with a mask cover while conducting her graduate research.

About the author. Kris-An Hinds is pursuing a PhD in Applied Anthropology at the University of South Florida (USF). She received her BA in International Studies and Masters in Applied Anthropology from USF. Her Masters research examined resident perspectives of public policies and regulations on stormwater management, area infrastructure and redevelopment, and environmental justice issues in Hillsborough County, Florida. Currently, Kris-An’s research investigates the adaptation and mitigation strategies used by Caribbean coastal communities to increase their level of resilience to climate change and natural disasters with an emphasis on equitable practices. Kris-An is a Florida Education Fund McKnight Doctoral Fellow, a Student Research Associate for the Center for Brownfields Research and Redevelopment and an executive board member for the Applied Anthropology Graduate Student Organization at USF. She is also passionate about issues related to the resettlement of Tampa’s refugee population and serves as a volunteer English as a Second Language for the CARIBE Refugee Program.

STRONG COASTS is supported by a National Science Foundation Collaborative Research Traineeship (NRT) award (#1735320) led by the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to develop a community-engaged training and research program in systems thinking to better manage complex and interconnected food, energy, and water systems in coastal locations. The views expressed here do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

October 7, 2020

Strong Coasts Kicks Off their 2020 Fall Webinar Series with a talk on “Food Equity & Science Communication Tactics”!

By Megan Kramer

Our Strong Coasts team recently welcomed Dr. Joe Bozeman III, PhD, CEM, as the first guest speaker for our 2020 Fall Webinar Series.

Dr. Joe Bozeman III

Dr. Bozeman received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and serves as the Chair of the Gordon Research Seminar in Industrial Ecology, and is also a member of the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy. On Tuesday, September 22^nd, Dr. Bozeman shared details of his research and unique experiences in a presentation titled, Food Equity and Science Communication Tactics.

Dr. Bozeman opened by providing context for his research topic, considering global urbanization trends and the complex social dynamics that accompany them. He argued that food production is the most significant driver of global environmental degradation, and that understanding the way in which humans engage with this system is important for developing great solutions. Dr. Bozeman’s central research question was, “How do food consumption and spending correlate with food-energy-water (FEW) impacts in the U.S. across race/ethnic groups?”

Through his engaging presentation, Dr. Bozeman walked listeners through the data collection and analysis processes which brought him to some interesting conclusions: while white households in the U.S. spend more on food overall, Black and Latinx households have more of an environmental impact per dollar spent on food, spent a larger percentage of their budget on food than Whites, and accessed food that was of lower nutritional value. To ensure his findings reached the audiences needed to spark beneficial policy change, Dr. Bozeman developed a science communication strategy that he calls MAPPP. He explained his strategy step by step, offering advice based on his recent experiences to the panel full of Strong Coasts Fellows and attentive audience members.

Dr. Bozeman shared that he was successful in communicating the results of his interesting research findings and that they received attention from some major media outlets and social media platforms, such as the New York Post, Sierra Club, and Pacific Standard. However, he warns that such attention often brings with it backlash, and offered valuable insight and advice to those entering a path in research.

We are so grateful to Dr. Bozeman for kicking off our Fall Webinar Series, taking the time to present his research and engage in a lively Q&A session. If you missed it, you can watch the recording below.

We hope to see you at the next webinar when we welcome guest speaker Dr. Cassandra Workman to discuss the topic, Understanding Complex Resource Insecurity: Interdisciplinary Approaches & Future Directions, on October 13, 2020.

Click here to register for Dr. Workman’s webinar!

Click here to register for all future upcoming Strong Coasts events!

About the Author Megan is a first-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She received her BS in Civil Engineering from Gonzaga University, after which she spent nearly two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania. Her service was spent as a secondary school mathematics teacher, though she also supported the school as co-manager for a health/hygiene dormitory improvement project and coordinated interactive HIV/AIDS youth education projects. Megan’s research interests include coastal sustainability, reef restoration, and international development.

September 23, 2020

Strong Coasts fellows get creative with AEESP/EESF’s video competition!

By Addie Beurck

Strong Coasts Fellows, Daniel Delgado (top left), Michelle Henderson (top right), Estenia Ortiz Carabantes (bottom left), and Addie Buerck (bottom right), holding their 1st place AEESP/EESF video competition certificates.

Annually, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) and the Environmental Engineering Science Foundation (EESF) host a competition that seeks to highlight environmental engineering and science, increase the awareness about the fields, and encourage young people to learn more about stewardship of water, land, air, mineral, and energy resources.

Each year AEESP/EESF changes up the format of the competition switching between a video and social media competition. In 2020 they decided on a student video competition with the theme of “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) turns 50”. Addie Buerck, Daniel Delgado, Estenia Ortiz Carabantes, and Michelle Henderson developed a team to try and rise to the challenge. Over the course of a few months the team had a blast creating a version of the theme song for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air to honor the EPA (if only a blooper reel was created during this time). The team hoped viewers could see the fun they had making the video while learning about the amazing things the EPA has done. It seems the team succeeded in their goal as they were awarded first place. The group will be honored via a virtual online Celebration of AEESP’s Members and Awards Presentation, due to the current pandemic, on Monday, October 5^th from 7-9 pm ET (4-6 pm PT). Check out the final video, https://youtu.be/zdDF69qJmkY, and the rest of the events happening as part of the virtual WEFTEC conference, https://www.weftec.org/attend/attend-weftec/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInabJhfbj6wIVDUmGCh3qKAmbEAAYASAAEgLe4PD_BwE.

