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.

Biodiversity in Pedder Bay

The challenge presented to first years for their last class of the year was to compare the biodiversity of two different habitats. Some students, like Kate and Jill above and Jacqueline and Aurora below, chose to snorkel to do the sampling.

Jacqueline in a ‘whole new world’!

Aurora with her sampling gear

Others sampled in the intertidal zone – see Ilana and Sho below.

Intertidal Ilana and snorkeling Jill

Sho recording diversity data

Ochuko and Axel compared the diversity of the two seawater tables that we have – one inside the floating lab and the other on the dock. (That’s Ochuko in the paw print onesie in the photo below.)

Lauren chose to investigate the substrates hanging off the dock.

Above is a photo of the same substrate when Syver suspended it off the dock in September 2012, when the biodiversity was zero!

I’m not sure what kind of biodiversity Sho found under the ramp!? And that is Kate in the water in the photo above.

For more photos see Flickr album Biodiversity 2016.

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.

Biodiversity and diverse footwear

This morning first year marine scientists ventured out to collect data that they used to compare the biodiversity of two areas that they selected.

Ela (in the yellow boots above) compared the diversity of organisms in two areas of the rocky intertidal – one that is regularly exposed to freshwater from a drain pipe and one that is not near the drain pipe outlet (in the very upper left of the photo above).

Angela and Jessica (both close to the water level in the photo above) each investigated the effect of height in the intertidal on diversity.

Angela (above) again identifying and counting organisms in the low intertidal.

Miguel (blue fins) and Mariana (yellow fins) chose to focus only on sea star diversity.  They got into their wetsuits at 7 am! and jumped into the water to compare the diversity of sea stars near the Pearson College docks and a short distance away from the docks.

Jon elected to sample plankton at the mouth of Pedder Bay and near the Pearson College docks. While there is no photographic evidence of his work he learned that there is a great deal of diversity in the plankton sampled at both locations!