Algae is our lives (for the week)!

We started up our last week of algae learning about the Phaeophytes also known as the brown algae, this contains all the different kelps including the Postelesia palmiformis also known as the cute little sea palm. Later that night we learned more about palmiformis from our guest speaker Karina Nielsen. She informed us on ways that we can avoid overexploitation of different types of economically important seaweeds such as palmiformis. The next two days involved learning about Rhodophyta and getting prepared for our team projects that were to be given Wednesday night. Wednesday morning we had another guest speaker, Leigh Tait who spoke to us about algae and climate change and his research that he is currently doing here at Hatfield. Later that evening we all got together to present our team projects to our fellow class mates. Each team had a different group of algae they were showing to the other groups, each team showed us the variety of algae they had collected and ways to tell them apart from all other algae in the field and in the lab. Thursday we learned about the research Annette did on limpet interaction with seaweed and then had the rest of the day to prepare for our lecture final and lab final the next day. 

Ben at one of the groups algae holding tanks as Molly helps set up the finishing touches of her group presentation in the background. 

Brian diligently examining a microscopic morphological characteristic of the Brown Algae group.  

Karina taking notes of the different Brown Algae we collected last week at Boiler Bay and Seal Rock. 

Green Algae group's beautiful presentation! 

The gang hanging out around the snacks (that Annette so graciously brought us) after algae presentations!