Proposal

This proposal is requesting 10 wireless weather stations to be placed along the Boca Raton beach (Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus Wireless Weather Station with UV and Solar Radiation Sensors and 24-Hour Fan Aspirated Radiation Shield). Each weather station costs $1,295; thus the total cost of the weather stations will be $12,950. We will also need 10 mounting tripods to install the weather stations, each of which will cost $85 (total cost of tripods=$850). We are requesting 40 soil moisture sensors (4 soil moisture sensors per weather station), each of which cost $60 for a total of $2400. The system requires Davis WeatherLink PC Software which costs $165. The total budget for this proposal is $16,365. Installation of the weather stations will be handled by Alexandra Lolavar and Jeanette Wyneken and will not incur any extra costs.

Weather stations will provide further advances in sea turtle research centered around the incubation conditions on the Boca Raton beach. The Wyneken lab is currently attempting to understand the environmental factors impacting sea turtle sex determination. In order to understand current sea turtle incubation conditions, we need to establish methods of obtaining accurate environmental data from the beach. As of now, we lack a reliable source of environmental conditions directly from the Boca Raton beach. Thus, there is a great need for weather stations that can provide measurements of rainfall amounts, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, wind chill, barometric pressure, and soil moisture content. All of these measurements will provide crucial information on the beach conditions and ultimately provide insight on sea turtle nest conditions. This project will greatly impact students from this lab, other labs, as well as other departments. The Wyneken lab currently has four graduate students and one post doctoral student, as well as ~17 DIS students each semester. The data obtained from these weather stations will strengthen current sea turtle research and create research opportunities for current and future undergraduate and graduate projects. Additionally, the weather stations will contribute to other research in the Biological Sciences and Environmental Sciences departments. Research in Dr. Sarah Milton’s lab focuses on sea turtle physiology associated with incubation conditions and the environmental factors affecting incubation conditions and hatchling success; thus accurate weather data will contribute to greatly to her lab’s research as well. The weather stations will allow for future collaborations with the Environmental Sciences and Geosciences departments. While the data obtained from these weather stations will be crucial in advancing sea turtle research, the weather stations will also contribute to research focused on environmental science and geoscience. The impacts of these weather stations will also extend to the classroom. Use of the weather station will be applicable to a broad array of classes from the Biological, Environmental Science, and Geoscience departments.

The installation of weather stations on the Boca Raton beach will greatly contribute to the goals of the university. The university continues to broaden its research opportunities in marine science and accurate weather and environmental data will further increase research based on Boca Raton’s marine ecosystems. Implementation of weather stations will provide the tools and resources needed to be competitive and build new directions in sea turtle research, as well as provide further research opportunities for other laboratories in biological, environmental, and geological sciences.