Plane tickets booked and some dive kit bought :-) thanks for the donations so far, I'm planning on starting the proposal for my dissertation very soon, just waiting on some info from my field supervisor and university supervisor. Still more kit to buy and transfers to book but things are moving along nicely :-)
Here's what I've bought so far:

So here goes.....

I'm planning on going to Indonesia next July (2013) for my senior thesis research and I'm trying to raise as much money as possible to help fund this research.

Reasoning for my Research...

I'm going to be in Indonesia for 6 weeks to work with Operation Wallacea and I'll be snorkelling and diving to look at how the coral reefs are adapted to  the 'extreme' environments.

These 'extreme' environments have very high/low salinity, high/low temperatures, high turbidity or high light. The coral communities that grow in these environments could provide an insight to the future for more coral reefs as more and more of the reef environments become marginal.

The extremity of these environments means that these coral communities aren't as diverse as those that you would find on reefs with more favourable conditions. They are, however, just as important but they haven't been studied to the same extent.

Research Aims....

• I'll carry out detailed field survey's by snorkelling through the mangrove and make comparisons of such communities with the reef environments through scuba diving.
• I hope to increase our understanding of the total community structure of coral but not reef habitats within these marginal systems.
• I hope to identify which species of coral are the most abundant across different systems.
• I hope to determine how such species are able to tolerate the environmental extremes and whether or not they are the best equipped to deal with future climate change.

So if this sounds like something you'd like to help me achieve then please click the donate button above and help me raise funds for this important work. Your money will help pay for flights and diving equipment.

Thanks very much :)