Week 8: The Final Countdown - Research Projects!

Week 8: The Final Countdown - Research Projects!

Monday 05/20

We are all feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed as we finally get to take all that we have learned
from this course and get going on our group projects. All nine of the groups got started on their
projects today, whether that meant going to the tide pools, mud flats, or setting up tanks in the lab.
Many groups are working with inverts for their projects which means the tanks are full of some pretty
crabby creatures. With teams testing different crab trap types, observing how Nucella feeds in the presence
of crabs, comparing which crabs live in which estuary habitats, and conducting crab competition
experiments there’s a lot of hope that we’ll get to feast on some crabs at the end of the week.
In addition to the crabs, we have tanks full of nudibranchs, anemones, pipefish, and mussels.
A feeding experiment is being conducted by Emily M., Charlotte, and Bri on the nudibranch
Hermissenda crassicornis and the anemone anthopleura elegantissima. Chelsey, Grace, and
Ashley have been working hard doing beach seines daily in order to collect enough pipefish to
observe their orientation in relation to eelgrass. An experiment on microplastics is being conducted
by Elise, Megan C., and Emily V. using Mytilus californianus and glitter. Renee, Alison, and Sarah K.
are using light bulbs, glow sticks, and no light to see what different organisms get drawn to their light traps.

A group dissecting mussels to study microplastics.

Tuesday 05/21

Students are putting in long hours at the lab making observations both in the tanks and through their
microscopes. Stephania, Laura, and Sarah H. have spent hours every day this week observing different
diatoms they have collected under their microscopes. It may only be day two of projects week but everyone
has put in so many hours of hard work that you can already see just how tired everyone is. Even though
everyone is tired you can still see the excitement on everyone's faces when you ask them how their
projects going and they get to tell you things are going well! During collection among the tide pools
for nudibranchs by Emily M., Charlotte, and Bri’s group, a very interesting nudibranch was found,
not yet seen or collected by our class. “It looks like a Pokemon”, said Charlotte. And indeed, this
cartoon-like gastropod was identified as Dirona albolineata. This species of nudibranch is mostly
translucent, and the color of its large cerata may vary from a white to a pinkish hue. D. albolineata
can even reach sizes up to 18 cm in length!

A group observing their collected diatoms under their microscopes!
D. alboineata, a nudibranch not previously collected by our class.

Wednesday 05/22

Another day of collecting data for projects! Every group is well on their way and chugging along as
we meet the halfway mark for working on projects. Chelsey, Grace, and Ashley’s group, which have
been monitoring their pipefish to observe their orientation in relation to eelgrass, have collected lots
of pipefish and have been spending many hours observing them in the lab. Some groups that are
sampling in the field are still heading out at their various intertidal locations of interest (some at
multiple times of the day). Allison, Renne, and Sarah’s group are examining phytoplankton, and
are often seen in the lab viewing their samples from the field in the laboratory. Many groups have
had meetings today with various instructors and TA’s to discuss how their projects are progressing
and to figure out what statistical tests may be best to run on their experiments. Additionally, people
are starting to think about the end of the term presentations and paper. Sources are being gathered,
and lots of ideas are getting bounced around!

A pipefish monitoring experiment underway.

A group getting ready to head out for project collections!

Even when it rains, there’s often a beautiful sunset at Hatfield that is arguably best viewed from the
estuary trail (just a minute’s walk from Hatfield itself). Whether you are a tired current student, a
future student thinking about taking the BI450 course, or are someone just visiting Newport,
don’t miss this trail on a beautiful evening.

Thursday 05/23

All downhill from here! Many of our groups are starting to see some patterns from their hard work
on the projects! Students are getting very excited as their ideas for their hypothesis are really
starting to mold. It was very common to come in at night and see some groups still working hard
on their data. One group was even counting crabs well past 10:00 pm on some nights! Charlie, Cori,
and Eric Cole are looking at crab counts in different parts of the Yaquina Bay. “We head out twice a
day around low tide to identify and measure the crabs in our 24 pitfall traps in the mudflats,” said Eric.
“It is somewhat tiring, especially at night, but then you stumble upon a big boy in the trap and everyone
gets excited.”

