For many people, images of sunny skies, clear blue water, and brightly-colored fish darting about on reefs represent a tropical paradise that’s just a dream.

But for marine scientist Peter Auster, these visions are his workplace.

A research professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Avery Point, Auster currently holds a year-long appointment as the Mote Eminent Scholar in biological sciences at Florida State University. He and a team of students and colleagues from institutions across the country are working together on several underwater research projects to learn more about the behavioral interactions of coral reef fish. And what’s more, his work is being brought to students across the world via underwater video.

“Coral reefs are in trouble all around the world,” Auster says. “Trying to understand their status, what we might do to aid recovery, how we know if we are successful in our efforts, and how we might better communicate their peril is critical for their survival.”

Assessing reef communities

Auster studies reefs from the northeast Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of southern Florida and Georgia. In October, his team worked at Conch Reef, a cluster of deep-water coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary adjacent to the Aquarius Undersea Research Station, the world’s only undersea research laboratory.

The reefs near the Aquarius station, says Auster, are home to a high diversity of reef fish species, which makes them ideal for studying the reef from a community ecology perspective.

“We want to look across the whole reef community and see how different species interact,” he says.

Members of his team dove to the reefs to observe these fish in their natural habitats. Auster was head of a “surface team,” a group of divers that spent up to eight hours per day exploring the reefs farthest from the research station. The other team, led by James Lindholm from California State University at Monterey Bay, spent a full 10 days underwater, living in the Aquarius station between their times observing fish on the reef.

Their goal was to quantify behavioral interactions among different fish species that feed in groups. Previous studies by Auster and his students in other reef ecosystems indicate that 40 to 60 percent of fish species actually cooperate with each other in finding food, a hypothesis that his data will help to test.

One of the goals in this project, says Auster, is to construct a “behavior web” for fishes in the area of Conch Reef. Similarly to a food web, which would describe “who eats who,” as Auster says, a behavior web would describe how different species cooperate to find prey.

Auster’s work will also compare the behavior web in the Florida Keys, an area impacted by fishing and other human disturbances, to those developed at other study sites where the reefs are relatively undisturbed.

“The idea is to understand the fundamental processes about how the fish community operates,” he says. “It’s not just about what kinds of fish are there, but how they interact.” These new data, he adds, will aid in creating conservation policy for these and other reefs around the world.

Taking it onto land

During their trip, Auster’s team also participated in a special series of videos produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuaries. For 10 days during October, NOAA broadcasted live interviews and demonstrations via the Web by scientists working at the Aquarius research station and in surrounding areas. These broadcasts, dubbed “If Reefs Could Talk: Aquarius 2010,” were streamed live into classrooms across the country, focusing on underserved communities and broadcasting in both English and Spanish. In Connecticut, the videos were broadcast at Mystic Aquarium and Cheshire High School.

Steven Auscavitch, an undergraduate coastal studies major at Avery Point, has been working on marine ecology with Auster for two years. He traveled to the research station to work on Auster’s research team, but also got the chance to be on camera, giving advice to students wanting to get involved with biology.

“I really felt a part of something big for the first time,” says Auscavitch of the experience. “I really enjoyed collaborating with scientists from all across the country, and I made some great professional connections that I hope to nurture in the future.”

Auscavitch first started working with Auster during his sophomore year when he took Auster’s reef fish ecology course, which involved a week-long research trip to Belize to study fish behavior. Studying coral reef ecology became a passion for Auscavitch, and he has since decided to pursue a career in coral reef ecology.

“I became even more interested in this type of research when I realized I could make a living out of it,” he says. “I think of all of the interactions between corals, sponges, fish, and countless other invertebrates, and then wonder what I might see next time.”

Auster’s guidance has shaped not only his career path, says Auscavitch, but the person he has become.

“These research trips provided some invaluable learning and technical experience that has shaped who I have become and where I want to go,” he says. “I really appreciate and respect Dr. Auster’s mentoring, guidance, and experience in the field and in the classroom.”

Auster hopes that further outreach efforts like “If Reefs Could Talk” will bring the field of marine ecology to more students in an interactive way. Bringing the reefs to life in video form inspires people, he says. And it’s not very different from what inspires him to go to work every day.

“I have a great job,” he says. “I get to hang out underwater and study fish.”

Here you can view the video of Auster and Auscavitch talking about careers in marine sciences. Go to 7:10 to see Auster and to 9:00 for Auscavitch.