This honor makes it the second consecutive year of USF being honored with first place in the AEESP/EESF competition. In 2019, a team consisting of Addie Buerck, Adah Shair, Ashley Osler, and Linden Cheek participated in the AEESP/EESF’s social media competition. The theme that year was to ‘use social media to educate students and the public about the role of Environmental Engineers and Scientists in meeting the “grand challenges” facing our nation and the world’. The team decided to expose the audience to the ways in which environmental engineers engage with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and grand challenges, especially by highlighting the work of environmental engineers in the developing world. The group had a passion for work in the developing world as all had plans to enter the peace corps or do work/research internationally. Check out the post for the competition and learn more about the work being done by team members and others in the department here: https://www.facebook.com/USF.EEforID/?view_public_for=2006895629389143. The team was honored with first place in the competition at the AEESP/AAEES Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) Scientists’ Luncheon on Monday, September 23, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Adaline Buerck was the only student able to attend the luncheon as all other team members were abroad in Uganda (Adah Shair), Panama (Ashley Osler), and Vanuatu (Linden Cheek) for research.

USF is honored to have received first place for the last two years and looks forward to seeing what the new theme is for this year.

About the Author Addie is a PhD student in USF’s environmental engineering department. She is currently looking at lead mitigation in pitcher pumps in coastal Madagascar. This research is taking an interdisciplinary approach, looking at the engineering aspects around the pump and also the social aspects. To achieve this she is also working on a Social Marketing Certificate from USF and working closely with scholars in Social Marketing. She received her master’s in civil engineering from Saint Louis University in 2018. Her master’s research looked at arsenic (III & V) removal through iron-oxide coated ceramic filters. Her undergraduate degree was also from Saint Louis University (2016) in civil engineering with a minor in business administration.

September 1, 2020

Complex Systems Modeling II

By Daniel Delgado

Solar eclipse. PHOTO: MSNBC

I recently watched a video of a solar eclipse occurring in front of a cheering crowd and could only see how beautiful the event was. Shortly after I imagined that same event through my ancestor’s eyes and how scary or ominous it could have been to see the sun disappear in the middle of the day. My training as an environmental engineer has taught me to see the relationships around me through math and science and interpret the world by first focusing on a small scale to simplify the interactions, and then expanding from there. Most of my training has been in direct relationships, meaning if X occurs, the result will be Y. The problem with that is that there are often far more X’s that influence the resulting Y. To get a better understanding of what will happen, we must get a better understanding of what causes it, and how those causes interact with each other as they influence the outcome. In complex systems modeling, we focused on those influences. Not only the influences that the causes have on one another, but also the influences the outcomes have on the causes, or feedbacks.

For most people, including myself, it is difficult to keep track of this elaborate dance of forces. We used modeling programs like Python and Vensim to help us take small relationships, and treat them like a puzzle piece to complete an image of what is occurring, and what can occur based on what has occurred and how these trends are changing with time. While I found physical and chemical interactions like agricultural flow rates, nutrient loading, and their impacts on water bodies easier to model, I also learn to integrate social factors like economics and human behavior into the modeling process. Since humans do not always behave in a way that is readily captured in today’s models, archetypes of know behaviors were used to better predict what can occur.

I took this course as the pandemic of COVID-19 continued to change the world around me. The pandemic and the way people and nations responded gave me a deeper respect for epidemiologists and the people tracking this data to inform public policies. When people say how the scientists were wrong at predicting the number of deaths, I do not think they realize that the system is always changing based on our actions or in actions. Fortunately, the original predictions of death tolls over a given period were wrong because behaviors were changed. Hopefully, in the future we use complex modeling techniques to better inform the public and take educated actions on what we are willing to sacrifice to get what we hope to achieve. Fear of these natural phenomenon often come from not knowing why they occur and what is to come, and that “not knowing” can be greatly reduced through complex systems modeling.

About the Author After high school Daniel spent six years in the Navy as a nuclear plant operator onboard a submarine. Those experiences created an interest in engineering that lead to environmental engineering. After completing his contract with the Navy, Daniel enrolled in community college and later transferred to San Diego State University (SDSU). At SDSU he was accepted as a research assistant helping with algal biomass research. There he grew algae in wastewater to treat the water and use the algae as fuel stock . Upon completing his bachelors in environmental engineering, he was accepted to University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, for a Ph. D. program in civil engineering with a concentration in environmental engineering. There he researches biological onsite wastewater treatment for removal of nutrients. His research interests revolve around food, water, energy nexus specifically in wastewater treatment, resource recovery from waste, and bioremediation.