To conclude the week, we will be returning back to the classroom to spend the next week and tomorrow
discussing conservation and policy for our oceans. We will have a presentation and a little project the next
week to help us understand just the kind of process it is for conservation actions to be put into place.

Not even the sun can stop Charlie D. from collecting Hemigrapsus oregonensis from his pitfall traps

Friday 05/24

It’s halftime on the projects folks. Due to the tides this year we are putting our projects on pause for
a week. So for the next week and today, we will be reviewing articles and discussing different aspects
of conservation and policy. Today we talked about the state of our oceans in relation to the changing
climate. A large piece of today’s lecture was about the increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Dr. Henkel discussed how our planet has reached over 410 parts per million of CO2 in all of April!
After a lengthy discussion on what is being done to address certain issues about the changing
climate and marine pollution, we shifted focus on marine reserves versus marine protected areas.
We learned that some marine species benefit from reserves while other species populations do better
in a protected area. We ended the long day with a talk about how Oregon chose its marine reserves
along the Pacific Coast and the lengthy, layered process that it takes to make these decisions.

This week has been long and fun for many of us. We are excited to have Dr. Henkel back as she steers
our class vessel into Week 9! We are looking forward to our three day weekend and honoring those who
gave the greatest sacrifice of all for our safety and freedom. To our Veterans, we say thank you and
never forget.

Eric Cole with a Carcinus maenas posing for its close up

Week 7 ALREADY?!

Monday 05/13: We switched gears this week from field-heavy work to more lecture/lab based work in order to prepare to write our community ecology data reports. We started our Monday off lecture heavy learning about dynamics of marine communities and diversity. Among these lectures we learned that living in an intermittent upwelling area, we get a higher diversity of organisms than other places with persistent upwelling or downwelling.This is because upwelling brings up cold, nutrient rich waters and not being persistent gives the organisms that live in these areas a chance to take advantage of this abundance of food. Too much upwelling and too much downwelling can lead to very low diversity, so it is lucky that we get to study here in the Pacific Northwest where organisms are abundant and diverse! To better prepare us for our writing assignment for this section, our TA Zech went over statistical analysis and figure preparation before we took our last data from our experiment in the lab. After a full day spent in the classroom, we gathered in the lab to take our final data on our predator rate experiment. We counted the amount of eaten prey (mussels) and measured them, measured each predator, and fed the snails, sea stars, and crabs one last time before terminating the experiment and taking the animals back to their habitats in the rocky intertidal. Our special lecture for the day on kelp bed dynamics was unfortunately cancelled so that our lecturer, Sarah Hamilton, could go out on a research dive and do what marine scientists do best! Today we took in a lot of information but our sore limbs thanked us for a break from the field. Now we have the tools to start writing our data reports and use the data we worked so hard to collect!

Last round of data collection for our predation experiment.

Tuesday 05/14:  Today was much appreciated by us students because it was an “independent study” day that our professors so generously scheduled in. We had today to prepare our papers and oral presentations that were due Wednesday and Thursday respectively.  Groups gathered, scattered throughout the library and in various apartments to start hatching out their ideas about the data we collected in the field last week. This wasn’t our first rodeo, however, since this was our third oral presentation and one of many writing assignments. We finalized our presentations and eagerly awaited everyone’s oral reports at 1:00 PM tomorrow.

Wednesday 05/15: Judgement day...the day we presented our research to the class. Although presentations were at 1:00pm, we all woke up early to prepare for the daunting task ahead. Some groups walked to the library to get in some last minute details on their powerpoints, and others practiced their speeches. We entered the classroom, and although we have already done three presentations in this class, those nerves still crept in. For the next two hours were listened to our classmates give compelling hypotheses and observations with some great data analysis. Some presentation topics included sea star reproduction output, mobile predator diversity, and analyzing predation rates. Finally, the nerves were gone and the presentations were over. We went back to our favorite study places and worked diligently on our reports that were due the next day. A few students decided to have a peer review session later that night, which was immensely helpful for revising our papers and making sure they were ready to be graded by our TA Zech. After the session, we snuck in a few hours of studying for our final, and with that, the day had come to a quick end.

