MBFE Days 6-7 - A day of rest and then back to work on Monday and Tuesday

This entry marks the end of our first full week of the 2017 BYU-Idaho MBFE at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.

For a quick recap...field work we have done so far included a zonation study in the rocky intertidal zone, a species richness study at the Charleston Harbor mudflats, tide pool species richness surveys at South Cove, Cape Arago State Park, data collection for species diversity index calculations at the rocky intertidal shore at Sunset Bay State Park, Church on Sunday at the North Bend, OR, Ward, and a day spent surveying and collecting sand samples from seven different beaches for particle size analysis.

In addition I estimate that we have already spent about 24 hours in the classroom.  That's equivalent of about 8 weeks in the classroom if we were meeting 3x/week on campus.  And on top of that students are spending time mostly during the evening identifying specimens from the field and tossing around ideas for research projects.  For some bizarre reason they (and I) are weary, but we happily press forward.  Like one class member replied when I asked if they thought I was pushing them too hard, "This is why we are here!"  Nice attitude!!

The group is gelling well and are getting along nicely.  They help each other and support one another like champs.

This is a pic from a group that went on an outing on Sunday.

(L-R) Wyatt, Darby, Janae, Darren, Emily, Harrison

And so...on Monday we spent our field time collecting sand samples from various beaches between here and Cape Arago.  Here are a few shots from that day:

Our first stop was Bastendorf Beach, about 1 mile from the lab.  It's a beautiful 1-mile long beach.  Here the group gets some instruction from Dr. Holyoak about beach morphology and sand particle size - exciting like crazy, I know!  (L-R Jay, Ashley, Dr. H, Stephen, Katie, and Bri (others in the background).  This was a fun stop where we found LOTS of mole crabs. 

Our next stop was Lighthouse Beach, at least that's what I call it.  It takes a little local knowledge and effort to reach this beach.

Here's the crew heading down a somewhat hidden beach access to Lighthouse Beach.

Here we are at Lighthouse Beach, and you can seen why.  Cape Arago Lighthouse is in the background.  

Like budding marine biologists do, they shunned the sand for a few rocky outcroppings covered with marine critters.  Don't get me wrong, the like the sand just fine, but they have a new-found appreciation for rocky areas and the animals they support. (L-R) Emily, Darren, Courtney, Bri, Caitlin, Darby, Jay, Janae, Harrison, Stephen, Ashley and Katie.  Wyatt in the meantime was scouring nearby tide pools in the hopes of finding octopus. 

We weren't done, but we were done at Lighthouse Beach, but not before the BYU-I MBFE put their particular brand of awesomeness on it!  

(L-R) Courtney, Caitlin, Emily, Bri, Wyatt, Ashley, Katie (back), Janae, Jay (front), Darby, Stephen, Darren, Harrison and Rob.

Our next stop was to collect more sand at Sunset Bay.  It is as you can see a protected beach with the usual beautiful Oregon green surroundings.

(L-R) Jay, Courtney, Stephen, Katie and Bri

After one more stop at Cape Arago where I sent volunteers to collect sand at Middle Cove and South Cove we were done for the day.

Here is the South Cove sand collection team, viewed from the overlook (is it any mystery why I sent volunteer teams? :-)  This crew was Darby, Courtney and Janae.  In the meantime a group of guys went down an unimproved trail to Middle Cove that's just as far down there.

So what do you do with all that sand?  We have a stack of sieves with progressively smaller mesh sizes.  Once the sand samples are all dried you pour your sample into the top and shake and shake and shake the sand down.  You can then weigh each fraction of the sample for each sieve grid size and figure out how big the particles are.  Particle size is a function of wave action so this is a way to quantify wave exposure on a beach.  Yep, that's pretty neat!

And that's all for this entry. Stay tuned...

MBFE - Day 24 - By-The-Wind-Sailors continue to wash ashore in the millions

We had our last BIO 314 lecture on Tuesday 5/12 so students have shifted to full-time work on their research, writing, gathering photos for a class assignment, and getting their field/research notebooks ready for evaluation early next week.

The By-The-Wind-Sailor Velella velella appeared in one of the early MBFE 2015 updates, but students and I remain shocked at the vast number of these little animals that keep washing ashore along beaches near us.