August 18, 2020

Complex Systems Modeling

By Martha McAlister

Earlier this summer, Strong Coasts Fellows completed a six-week course taught by Faculty Advisor and grant co-PI, Dr. Qiong Zhang. The course, Complex Systems Modeling, challenged us to approach some familiar problems from a non-traditional perspective, systems thinking. For example, during a timely unit on epidemic modeling, we studied COVID-19 transmission in Florida. Where a traditional mode of reasoning might lead us to evaluate the effects of individual policies or behaviors (like “safer-at-home” orders and voluntary contact avoidance) in isolation and then conclude that the end result is a sum of those individual effects, systems thinking and modeling enables us to analyze multiple factors as an integrated whole. In short, the former way of thinking is linear and reductionist through its focus on events, whereas the latter is a holistic view accounting for dynamic feedback.

With our expanded systems lens, we studied the modeling process. This was practiced through ten “lab” assignments and one group project, which were largely completed with the aid of two software programs, Python (for mathematical, network, and agent-based modeling) and Vensim PLE (for stock-and-flow modeling). The process was broken down into five steps:

Problem articulation
Formulation of a dynamic hypothesis
Formation of a simulation model
Testing
Policy design and evaluation

Importantly, we were taught to recognize modeling as an iterative process. So, while the steps above are listed in sequential order, you can return to any previous step from any later one at any time. This is often required when, through the modeling process, you learn that your initial hypothesis (or even your initial understanding of the problem) was flawed in some way. For example, in our group project, my team hypothesized that state and federal funding was not being allocated in an effective manner to minimize the number of community water systems in California violating the maximum contaminant level for arsenic. Our initial testing (Step 4) was focused on understanding the sensitivity of the model to different levels or re-allocations of funding for arsenic compliance projects. However, we began to see realistic results (that matched available data) only when we shifted our focus to the different time elements in the system. This led to the addition of several variables in our model (back to Steps 2 and 3) that controlled the timing and duration of other system components. It turns out that, according to Donella H. Meadows, author of Thinking in Systems: A Primer, ubiquitous time delays often surprise us as we begin to understand systems. In this and in other ways, systems thinking can disillusion us to the fallacies of our own mental models. As a result, the process can lead to more unsolved problems, more unproven theories, and more questions than answers. In essence, more learning!

The group projects gave us an opportunity to practice the modeling process on a real, complex problem, relevant to our research as civil, environmental, and water resources engineering students. Project topics included: arsenic violations in California community water systems, stormwater baffle box maintenance in Tampa, FL, wastewater recovery system adoption in St. Thomas, USVI, seaweed farming practices in Belize, and curing temperature distributions in vertical concrete shafts. Each group was challenged to represent a complex system in a model that was simple, valid, and robust: simple* in that it included only those components and connections that aided in our understanding of a particular problem, valid in that its predictions were aligned with reality, and robust in that it held up to various, stated assumptions.

*Simplicity in a model could also refer to guidelines such as Andrew Ford’s (in Modeling the Environment) “Friendly Algebra Pledge.” According to Ford, complicated algebraic expressions can impede understanding, especially when the model is used as communication tool with stakeholders, or better yet, when stakeholders are involved in the process of creating the model.

References:

Meadows, D. H. Thinking in Systems: A Primer; Wright, D., Ed.; Chelsea Green Publishing: White River Junction, VT, 2008.

Ford, A. Modeling the Environment, 2^nd ed.; Island Press: Washington, DC, 2010.

About the Author. Martha McAlister is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. Originally from Northeast Oregon, Martha graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2015 from Oregon State University where she studied Civil Engineering. Martha joined the Peace Corps in 2016, serving as a Community Health Facilitator and WASH Specialist in Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation. After returning from Vanuatu, she worked at an engineering consulting firm in Northwest Washington, where she designed community drinking water and stormwater drainage systems. She returned to school to learn more about the role of civil and environmental engineers in promoting healthy communities around the world, and more specifically, their role in advocating for and supporting those populations which are most vulnerable to environmental health risks. Martha’s current research interests lie in the application of system dynamics to complex environmental health problems.

July 14, 2020

Strong Coasts Florida Keys Project Summer Fieldwork Update

By Michelle Platz

In Fall 2019, Strong Coasts opened the application for Challenge Grant Proposals to fund research projects for the 2020/2021 academic school year. Challenge Grants are interdisciplinary projects performed by Strong Coasts cohort members, focusing on community-engaged research rooted in a systems-thinking framework and working with global or field-based research partnerships. Four projects were selected for funding for the upcoming academic year: Seaweed Farming in Belize, Water Reuse in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wastewater Management on Laughing Bird Caye in Belize, and Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and Coral Restoration Monitoring in the Florida Keys. In this blog post, we hope to give you the inside scoop on what the latter, Florida Keys Project, has been up to over the last couple of months.

