Listen to an interview with Dr. Gravinese, Gretchen Faraci and Abigail Smith:
LAKELAND -- A team from Florida Southern College is working to find out whether stone crab eggs hatched in areas with variable pH levels, such as seagrasses, do better than those that enter the world in areas with more consistent pH, such as mudflats.
Dr. Philip Gravinese, assistant professor of biology at FSC, says they're monitoring eggs from two areas: one with constant pH of around 8.1 and another where seagrass photosynthesis makes levels changeable between day and night.
Two of the students doing field work for the project, Abigail Smith and Gretchen Faraci, say the lessons will be incorporated into a simulation designed for high school biology students.
Florida's stone crab commercial catch has declined about 30 percent... or a million claws... since 1999, Gravinese said. Study results could help in the preservation of both stone crab populations and sea grasses.
The study is made possible by a grant from the Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund.
Photo: Canva