Velella is related to animals like sea anemones, jellyfish, and coral.  They have an upright sail that allows them to tack away from the direction of the wind and normally avoid shore.  As they drift they dangle tentacles into the water and capture small plankton that they use for food.

On Bastendorf Beach, only a mile or so south of the marine lab, you can see even more of these lovely little animals along the entire length of the beach.   

In some places they are stacked several deep on the sand.  Sadly, ones that wash ashore die.

Velella are, thankfully, not dangerous to bare feet.  It's impossible to avoid these if you want to walk the beach near the water, and they are disturbingly squishy.

The appearance of hoards of these animals appearing on west coast shorelines is not at all unusual, so there is no cause for alarm, though this is amazing.

We are on track and doing great.

Stay tuned for more updates.

MBFE - Day 7 - Sun and Sand

Man oh man, Monday April 27th was a beautiful day on the southern Oregon coast.  You rarely see nicer!  The skies were clear and blue, highs were in the upper 70s, and there was only a gentle breeze.

Earlier in the morning I was debating whether the class should do dock, pier and piling communities or sandy beaches, but when I walked back to my place after breakfast the weather clinched it.  It HAD to be sandy beaches.  Sun and sand just go together.

The plan for the day was to visit several nearby beaches, find and identify as many sand beach community species as we could and collect samples of sand from beaches that ranged from highly protected from wave action to beaches that are fully exposed to pounding waves.  The crew will then later use a set of progressively smaller sieves to sort the sand into size classes and characterize each beach based on sand particle size.

The first stop of the afternoon was Bastendorf Beach, just south of Charleston, OR.

Here is most of the crew (L-R: Rachel S, Jessica, Danielle - behind Jessica, Kelly, Rachel M., Shannon, Jennifer, Courtney, Arianne, Joseph, Devon, and Luke) at our first stop of the day - Bastendorf Beach.  It's a wide beach with moderate wave exposure.  We did some digging, some looking, and found pretty much...a worm.

Our next stop was just around the next point, Lighthouse Beach, Point Gregory:

We found some awesome things there.  

A few students found a couple of dungeness crabs - here's Isaac showing off the find, and yes he knows hes' holding it upside down, but he didn't want to let go of the pincers.  He's so wise.

You can tell that this experience is already seriously affecting the class...I take them to a beautiful beach and they head immediately for the rocky point to see what's on the rocks (L-R: Shannon, Luke, Joseph, Devon, Jennifer).  While there we saw something that's incredibly bizarre, squid egg masses all over the rocks and filling the tide pools.

This is just a couple of small clumps compared to all the egg masses we saw.  We brought some back to the lab for observation. 

Our next stop was Sunset Bay.  This is a beautiful bay that is almost completely surrounded by cliffs and is highly protected from wave action.  It fills during high tides and nearly empties during low tides.

Devon and Luke made an usual sighting there.  They spotted something swimming out of the mouth of a small stream that empties into this bay...it as a 12-16" lamprey.  Devon nearly caught it, but it was just too slippery!  It's the first live lamprey any of us had ever seen.  It was awesome!  Well, as awesome as lamprey can be.  Here's what they look like:

Our next beach stop was Simpson Beach.  

Like Sunset Bay, Simpson Bay has a narrow opening to the sea, but unlike Sunset Bay, Simpson Beach takes a serious pounding when the tide and waves are high.  This is evidenced by the beach safety sign you see as you reach the beach.  Don't worry, we were safe.

The find of the day at Simpson Beach was a cave that went back maybe 30-40 feet.  Here are Luke, Isaac (background) and Devon in the cave.

Our last stop was Cape Arago, where sand samples were collected from South Cove and Middle Cove.  The South Cove collection came off without a hitch...we've already been there a few times as a class.  The Middle Cove sample, however, included a notable misadventure.  

This is Middle Cove, Cape Arago:

I readily admit that I've never been down to Middle Cove, but colleagues told me that there is a steep, but accessible though rough trail...so I found what looked like could be a trail and Joseph, Luke, and Devon were willing to give it a try.  They started down and I then went over to organize a team to collect sand from South Cove. When I got back to the top of Middle Cove to see how that group was doing, they were still very close to the starting point.  Luke had however slipped/slid down a steep slope.  The other two were still close to the starting point.  I told them to hang on and I did a little more exploring and found the real trail head.  Joseph and Devon were able to make it back up, but not Luke...poor guy!  