The Florida Keys Project is a collaborative study between Strong Coasts Fellows, Kris-An Hinds, Department of Anthropology, and Michelle Platz, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The objective of their study is to strengthen the relationship between ocean-based and land-based reef restoration in Florida by filling two predominant socio-environmental research gaps: 1. Literature detailing how reef decline and restoration has affected Florida Keys stakeholders, including residents, business owners, scientists, and tourists; 2) Published monitoring data evaluating the efficacy of Florida’s reef restoration efforts. By incorporating both social science and engineering perspectives, this project aims to identify leverage points within the reef restoration system to improve restoration monitoring and strengthen the relationships between the system’s stakeholders listed above.

After receiving IRB approval in May, Kris-An and Michelle conducted their first interviews with restoration practitioners and reef managers working to regenerate the Florida Reef Tract in June, officially kicking off the project’s ethnographic chapter! We cannot wait to keep learning from these professionals as we continue interviews throughout the summer. Last week, two reef monitoring systems were installed at Cudjoe Ledge and Marker 32 Reef in the lower Florida Keys as part of a collaboration between scientists from USF’s Watershed Sustainability Research Group, the Mote Marine Laboratory, and the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). These sensors will be used to monitor changes in the reef’s net community metabolism throughout the summer as they undergo coral restoration! More to come as Strong Coasts continues to learn about Florida’s treasured Reef Tract and the community of scientists and citizens diligently working to save it!

Check out the video below for a time lapse of recent fieldwork preparing and installing the monitoring systems on their respective reefs!

https://youtu.be/0gwxuW9T6wM

Video: Michelle Platz

About the author Michelle Platz is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She has a BS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the University of South Florida. Her dissertation research investigates monitoring in-situ community metabolism, the processes involved in cycling carbon for coral calcification and biomass production, in coral nurseries and on restored reefs as a means to monitor coral restoration. She is working with a suite of monitoring technologies known as the Benthic Ecosystem and Acidification Measurement System (BEAMS) which was previously developed by Dr. Yui Takeshita of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Her research goal is to use these data to improve restoration practitioners’ understanding of the metabolic, environmental, and hydrodynamic processes driving coral growth. She hopes to contribute data which can be used to inform upstream environmental and ecological engineering interventions to help protect the ecosystem services reefs provide.

November 11, 2019

Aquaculture and Aquaponics at the MOTE Aquaculture Research Park

by Estenia Ortiz Carabantes

Located in Sarasota, Florida lies a research and development facility dedicated to increasing domestic aquaculture production to feed local residents of Florida in a sustainable manner. This facility is called the MOTE Aquaculture Research Park (MAP) and is led by senior scientist, Dr. Kevan Main and her team of experts. On October 4th, 2019, several STRONG Coast fellows and special guest, Dr. Jesse Edwards from the Chemistry Department at FAMU, met with Dr. Kevan Main a to tour the Mote facility and learn about their work with integrated aquaculture systems and fisheries enhancement.

Left to Right: Dr. Jesse Edwards (FAMU Chemistry Professor), Kris-An Hinds, Michelle Platz, Dr. Kevan Main, Adaline Buerck, Estenia Ortiz Carabantes, Michelle Henderson, and Maya Carrasquillo.

MAP focuses on marine and freshwater land-based aquaculture systems that are used for fish stock enhancement and food production. These systems are maintained in a sustainable manner in that the water that is used for production is reused. These recirculating systems at MAP use mechanical and biological treatment methods such as biofilters to purify the water and ensure conditions are suitable for the fish.

Our very knowledgeable tour guide, Tom Waldrop (Senior Biologist), showing the biofilter media that is used for water treatment at the facility.

The biological filter media allows nitrifying bacteria to colonize and oxidize ammonium, a waste product from the fish that is also toxic to them. The nitrification process, and removal of harmful concentrations of ammonium, enables the water to be recirculated. As a result, there is little to zero water discharge from this facility making it a top leader in the U.S. on developing marine recirculating aquaculture methods.

Another use of these recirculating systems is to grow plants that can be used for consumption or ecosystem restoration. MAP combines technology in aquaculture and hydroponics to grow fish, sea vegetables, and certain wetland plants. Dr. Main has worked closely with Gil Sharell from Aquatic Plants of Florida to innovate efficient and sustainable freshwater and salt-water aquaponics systems for these purposes. While most aquaponic production has focused on freshwater species, MAP expands that scope to marine aquaponics.

Sea purslane growning in a marine aquaponics system at MAP.

Sea Purslane at Laughing Bird Caye National Park taken during the Strong Coasts Field Trip to Belize in June 2019.

Current research looks at growing red drum, a hearty fish that is easy to cultivate, with sea purslane, a Florida native sea vegetable. Sea purslane is commonly found on sand dunes along coasts and is vital to stabilizing these coastal zones and substrates. Cultivated sea purslane from MAP is sold to local restaurants and farmers markets. This plant is also a common in Caribbean islands and is frequently found in markets in Asian and European regions. It is in the same family as spinach, but has a milder and saltier flavor which pairs up nicely with the fresh grown red drum fish farmed at MAP. Dr. Suzanne Boxman’s research as a master’s and doctoral student in the USF Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, focused on two of MAP’s projects. Some products from that work, include a video on cooking sea purslane and a publication, Evaluation of water treatment capacity, nutrient cycling, and biomass production in a marine aquaponic system.

