Biodiversity by snorkel

Every year I issue a challenge to marine scientists to compare the biodiversity of two habitats. I suggest high & low in the intertidal, horizontal & vertical in the rocky intertidal, plankton tows in two locations or two areas on the dock. I always offer the option of snorkelling and a few students, like 3 or 4, usually take me up on it.

This year there were more takers for the snorkelling option than ever – 7 students in the first class and 6 in the second class.

Ivonne and Yorlenis

Becca and Matilda

Annie and Abigail

Becca and Matilda

Abigail

Emilio

A few students even snorkelled across Pedder Bay to compare the two different sides of the bay (see photo above).

D block snorkellers

Gaia emerging

And not all students snorkelled, below are Tomma in the intertidal and Karel sampling plankton at the green buoy. While Karel and I were in Hyaku, we watched a submarine make its way to the navy dock.

Tomma sampling intertidal biodiversity

Karel sampling plankton diversity

Submarine!

For more photos see Flickr album Biodiversity 2017.

And for a reminder of last year’s sampling see Biodiversity in Pedder Bay.

On the water – 20 Feb 2017

While out with divers at Prison Rocks this afternoon, we were treated to various spectacles, including a gull standing on the water (above) and Eskil doing his internal assessment work (below).

We also saw one tugboat, then a second tugboat come around William Head followed by a frigate, the HMCS Ottawa. The frigate was being escorted and assisted by the tugboats as she headed to the Navy dock in Pedder Bay. The Ottawa certainly dwarfed our Pearson College sailboats!

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Investigating the properties of seawater 2017

Once again, first year marine scientists carried out individual investigations into the properties of seawater.

Matias watching for boiling

Piero measuring salinity, pH and oxygen

Many students did lab-based investigations:

Juan Diego

Emilio investigates the effect of salinity on adhesion

Emilio’s set up

Tamar

And a few went out into the field… Yeji measured the variation in salinity with location in Pedder Bay by kayaking (she got a bit wet and had her pants dried by Hazuki, who investigated the effect of wind speed on water movement). And Quni was prepared for the wet weather but as you can see below, returned to the lab in the sunshine!

Hazuki measuring the effect of wind on water movement

Hazuki using ‘wind’ to dry Yeji’s pants

Quni returning from sampling with Secchi disk

Investigating the properties of seawater

Today all three classes of first year marine scientists investigated various properties of seawater. Each student had a research question and hypothesis, designed a method to test their hypothesis then carried out their investigation in class.  In the photo above, Young is investigating the effect of salinity on conductivity and in the photo below Romanos is setting up his experiment to measure the effect of salinity on sea ice melting time.

Above, Alana is measuring the effect of bubbling carbon dioxide into the water on the dissolved oxygen in seawater and below, Malou is setting up her experiment which involved increasing salinity with ‘Instant Ocean’.

Noemi modified the salinity of seawater samples to mimic the salinities of different seas and measure the effect on boiling point.

Adva, in the photo above, tested the effect of bubbling oxygen gas into seawater on the pH and Sofiya, in the photo below, tested the effect of humidity on dissolved oxygen.

Connor, in the photo above, added drops of solutions with different salinities to the surface of a coin to see if there was an effect of salinity on cohesion / surface tension.

David Hawley came down to the floating lab and checked out a few of the experiments as part of his last tour of classes as the director of Pearson College. He is on his way to the IBO in the Netherlands very soon.  We will certainly miss his visits to Marine Science classes, but David, please know that you are absolutely welcome to come back any time!

 

 

 

A very high tide

With all the rain, the low atmospheric pressure and the spring tides we are seeing evidence of very high high tides – a king tide. Michal was able to touch the top of the piling.

On that piling is a tide gauge that was set up by a four students for their Group 4 project. Although it is not ‘calibrated’, I suspect they did not see such a high during their sampling.

 

Check out the height of the water under the ramp to the lower floor of the floating building:

And the angle of the ramp to the upper floor:

For comparison, I’ll post additional photos of extremely low tides when they occur.