This photo shows Joseph working his way down toward Devon.  If you look carefully you can see Luke in white over by the large fallen tree.  He had to bushwhack his way over to the other guys and the actual trail.  

Fortunately everything worked out in the end, and here they are collecting the sand sample they were sent to retrieve.  

OK, field trip tally:  6 beaches, sand, sun, a few sunburns, crabs, squid eggs, a lamprey, a cave, and one significant misadventure that turned out alright in the end...thanks to Luke's good nature.

Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Day 23 - Rainy Days and Mondays...

...don't get us down when the tide is low - I mean, really low!  The low tide this morning was -2.2'.  Woot!  That's enough to make a marine biologist's heart sing.  We weren't about to waste it.

Elysa and Mackenzie left before breakfast to collect data for a project they've been wanting to get to.  They want to know about the genetic ratio of blue to brown shelled mussels at a site we visited earlier on the trip, and they finally found time to look into it.

Jessica and Bailey left right after breakfast to collect data for their plankton study.

Most of the rest of us headed off to Bastendorf Beach.  Before you start thinking we were going to have "a day at the beach" you should know that a front blew in over the weekend making this day gray, wet, and windy.  There were small; craft advisories out, and sustained winds of at least 35mph.  Still, the outing was a MAJOR success...just ask Dallas and Daniel.

 "A Day at the the Beach"

-2.2' low tide, Bastendorf Beach, Oregon

Dallas and Daniel, "The Octopus Hunters"

Dallas spotted another octopus in a tide pool, and they would not be denied.  They ended up removing the rocks (er...boulders) from a rock pool and then used a bucket to empty the pool so they could find the octopus.

It is now the class pet.  It has since been named "Roxanne"...don't ask me why, but I think both of those guys went to bed with grins still on their faces.

Dallas and "Roxanne"

The octopus is about 18" long, and is fun.  It will be taken back to its tide pool in a few days.

Blake and I, in the meantime, went down to South Cove to catch the low tide there.  We didn't find any octopus there, but even with the wind and rain it was a good outing.

This is what our day looked like.  Even so, when the tide is low, you go.  Blake told me that this is work, but that it's really fun so it's not like work at all.  

We spent a couple of hours after lunch in a lecture about polar marine systems, mainly Antarctica, and we wrapped up the class day with a 7pm class meeting where students shared some of the reading they've been doing for their projects - this is for their Readings in Biology credit.

And that's a wrap!  

Stay tuned for more adventures of the BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience.

Day 21 Part II - What BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience Students do on a Saturday AFTER lunch

We made it back from South Cove in time to stow our gear, rinse our boots, and head to the Dining Hall for lunch.

After lunch a group of intrepid sand castle-builders headed off to Bastendorf Beach.  It was sunny, and windy and not what I'd call warm, but off they went.  About an hour later I went by to see what they were up to, and here's what I found...

According to Patrick, they were building a "man-castle" not a sand castle.  I have to agree that it was big.

 (L-R) Lindsey, Ty, Blake, Tony, Kristin, Patrick

And then...

The sea attacked.  Luckily the tide was going out so this didn't happen too often.  I did hear later that after some other members of the group showed up that it shifted from being a castle to a pyramid plus a couple of Sphinxes.  

I have to give it to Lindsey and Kristin for giving skim boarding a try.  Here's Lindsey...

Caught it...

Lost it...

And she's OK

Now Kristin's turn...

Started out all right...

Splash...

She came up smiling!

Now Tony's turn...

Nice release

Blake's yelling, no, feet front and back, not side-by-side :-)

The board stops, and he's off...at least he's still mostly dry.

Ty's up...

The mount...

The glide...

And a classy dismount.

And,now,  Blake, the master...

 Looking good...

 Um...

DOH!

Day 12 - Skim boarding gone bad at Bastendorf Beach

The day started like all days here do...breakfast at 7am.  We had class at 9am, and the today's topic was restoration ecology done at South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve.  After class a couple of groups headed off to South Cove, Cape Arago, to collect specimens and set up some field research.