Cooking with Sea Purslane. A video produced by Suzanne Boxman, Emma Lopesz, and Colleen Naughton for Reclaim Is, a social media class at the University of South Florida.

MAP currently works with four fish species: red drum fish, Florida pompano, Almaco jack, and snook. Research on each of the species provides insights into developing better methods for improving captive maturation, spawning, and health management to name a few. Not only does this system provide nutritious fish for consumption, it also works to restore declining fish populations in the wild through this research. Aquaculture and aquaponic systems are gaining great traction in many parts of the world and are of growing interest in some of the coastal communities we work with in the Strong Coast program. As demand increases for food, energy, and water resources, integrated systems such as the ones we observed at MAP will be at the forefront of ensuring we address these needs in a sustainable manner.

About the Author. Estenia Ortiz Carabantes is a 1st year Ph.D student in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL. She received her BS in Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, FL and her AA at Miami Dade College in Miami, FL. Estenia previously worked with understanding mercury capture using modified activated carbon and has served on several university executive boards involving outreach and STEM education. Her research interests include water quality, water reuse, sustainability, food-energy-water systems, food security, and human and economic development. Estenia’s current research focuses on the the food-energy-water nexus as it relates to residential food production. In order to combat urban food insecurity, she hopes to continuously examine existing green infrastructure and re-imagine their function through a cultural, educational, and engineering lens.

STRONG COASTS is supported by a National Science Foundation Collaborative Research Traineeship (NRT) award (#1735320) led by the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to develop a community-engaged training and research program in systems thinking to better manage complex and interconnected food, energy, and water systems in coastal locations. The views expressed here do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

November 11, 2019

Interdisciplinary Training is About People Not Just Ideas

By W Alex Webb

Strong Coasts — June 2019

“Kathleen?” “Kristalina?” “Kaleesha!” “yes, Kaleesha!”. Our interdisciplinary team of eight is sweating profusely in a scorching open-air bus station in Belmopan, the capital of Belize, waiting for our 4 pm bus to arrive. We’re “guessing” the middle name of one of our esteemed PIs, anthropologist Dr. Rebecca K. Zarger. She eventually tells us, but there are references to ‘Kaleesha’ over a month later during our weekly meeting. Small spontaneous moments build relationships.

*Drs. Zarger and Trotz with the Strong Coast fellows on an early morning bus to Belmopan, Belize.*

In June 2019, our Strong Coasts cohort of three anthropologists and five environmental engineers from the University of South Florida spent two weeks in Belize studying relationships between water, food, and energy. The Strong Coasts program is an exercise in many things: community-based research, global competency, and interdisciplinary training.

The need for interdisciplinary training as a means of navigating the complex challenges of our day is a common refrain in academia. But interdisciplinary work typically requires more than one person. Sure, there are polymaths out there that can do the academic equivalent of spinning plates while riding a unicycle and juggling one-handed. But for the rest of us mere mortals, understanding a discipline well enough to pass the Ph.D. finish line is challenging enough. To get to the heart of interdisciplinary training, you must have teams of people. You need to have meaningful relationships.

When researchers study interdisciplinary teams, the same relationship challenges crop up. The big three seem to be: communication (1,2), negotiating identities (3–5), and institutional support (6–8). Our program takes these obstacles head-on through a community-based problem-solving approach, pairing us off into interdisciplinary teams for specific research projects. An engineer and I look at wastewater treatment on small islands off the coast; other groups look at farming practices, gender and tourism, and seaweed farming. Each project has a stakeholder collaborator who defines the problem. Although we have group projects, we all participate in each other’s research trips. Over our time in Belize, we lived together, or at least in a string of bungalows next to each other, sharing most meals and beachside chats.

Learning Through Shared Experiences

One of the consequences of specialization is becoming entrenched in esoteric language. Analyzing the social history of the concentration of wealth and power becomes a political economy, the way that organisms break down biological material without oxygen becomes anaerobic digestion. The words might share similar etymologies, but they seem like different languages. See what I did there? Navigating different vocabularies can be a struggle. But sharing problems with colleagues from different disciplines is like live streaming on-demand YouTube tutorials. Two examples highlight how.

*A wastewater treatment system installed by EcoFriendly Solutions at the educational facility at Hunting Caye, Belize.*

During a trip to the island of Hunting Caye, I found myself staring at a series of white pipes and black tanks, skin sticky from an earlier snorkel. As an anthropologist with no environmental engineering training, staring does not reveal any secrets. But as my engineering colleagues patiently walk me through the wastewater treatment system, it becomes clearer. There are four septic tanks (2×2) that filter the solids as the remaining wastewater funnels into a digester that converts some of the nitrogen into a gas. Iteratively, as they describe systems on each of the eight islands we visited, communication gets easier. I understand their shorthand; they anticipate some of my questions. I begin to understand how the availability of water, land, and economics influences what type of wastewater treatment is possible.