 

Everyone did amazing on their presentations; their hard work paid off.

Thursday 05/16: The last day of community ecology was upon us, and these two weeks went by in the blink of an eye. We woke up early to study for our exam at 2:00pm, reviewing Bruce’s lecture slides and going over concepts we learned together. We ate a quick lunch and took our final walk to class as community ecology students. We had two hours to take the exam, and then the rest of the day was devoted to finishing up our reports that were due later that night. However, it was the seventh week of spring term, and we needed a bit of a break. A few students sent out invites for a potluck, and everyone brought a different dish to share. Among the smorgasbord of food was shepards pie, mac and cheese, spaghetti, sweet potato horderves, cookies, apple fritters, chips, cupcakes, and so much more food that we aren’t able to list it all. It was a great way to finish the subject and have some family time with our classmates. The night rolled to an end, the last of the reports were turned in, and we prepared for the projects section that would begin the next day.

Everyone getting ready to take the final!

A nice night with friends, eating too much food.

Friday 05/17: A brand new day and a brand new section! Today we finally started the long awaited independent project section. We started bright and early at 8:30 AM and listened to our instructor, Dr. Sarah Henkel, tell us about what to expect in the upcoming weeks. We received instructions on how to write our project proposals and then we were released to write them in our groups. Teams were scattered across the Hatfield campus working diligently on writing their project proposals which were due at 5 PM this afternoon. Groups also took turns meeting with our three instructors and two TAs for this course to talk about their projects are work out the kinks of their ideas. Once everyone was finally done with their proposals we could finally breathe a sigh of relief as the end of a busy week came to a close and excitement came for next week’s activities.

Week 2 - Nudibranchs, and Molluscs, and Crabs, Oh My!

Monday, April 8

We started this week off by going out to several spots on the mud flats around the HMSC campus and helping Dr. Sylvia Yamada collect and record captured Carcinus maenas, and five other species of crabs including Cancer magister, Cancer antennarius, Cancer productus, Hemigrapsus nudus, and Hemigrapsus oregonensis. We collected eight traps by the pump house docks that had been placed over the weekend. After taking record of the species we found there, any C. maenas were kept for Marine Science Day and all other species were released. We then headed to the exposed mudflats near the aquarium where we collected about 20 traps of three different types. A couple of the traps had fish in them, and some had as many as eight C. maenas. The exciting find was a Cancer magister that had molted in one of our traps. The size difference between the crab and its molted exoskeleton was significant. The reason for this change in size is a process known as ecdysis, during which they form a new exoskeleton beneath their old one, absorb nutrients and minerals from their old exoskeleton, then back out of their old shell and then swell with water while their bodies are soft. This leaves them vulnerable until their carapace hardens. Lucky for this little guy, we found him and meant him no harm.

Tuesday, April 9

Unfortunately, our hike to Cascade Head was cancelled after being postponed due to inclement weather. Instead of this trip, we decided to get through our last two lectures on the Phyla Echinodermata and Chordata. We were then given the rest of the day to study for the upcoming finals and work on our “favorite marine invertebrate” papers and presentations.

Wednesday, April 10

First thing in the morning we had donuts and coffee with the staff, where we were able to purchase some awesome HMSC Student Organization swag. The rest of the day was available for work on our presentations for the evening meeting and wrapping up our other assignments. The presentations went great! Everyone had a great time feasting on cheesecake, cookies, and mussels, while enjoying marine invertebrate game shows and presentations. Some crowd favorites included Geoduck Jeopardy, Gumboot Chiton Bingo, and Blue Ringed Octopus Family Feud, with the last of these pictured below.

Thursday, April 11

On Thursday, we had multiple study sessions for both the lecture final and the lab practicum. Everyone then spent the rest of the day studying as hard as they could for the next day. Some even pulled late hours at the library, trying learn as much of the material as possible. Here we found Emily, Ashley, Hannah, and Megan all working incredibly hard and filling whiteboards with knowledge.