Bull kelp pickles

On Friday evening, Yam served and shared the bull kelp pickles that she and Noemi had prepared about 4 weeks earlier using bull kelp that we collected on one of the kelp forest field trips. The recipe they used can be found here.

It was burgers for dinner and the delicious bull kelp pickles really complimented the meal.

Thank you Yam!!

 

Marine science learning adventures at Pearson College

Marine Science students aboard MV Second Nature, head out to Race Rocks Marine Protected Areas to do a quantitative, rocky shore study.

Tidal currents boil and swirl around the study site and safety is the top priority. A sharp look out for sneaker waves keeps everyone dry.

The first job is to stretch out a reference tape measure.

Using ancient but precise, Egyptian technology, the students carefully measure vertical height using a water level and record the abundance of different species as they work their way up the shore.

The students are learning about marine ecology by doing it.

Getting up close and personal with limpets and periwinkles is the best way to make observations.

Direct observations help the students understand broader topics in marine science.

These little brooding anemones may not have a brain but they are sensible enough to “hang on” to their offspring and give them a head start over their ‘cousins’ with planktonic larvae.

These ancient mollusks haven’t changed much in several hundred millions years. That is because they are well adapted to hang on to the rock and scrape off the algae using a metal scraper (aka a radula with iron in it).

These little aggregation anemones host algae in their skin, akin to the corals but soft.

Students work together to try and figure out the biotic and abiotic interactions that are shaping the the distribution of organisms.

Measurements of mussels and barnacles helps make sense of the abundance data.

Now comes the hard part of processing the raw data, pooling data and making sense out of the findings.

Field Season in Full Swing for Marine Scientists at Pearson College

Measuring marine biodiversity is the task today. Teamwork prevails. Many countries, cultures and languages unite to get a handle on species richness and the distribution of individuals across taxa.

Primary productivity experiment

Second year Marine Science students in C block chose to investigate the effect of colour of light on primary productivity in bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana). After wrapping five BOD bottles in each of five colours of cellophane plus five bottles in transparent cellophane and including five black bottles, students filled BOD bottles with seawater and one piece (4 cm x 4 cm) of bull kelp.

They measured dissolved oxygen in each bottle:

then left the bottles on the window sill of the floating lab for 4 to 6 hours:

Then they measured dissolved oxygen again:

The data collected are shown below:

And I have to include this photo of the wall by the stairs in the floating lab taken when students were measuring final oxygen levels:

Marine debris – Project Week in Tofino

While it is not officially a Marine Science project, the week that Kenta has planned and he and his team are carrying out is very applicable to topics we cover in the course (and there are two Marine Science students participating!).

Very soon after arriving in Tofino on Sunday afternoon, we (Kenta, Helen, Amalia, Cassandra, Shuli & Laura) went to Chesterman Beach in the rain and wind. Despite the weather, we did collect some marine debris.

Kenta’s focus is on Japanese debris – he has high hopes of finding debris from the tsunami of 11 March 2011. His intention is to collect marine debris and make artwork that he will exhibit both in Canada and Japan.

Monday morning we went to Ucluelet and met with Karla Robison, Manager of Environmental & Emergency Services for the District of Ucluelet. She presented a lot of what she knows about Japanese tsunami debris then took us to the Public Works Yard where marine debris from many beach clean-ups is being stored.

Karla gave the students permission to sort through the debris and take anything that they could use in their artwork.

 Karla & Amalia

 Cassandra & Helen

 Kenta & Karla

Kenta sorted through all the plastic bottles and based on the writing was able to identify several Japanese bottles and many Chinese bottles.

Kenta was also interviewed by Andrew Bailey, a reporter from the ‘Westerly News’.

After loading the back of the van with debris we drove and hiked to Florencia Bay where we collected more debris, a lot more debris…

 This is the result of an afternoon at the south end of Florencia Bay.

More to come…