Another story involves a local fisher who runs a seaweed farm. He sells most of his seaweed to local restaurants and consumers who mix it into smoothies. Recently he has begun shipping some to Texas to become a value-added product in cosmetics. He currently only sells one species of seaweed but raises three. After discussions with him and another Placencia resident, who is also developing processed seaweed products, members of our team agreed to run tests for inorganic elemental properties, like the presence of lead and arsenic, among others. A WhatsApp thread shared among the cohort keeps me in the loop. I passively participate as they decided which tests to run and explain why. Since we collectively approached our problems, these bits of knowledge stay attached to a tangible set of circumstances, people, and challenges. The training is more than the sum of knowledge. It is a peer support network and vividly drawn applications.

The Human Side of Collaboration

Our program is especially ambitious as it crosses the aisle from engineering all the way to anthropology. Traversing this intellectual divide is not a short distance. Although taking a community-based approach shortens it. By starting from the resident’s perspectives, social science becomes an inherent part of the process. It flattens the hierarchy between the disciplines. We all represent multiple entry points into the problem. Plus, nothing is a better barometer of your weaknesses than working with a group of differently skilled people.

Engineering, like anthropology, is applicable to almost any facet of life. Consequently, we have members with skillsets in community-based approaches to urban environmental justice, coral reefs, water quality monitoring technology, wastewater treatment and reuse, grassroots entrepreneurship, agriculture, and chemical analysis. But working with others, you don’t just benefit from their technical knowledge; you get the whole person. To say my interdisciplinary colleagues only bring their discipline to the table would be a great disservice to them. Technical expertise is just the tips of a pyramid founded on a lifetime of experiences influencing how we perceive and talk about the problems we are trying to understand.

*Strong Coasts fellows Michelle Henderson and Estenia Carabantes Ortiz interview Mr. Lowell Godfrey about seaweed farming in Belize as other fellows observe the process.*

When advising an engineer about how to perform interviews, I leaned on my years of experience both as a social scientist and living in the Caribbean to try to help them understand how to use interviewing techniques. We had bonded previously on a few shared values. Sitting in wooden beach chairs, awaiting sunset, we bounced between the specifics of the shared problem we were approaching and our personal experiences until we reached a mutual understanding.

*“We embody a spectrum of skin tones, so much so at one point, we lined up for a photo like a color swatch.”*

For our group of three men and five women, these experiences come from diverse backgrounds. We hail from different geographic places, mellow Southern Californians to less mellow upstate New Yorkers, some Midwesterners, and even a Scandinavian. Our religious beliefs range from the devoutly Christian to the mildly hedonistic. We embody a spectrum of skin tones, so much so at one point, we lined up for a photo like a color swatch. I, with my Irish and poltergeist heritage, was at the back of the line. It takes a great deal of trust to navigate all these differences. Trust that we built singing Karaoke, playing two truths and a lie on the beach, through the shared suffering of long uncomfortable bus rides, mutual interests in understanding social justice in context, and bearing through necessary but uncomfortable conversations with each other.

We’re all back at the University of South Florida now, moving in different directions based on our dissertation interests. It is not uncommon for this to happen on interdisciplinary projects; over time, they become more parallel than integrated. The value of our experiences so far isn’t just learning the ins and outs of wastewater treatment or how solutions emerge within cultural contexts. It is in learning to be part of a diverse team. Given that future problems will involve different stakeholders, with different needs, the ability to have relationships and collaborate with other people might be the most useful interdisciplinary skills of all.

References:

1. Boer YM, Hedges M. Building bridges: Researchers on their experiences with interdisciplinary research in the Netherlands. RMNO; 2006.

2. Popa F, Guillermin M, Dedeurwaerdere T. A pragmatist approach to transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: From complex systems theory to reflexive science. Futures. 2015 Jan;65:45–56.

3. Mallaband B, Wood G, Buchanan K, Staddon S, Mogles NM, Gabe-Thomas E. The reality of cross-disciplinary energy research in the United Kingdom: A social science perspective. Energy Research & Social Science. 2017 Mar;25:9–18.

4. Strang V. Integrating the social and natural sciences in environmental research: a discussion paper. Environment, Development, and Sustainability. 2009 Feb;11(1):1–18.

5. Strathern M. Anthropology and Interdisciplinarity. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. 2005 Jun 1;4(2):125–35.

6. Felt U, Igelsböck J, Schikowitz A, Völker T. Growing into what? The (un-) disciplined socialisation of early stage researchers in transdisciplinary research. Higher Education. 2013 Apr;65(4):511–24.

7. Thompson MA, Owen S, Lindsay JM, Leonard GS, Cronin SJ. Scientist and stakeholder perspectives of transdisciplinary research: Early attitudes, expectations, and tensions. Environmental Science & Policy. 2017 Aug;74:30–9.

8. Bridle H, Vrieling A, Cardillo M, Araya Y, Hinojosa L. Preparing for an interdisciplinary future: A perspective from early-career researchers. Futures. 2013 Sep;53:22–32.

