High School students use their ARMS for science Students from High Tech High, in San Diego, deployed in 2016 Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) on seagrass meadows in Mission Bay. They recovered the ARMS three months later and compared the marine organisms that settled on ARMS within dense seagrass patches versus those located on bare substrate. Using image analysis programs, taxonomic identification, and statistical tests, the students found that ARMS located in seagrass meadows host higher number of species. These meadows function as nurseries for a number of marine organisms, and serve as better habitat for native species compared to invasive ones. |