Biology of Sub-Tropical Florida

Seventeen Albion College students and four faculty from the Department of Biology are spending Spring Break ‘08 exploring south Florida in an attempt to more completely understand this unique American wilderness. Beginning in the far reaches of the Florida Keys at Dry Tortugas National Park, the group will travel through the Florida Keys, the Everglades, and the Lake Wales Ridge in central Florida to its final destination at SeaWorld Adventure Parks in Orlando. Drs. Jeff Carrier, Dan Skean, Dale Kennedy, and Doug White, accompanied by Carrier’s wife, Carol,  will lead the expedition through coral reefs, deep swamps, coastal mangroves, and cypress habitats in quest of tropical vegetation and animals that comprise one of the richest ecosystems on earth. The trip ends at SeaWorld where students will work with marine turtles, manatees, and dolphins as they are introduced to efforts to rehabilitate injured, endangered animals for eventual return to the wild. The group’s adventures are chronicled in the pages that follow.