Friday, April 12

Today was the day of the final exam and lab practicum. We had all studied hard and it was amazing to see how far we had come in the last week. We learned the natural history of the Oregon coast, discovered the defining traits and anatomy of the invertebrate phyla, and memorized the scientific names of ~55 organisms we collected throughout the previous week. The lecture final exam began at 1pm and was followed by the practicum, so we had all morning to cram those last few scientific names into our brains. The exams were over by 4pm and after we cleaned up the lab for the next session we were ready to enjoy our weekend of freedom. The sun was even shining after two straight weeks of rain!

Saturday, April 14

Saturday was Marine Science Day at Hatfield, and the campus was full of people excited to learn about the center, marine science, and the programs offered at Hatfield. All of the labs and classrooms had been transformed into demonstrations for visitors. About six of us came out to volunteer in the wetlab, and it was a fun and rewarding experience to be able to teach the public some of the things we had learned in class and in the field. We had consolidated the organisms we collected into four tanks and released organisms that we had multiples of. The visitors were very interested in what we had to show them, and there were some very curious kids who were eager to see the organisms. We were able to show visitors how to identify different crab species, particularly the invasive green crab species we learned about earlier in the week with Sylvia Yamada. Other big hits were the nudibranchs, echinoderms, and skeleton shrimp. It was a fantastic way to wrap up the invertebrate unit and demonstrate how much we had learned, by teaching it to the public.

Week 9: Individual Research

Week 9 marked the beginning of our individual research projects. The long weekend served us well as optimal low tides allowed for ample time of marine sampling in the intertidal. With lectures and exams finished, individuals and groups visited Boiler Bay, Tokatee Klootchman, Yachats Beach, and many other coastal sites to begin answering their research questions. Some projects include topics like gastropod abundance on varying algal species, factors influencing crab claw strength, density of Katharina around Saccharina beds, and the effect of parasitism on Upogebia pugettensis; a type of mud shrimp. The two week effort is to be concluded by the construction of a research paper and presentation open to the public. Symposiums will be held June 9th at the Hatfield Visitor Center.

Alanna and Sonora spend their morning moving 90 lb crab pots for their experiment at Tokatee Klootchman. All smiles :)

Haley and Tyler's urchin feeding experiment involving inclusion and exclusion of Pisaster.

The quick segue into the middle of the week dampened the responsibilities of field work and demanded attentive lab time. As if overnight, the lab was transformed from its dull, empty state to a factory of engineered curiosity. Previously bare bins now held an abundance of creatures of the intertidal, from sculpins to sea stars. Many of us carefully ran through trials of experimentation and intrigue. With minimal casualties, experiments started to fall into place.

Kate and David patiently observe feeding preferences of Pisaster in their handcrafted Y-maze. Troublesome sea stars were aptly nicknamed "Steve".

Sierra looks into shelter material preferences of tidepool sculpins.

In an interesting turn of events, the first octopus of the course was found! It is hypothesized that this is a young Enteroctopus dofleini. Sonora and Alanna found the little guy in a tide pool at Manipulation Bay.

A momentary greeting occurs.

Octopus are very smart and strong creatures. They can fit through almost any crevasse large enough for their beak. Interestingly, the arms of the octopus contain two thirds of their neurons. This makes the arms somewhat autonomous - they literally have a mind of their own! Disc-like suckers lining the arms can taste and smell anything they touch, allowing them octopus to sense nearby prey. When this juvenile octopus grows up, it can have up to 280 suckers per arm. That's like having 2240 mouth-noses. Best of luck to you, small friend!

A baby seal hangs out in the high zone of Fogarty Creek.

By the time Thursday had arrived, most groups were finishing their data collection. With the help and guidance of some awesome TAs, students began running (and troubleshooting) statistical analyses on software programs such as RStudio and Microsoft Excel. For some of the students, this was their first time working with statistical softwares such as R, but individuals quickly became accustomed. Many cups of coffee and tea were consumed in this phase of the research.

Chris outwits RStudio to form an ANOVA table.

A feast of freshly caught crab to end the week! 