While we were loading gear and people to head to South Cove I ran into a group of our guys (Dallas, Daniel, Ty, and Blake) who were dressed in swimming suits and t-shirts.  When I asked what they were up to, they said that they were going skim boarding at Bastendorf Beach (around 1-1.5 miles away).  One of them bought a skim board in town and wanted to try it out.  Dallas drove.

So off my group went, and off they went...little did those guys know at the time, but they were on their way to a memorable misadventure.

The trip to South Cove was fantastic - sunny skies, low tide, and calm sea state conditions. I didn't want to leave, but it was creeping up on lunchtime and the Dining Hall at OIMB serves meals for only 30 mins.

Part way through lunch the skim boarders came dragging in, looking a lot like kicked dogs.

"What happened?"  The most important thing is that no one was hurt.  But, they did have a great time...right up until they realized that they couldn't find Dallas' car key.  Somehow somewhere along the line of dropping their stuff, and then moving it up the shore to keep it from getting wet, the key disappeared.

They looked and looked, but couldn't find it, and to make things even more interesting they couldn't get anyone on the phone, so they trudged all they way back to the lab on foot...sandy swim suits and all.  Luckily they arrived in time to catch the serving window at the Dining Hall.  They felt pretty silly, but happy to be back.

Dallas had to get his car towed back to OIMB, and to make things worse the other guys who were on the trip all had things locked in his car...their wallets, keys, etc.  Normally this would be only an inconvenience, but at least a couple of the guys had keys to their lockers in their rooms in the car, so they couldn't get whatever is in there...cameras, notebooks, clothes...

The closest car dealership that could cut a new key is in a town over two hours away, so a new key is being express shipped out, and should arrive in a few days.  Those guys will, in the meantime, soldier on.

That's the lead story for today...

Day 10 - A Day at the Beach. Well, sort of

We had a great weekend, and this morning after breakfast we were ready to get back at it.

Today's topic is sandy beach communities...of marine life, that is.

Beaches are probably the part of the shore that people know best, but biologically beaches are pretty boring compared to most other intertidal habitats.  Budding marine biologists, however, still need to know about beaches, so off we went.

Our first stop wasn't exactly what I had in mind...a wrong turn put us at the foot of the point where the US Coast Guard has an "Aid to Navigation" station.  This is just above the channel leading into Coos Bay.  Growing on the breakwater was the sea palm Postelsia palmaeformis.  This alga grows only where there is extreme wave action, so if you spot these where you are standing, move to higher, safer ground, ASAP, especially if there is the chance for heavy wave action.

Sea palm, Postelsia palmaeformis

Coos Bay channel breakwater, Charleston, OR

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak

The plan for today was to try to find a few characteristic marine animals that live in sandy beaches and collect samples of sand to use in comparing beaches with different amounts of exposure to wave action.  The trend is that the heavier the wave action, the steeper the beach slope and the larger the particle size.

What was supposed to a set of rather short stops at four beaches turned into a 3-hour tour including a long stroll along Bastendorf Beach as we looked for evidence of mole crabs.  That beach was a bust though...sigh.

The crew headed for the water's edge at Basterndorf Beach, south of Coos Bay, on a gray Oregon day.

Bastendorf Beach

Our next stop was Lighthouse Beach, south of Basterndorf Beach,where we finally found mole crabs (thanks Patrick) and olive shells.

Cape Arago lighthouse this morning

Success!  These little crabs can dig like you can't believe.  Check out the video below, shot by us this morning at Lighthouse Beach, OR.

Video: Mole crab digging into the sand

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak

Daniel and Tony collect a sample of sand to be analyzed later.

Our next two stops were at Sunset Bay and South Cove Beach, Cape Arago.

The low clouds above the shoreline really add to the beauty of South Cove, Cape Arago, OR

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak

After lunch we gathered for a marine biology lecture on sandy beaches.  Walking for three hours on the beach followed by a nice soup and salad and sandwich lunch made up all tired, and I think that everyone in the class fought the drive to drift off to sleep during class.  Everyone pulled through nicely though.

We had our first "Readings in Biology" discussion tonight after dinner.  Everyone had an assignment to share something they read recently from the scientific literature.  It was a good meeting.  We will have one of those meetings each week.

Today was "another great day at BYU-Idaho", well, not exactly AT  BYU-I\, but you know.

Until tomorrow when we are off to see South Slough estuary and salt marshes.