About the Author. W. Alex Webb is a cultural anthropologist currently interested in the relationship between critical infrastructure transitions and rapid tourism development in the Caribbean. His research emphasizes human-environment relationships, economic anthropology, systems thinking, and the study of science and technology.

Alex’s previous research focused on natural resource management in St Thomas, USVI, tourism development in Southern Utah, and socio-technical systems transitions in Belize. He is currently a student in the Applied Anthropology Ph.D. program at the University of South Florida. He received his BS in Psychology from Westminster College and MS in Marine and Environmental Science from the University of the Virgin Islands.

July 31, 2019

Unity Through Nature

By Estenia Ortiz Carabantes

As the Strong Coasts cohort waited to catch Ritchie’s bus to Placencia, Belize that summery Friday afternoon, determined vendors passed by selling a variety of goodies such as tamales, tortillas, and mini seaweed shakes. This initial glimpse into Belize captured my attention as tamales and tortillas are a staple in my Floridian household. Even more exciting was seeing the seaweed shakes on the first day as my colleague, Michelle Henderson, and I were were responsible for focusing on seaweed farming in Belize while we were there!

For two weeks, we traveled by bus and chatted with the residents of Belize over rich cuisine overlooking a gorgeous landscape. The goal of this trip was for our team to explore interdependencies among food, energy, and water systems with coastal communities.

Mr. Lowell Godfrey, Placencia Fisherman’s Cooperative & Placencia Seaweed Farmers at Little Water Caye showing seaweed farms.

We spent the first week caye hopping, investigating how land practices impact marine environments, and deep diving into the ridge-to-reef approach. Moreover, visiting the seaweed farms at Little Water Caye and talking with seaweed guru, Mr. Lowell Godfrey (aka Japs), further demonstrated ideas of the blue economy. According to Mr. Godfrey, harvesting 75% of the seaweed grown at the farms leaves 25% to serve as starter for the next cycle. The seaweed acts as a nursery for marine life, including juvenile fish, conch, crabs, and spiny lobsters — all essential to local and international fishing industries.

Seaweed on ropes at Little Water Caye in Belize. Photo by Maya Trotz, June 2019.

Seaweed, after it has been washed on freshwater and then dried in the sun for about 24 to 48 hours, changes color from golden to white. Small crabs are individually removed during the drying process because they are difficult to shake off during the harvesting process.

Seaweed washed in freshwater & sun dried. Image showing small crab that was removed from seaweed post harvesting. Photo by Maya Trotz, June 2019.

We learned that persons on the Placencia peninsula have been innovating with this superpowered algae for food, skin care, hair care, and even for burns. Seaweed shakes in Placencia are a popular way to cool off after a long day on the water and are found in several restaurants along the peninsula, including the Shak and Brewed Awakenings. Sustainably farming seaweed has allowed for the thriving of many markets furthering its demand.

Gelatinous seaweed that is added to seaweed shakes at Brewed Awakening. Photo by Estenia Ortiz, June 2019.

Belize taught me about the tradeoffs in food, energy, and water systems and the importance of community perspectives to provide robust context. We met people working at these intersections who are striving to be more sustainable. They have helped me to see the strong, valuable connections between natural and social systems. For instance, some are using their resources and cultivating crops only when they are in season. Their profound understanding of the environment allows new creativity and innovation to blossom. Moreover, this awareness and holistic thinking are engraved in their culture which continues to draw communities to lead various conservation efforts, protecting the beautiful scenery we enjoyed.

Overall, my goal as an engineer and researcher is to work alongside the community partners we met and provide extra support where possible. As I have learned more about the ways the community uses their resources, I have become more interested in improving the benefits of these systems through a food, energy, water nexus lens.

About the Author. Estenia Ortiz Carabantes is a 1st year Ph.D student in Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL. She received her BS in Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, FL and her AA at Miami Dade College in Miami, FL. Estenia previously worked with understanding mercury capture using modified activated carbon and has served on several university executive boards involving outreach and STEM education. Her research interests include water quality, water reuse, sustainability, food-energy-water systems, food security, and human and economic development. Estenia’s current research focuses on the the food-energy-water nexus as it relates to residential food production. In order to combat urban food insecurity, she hopes to continuously examine existing green infrastructure and re-imagine their function through a cultural, educational, and engineering lens.

STRONG COASTS is supported by a National Science Foundation Collaborative Research Traineeship (NRT) award (#1735320) led by the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to develop a community-engaged training and research program in systems thinking to better manage complex and interconnected food, energy, and water systems in coastal locations. The views expressed here do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

July 11, 2019

Community Cacao Agroforestry

By Atte Penttilä

In Belize, close to the village of Trio, there is a community-based cacao agroforestry concession that was established in 2015. This concession is a first of its kind in Belize and employs an interesting technique wherein the community has access to a protected area which they can use for the improvement of their livelihoods.

After a controlled burn the land will be planted with corn.

The path to the founding of the agroforestry concession was not a simple one and it was not without interactions of different levels of actors: local communities, Belize’s federal government, and the global political economy. In short, in early 2000s the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve was being encroached upon by citrus and banana plantations. In addition to paid labor at the plantations, the workers needed additional means to support their families . As such, the people used the forest reserve for farming and resources gathering. Eventually in 2012, through multiple steps, the government of Belize evicted the people form the forest.