In attempt to unwind after many hours spent on research, we closed out the week by spending an afternoon cooking crab! Students who spent the better part of the week catching crab wrangled their test subjects into pots and even grabbed enough crab for the whole class to enjoy. Specimens that weren't consumed were safely returned to the intertidal. Who knew science could be so delicious!

Friday also brought a bout of sunshine, which had many students basking in the sun all afternoon. It was truly a wonderful way to ring in the weekend.

PRETENDING TO BE REAL MARINE BIOLOGISTS…

This week has been all about PROJECTS! There are a total of 12 groups working on a variety of research topics. Some groups get to play in the field all day, while others are more studious in the lab. Group research topics have shown how diverse the 2015 class is when it comes to areas of interest. Some chose to work with algae, and others found their passion lying with invertebrates or fishes. Groups are even tackling the complexity of multiple species and how they interact with one another.

Natalie and Amanda playing in the mud!

Melanie, Amanda, and Natalie really committed to their project by getting down and dirty in the mud. Their week consisted of early mornings and lots of coffee in order to complete multiple beach seining collections. While out in the field, they collected data on salinity and biodiversity. Their focus is on determining the effects of salinity on biodiversity at several locations along the Oregon Coast. However, struggles have arisen and huge fluctuations in salinity have brought complications for the group. But with such dedication to their projects, they have been able to move forward and will be able to present to the public in just a few weeks.

First crab caught by Chaleen, Kylee, and Ashley,
while Chaleen is in the back looking for
the missing traps.

Speaking of projects not going as planning, one group really was off to a rough start at the beginning of the week. Chaleen, Kylee, and Ashley were looking at the abundance and size distribution of red rock crabs (Cancer productus) at popular crabbing locations compared to non-crabbing locations. However, the first few days proved to be discouraging because they had no luck catching any crabs and couldn’t  find some traps after putting them too far down the shoreline. Luck quickly turned around though after they switch the bait being used from cat food to chicken. So to all of you crabbers out there, take it form them and don’t use cat food! Finally they had caught a crab and were beyond stoked, even if it was just one! The week progressed and so did the amount of crabs they caught. Yay for more data!

Crabbing is a huge sport along the Oregon Coast that people partake in recreationally and commercially. It is so popular that regulations are set in place for determining what size, sex, and species of crab can be taken. However, this in not the case for red rock crabs because any sex or size can be taken. With such open availability to take these crabs, it is important to see if there is an effect on their size and abundance; especially right now in the spring when Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister) are less abundant. Red rock crabs may be significantly impacted if they are the ones being mostly caught at this time.

Cat and Kat working on their experiment on pipefish!

Cat (left) and Kat (right) worked on a lab experiment, in which they created an aquarium to test habitat preference of the estuarine pipefish, Syngnathous leptorhynchus. One side of the aquarium had eelgrass with one of two types of epiphytic algae, while the other side had eelgrass without epiphytes. They collected 42 pipefish while seining in Yaquina Bay to use in their experiment. It will be interesting to hear the results during week 10!

Levi being scientific and cutting open Pollicipes.

Levi is shown in the picture cutting open a Pollicipes polymerus to look for signs of reproduction. Levi and his group-mates, Max and Julia, also participated in cutting open these barnacles, as well as wrapping them in foil and sticking them in an oven to dry-mass them afterwards. Sounds brutal!

Landon's Release Chamber O' Fish!

Here is a picture of the lab experiment that I (Landon) did this week. In this aquarium, one side consists of only bare rocks, whereas the other side consists of various types of algae. I (Landon) collected fishes of various colors from the field and placed them one at a time in a fancy release chamber, which I (Landon) invented. The fish could swim out of the Release Chamber O’ Fish (patent pending) and decide which habitat to choose. This experiment was done to determine if there is a difference in habitat preference among fishes of different colors. In regards to the natural history aspect of this particular project, tidepool fishes have been shown to prefer tidepools with certain sets characteristics. Rugosity, depth, size, intertidal height, and algal composition of a tidepool are some of the characteristics that may influence the distribution of tidepool fishes. This experiment along with a field study will hopefully provide insight into differences of habitat preference among fishes of different colors.