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Queue cliché and sappy background music   Five years of trudging through the mangrove and sawgrass swamps of the Everglades. Five years of collecting water samples, analyzing samples, and presenting the major findings across the country. All of those years, and now finally it comes to fruition…the Dissertation Defense. Yes, I finally made it. As some of you know, there is no clear-cut path (that would be environmentally irresponsible), but instead it can be a long and arduous road. It is on this journey of science that we go from seeing just a tree to seeing the forest. I can’t speak for everyone, but I liken grad school to a roller coaster; the ups the downs, and the exciting twists and turns. And in the end, the ride slows down and then stops to let you out. When you step out, sure you have a cool looking degree, get to wear a fancy gown, and have a prestigious prefix, but its way more than that. You have gone through the gauntlet and survived. Just think back out all the th...

This post was written by guest blogger Mike Bush, a grad student in FIU's aquatic ecology lab ( http://faculty.fiu.edu/~trexlerj/ ). __________________________________________________________________________ Boaters trying to push whales back to deep waters. Photo from CNN.com        This will be another post on some wide-ranging animals that only occasionally visit the Everglades.   Last time I talked about small songbirds, but I’ll scale up a bit for this round.   About a month ago, a pod of around 50 short-finned pilot whales beached themselves on a remote shore in the southwestern part of Everglades National Park.   Normally these are deep-water beasts, but for whatever reason, this particular group of animals navigated several miles through shallow sandy shoals, only to end up stranded. Pilot whales are well-known for mass strandings, and the reasons for these strandings are unknown but are thought to be related to sick individuals tryin...

  This post was written by Mike Bush, a grad student in the aquatic ecology lab ( http://faculty.fiu.edu/~trexlerj/ ) at FIU and an avid natural historian.  ___________________________________________________________________________ Male hooded warbler                In this post we’re going to move away from the Everglades proper and move to its borders, which in this case means the highly urbanized Miami/Ft Lauderdale megalopolis that lies immediately to the east of all that wild space. Even in areas of high human density, wildlife can still be found everywhere. Most of you probably have had a raccoon snoop through your garbage or have a highly diverse mix of smaller creeping beasts that live underneath your shed. We can also be visited by wildlife that is just passing through the area, say, on their way to Brazil or to Hudson Bay. A bird banding station is just the place to see such ephemeral critters. O...

  This post was written by guest blogger Emily Nodine, a PhD candidate in FIU's Periphyton Lab ( http://algae.fiu.edu/research/ ). When people think about today’s Everglades or the “River of Grass,” they generally think of Lake Okeechobee, Everglades National Park, and the canals and water control structures in between.  But the watershed is actually much larger than that.  Lake Okeechobee does serve as the headwaters of the Everglades; prior to human alteration, Lake Okeechobee would slowly overflow southward during very wet periods, forming the shallow, slow-flowing sheet of water that earned it the title “River of Grass.”  Today, the Hoover Dike prevents this and the water flow is strictly controlled, mostly released to the east and west coasts via the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, but also southward to the Everglades through an extensive system of canals and water control structures.  But the water in Lake Okeechobee came from somewhere else, too. Lak...