The people who were displaced took it upon themselves to contact the Belize Forest Department to gain legal access to the forest. It became a community effort and Ya’axché Conservation Trust was (and still is) a critical partner in the process. In 2015, Trio Farmers Cacao Growers Ltd. was established as a cooperative to support community agroforestry in the concession area. Their main goal was to support local livelihoods in Trio.

In June 2019, the Strong Coasts cohort from the University of South Florida visited the cacao agroforestry concession with guidance by Gustavo Requena from Ya’axché Conservation Trust. Gustavo is a farmer who uses different agroforestry and agroecological growing methods on his own farm in San Pedro Columbia. This is important because his work with Ya’axchéis remarkably similar to extension work by agricultural officers. Because he is a farmer and uses the methods he tells other people about, he has gained credibility with the cooperative farmers.

During our trip, Gustavo lead us off the main highway towards the village of Trio. “It is six miles, and then another six miles,” he says right before he drives off the gravel road. The road takes us through newly deforested tropical forests that are now barren, awaiting banana plantations. The plantations spread year by year, leveling more and more forest. It reminds me of what anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose explains in “Reports From a Wild Country” about settler colonialism and frontiers. The wild (in this case the forest) is awaiting transfiguration to become agricultural land. As our journey continued, the Jeep could hardly overcome the road which had turned into a watery, muddy trek that stretched along cattle pastures, burnt land, and tropical forest.

The encroaching banana plantations on land that used to be old growth forest.

Eventually, we made it to the end of the road, left our vehicles, and started a hike into the concession. We crossed the Trio Branch of Bladen River on a newly built bridge which was put in place for the cacao growers to have an easier access to the markets. The first part of the concession is reserved for annual plants. These are planted for farmers to have an immediate source of income for their families as they wait for the cacao which will not produce right away. Gustavo explains the importance of planning for the short-term, middle-term, and long-term as farmers need year-round provisions for their families. A farming system that relies on monocrops does not have this type of imbedded resilience planned and is more vulnerable to stresses.

You have to cross a newly built bridge to cross the Trio Branch of River Bladen to reach the agroforestry concession.

Finally, we reach our destination, the cacao agroforestry lands. Gustavo shows how cacao is grown and what is needed to keep the plants healthy. He elaborates on what farmers should do in order to promote higher yields while maintaining biodiversity. It becomes clear that shade is an important part of the cacao systems. The farmers control shade by trimming and pruning of the cacao and the surrounding trees. There is a trade-off between the shade, cacao yields, and biodiversity. With greater amounts of shade there is more biodiversity, but less shade yields more cacao. Ya’axche recommends that the farmers optimize the amount of shade so that production of cacao is plentiful. By the looks of the nearby markets, it seems that there is plenty of shade and that cacao is being produced in abundance.

As we make our way through the stands in the heat and humidity, Gustavo cannot help himself but to remove suckers from the cacao trees left and right. “These need to be removed in the next week or two, otherwise the farmer will be in trouble as the suckers will become branches and less cacao will be produced.”

Gustavo Requena from Ya’axché Conservation Trust showing the best way of trimming and pruning a cacao plant. You should leave four branches for optimal yields.

This particular area in the concession for growing cacao was chosen because it was a place where local cacao was already growing. This finding shows that the soil in the area is suitable for cacao, so sophisticated analyses of soil samples are not needed to figure that out. The taste of the local cacao is slightly different and presumably the markets are better for the imported variety. If you pick a cacao pod from the tree, open it, and pop a seed in your mouth it does not taste like chocolate, but more like a sweet fruit. Then if you bite on it the taste turns bitter, like dark chocolate. Better not to chew, but to just cherish the fruitiness covering the seed. In order to reach the chocolatey flavor, the seeds need to be fermented and roasted. They say that chewing on cacao beans can give you energy and relieve hunger. I had quite a few beans one day, and subsequently forgot to eat dinner. I guess it did something but wouldn’t recommend it for that purpose.

About the Author. Atte Penttilä is pursuing a PhD in Applied Anthropology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He has a BSc in environmental engineering from Tampere Polytechnic, University of Applied Sciences and an MSc in agroecology from University of Helsinki. His multidisciplinary and international background brings together different aspects of the food-energy-water nexus. In his Master’s thesis, Atte studied the effect of dung beetles on greenhouse gas emissions from cow dung. The results were published in PLOS One and featured in several news outlets and magazines, including National Geographic. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Atte worked in the field of development in Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Finland. His work focused on agroforestry with regards to local farmers’ associations. Atte is interested in how food production relates to local livelihoods, sustainability, and climate change.

STRONG COASTS is supported by a National Science Foundation Collaborative Research Traineeship (NRT) award (#1735320) led by the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to develop a community-engaged training and research program in systems thinking to better manage complex and interconnected food, energy, and water systems in coastal locations. The views expressed here do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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