MBFE - Day 17 - The Deep Sea

The research groups are pushing ahead with their projects and are excited about collecting their own data and gaining insights into how things work.

In class, we are continuing to work through introductions to the various marine communities. Yesterday we looked at deep sea pelagic communities, while today we studied deep sea benthic environments including deep sea soft bottom communities, hydrothermal vents, and cold methane seep communities.

This was a fun topic since the students know that the Director of OIMB, Dr. Craig Young, whom they have met, specializes in studying deep sea communities.

One of the groups of organisms we covered was the xenophyophores.  These are extremely large single-celled protists that secrete a calcium carbonate skeleton.  These are significant organisms because their presence usually indicates high local biological diversity.  Large specimens usually reach lengths of 20 cm or so.  However, when I was chatting with Dr. Young the other day he showed me a specimen that he collected that is significantly larger than that and may well be the world's largest known specimen of this group.

This is Dr. Young with his prize xenophyophore skeleton.

In other news, Eileen and Rachel M,, the two students on the trip who took marine biology (BIO 314) before the trip, have started a research experience under the direction of the chief scientist at the South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve (SSNERR).  They are doing this in lieu of BIO 314.  They are doing some monitoring work in conjunction with a restoration ecology project that is underway at SSNER.  They are both excited about the possibilities and the experience.

Stay tuned for more updates...

MBFE - Days 15-16 - Research continues

The days are starting to fly by.  Now that we are done with our class field trips, teams of students are engaged in their research whenever they are not in class.

Speaking of class...the past two days have been real crowd pleasers.  Tuesday was "Shark Day."  We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon discussing sharks and their relatives.  I mean what student who signs up for a field marine biology trip like this one doesn't like sharks?

Then today we returned to our overview of marine communities and we spent our time thinking about life in the deep sea open water environment.  This meant that we discussed topics like marine snow, bioluminescence, and daily vertical migrations.

Yesterday morning and this morning students spent time in the lab and in the field.

A couple of groups spend a few hours doing field work back at South Cove, Cape Arago.  Here are Arianne, Kelly, and Jessica making their way over the drift logs at the bottom of the trail down to the beach.

Later Devon, Joseph, and Luke (far right) arrived to do some collecting while Isaac and Shannon collected specimens and data (far left).

The crew is really getting into their research, though some of the groups are still working to get their research feet under them.  All in all though, things are going great.

Student research teams were also out working this morning's nice low tide.  Here are Jennifer (left) and Eileen (right) getting ready to collect data they need to investigate population genetics of shell color in a common mussel.  The large rock is near the OIMB and is their research site.

In the meantime Luke, Joseph, and Devon work the low tide at South Cove as they collect data on the the population vertical distribution and size frequency distribution of little animals called chitons. They are also hoping to observe the development of these animals under different levels of water acidity.

The animals they are working on are not familiar to many people, but they are related to snails.  They have 8 shell plates and are some of the nicest animals you are likely to meet (see below).  

Stay tuned as the MBFE adventure continues.

MBFE - Day 14 - Research, marine mammals, and Star Wars Day

Day 14 - Monday May 4, 2015

It's a new week and with their plans made, students dove into their research projects.

Two groups went back with me to South Cove, Cape Arago, to collect research specimens and data.

It was a cloudy morning with a hint of coastal fog, but all in all it was a great outing.  The wind had been howling here for the past week or longer, but this morning the wind died down and temps were in the 50s - nice!

Here's the coast looking south from South Cove, Cape Arago, Oregon, USA.

Jessica, Arianne, and Kelly make their way across drift logs at the bottom of the trail on their way out to the rocky intertidal zone.  Shannon and Isaac were already headed onto the rocks.  We were joined later by Devon, Luke, and Joseph.

Here are those three teams working during low tide.

We spent three enjoyable hours working and poking around before the tide started coming in, ending our outing.

After that Rachel S, Skyler, and I went in search of the lab director to ask about access to a large outdoor tank so they could set up for their studies on small fish called the sand lance.  During that chat Dr. Young gave them some heart-stopping info - OIMB is not approved to carry out or hold any live vertebrate animals of any kind.  Doing so is a violation of state fish and wildlife regulations. Yikes!  Luckily during that same conversation they came up with an alternative plan for their project. Instead of doing a lab study, they plan to collect data on these fish in the field.  Emergency averted!

During the afternoon we spent a couple of hours on the topic of the day - non-fish marine vertebrates, i.e., mainly marine mammals with a little about sea turtles and sea snakes tossed in,  The class ate that up.

Then since this was May the Fourth, it was "Star Wars Day".  To commemorate that cultural icon, the crew was invited to a showing of "Star Wars IV: A New Hope".  About a dozen of them joined in. That was fun.

All right, back to research!

MBFE - Days 12-13

Day 12 - Saturday May 2nd

Just like last week we had class on Saturday morning.  We spent that time discussing the nekton - organisms that are strong enough swimmers to overcome currents.  You know, mainly fish, squid, and marine mammals.  I then cut the crew loose for the rest of the day and weekend.  It's important to have some down time each week.

Students scattered to get to work on research, do laundry, hike, play volleyball at the lab's sand volleyball court, etc.  I took a short hike to an old RR tunnel not far from the lab.  It was pretty cool. Here are a few photos from that outing.

You go down a short but steep trail.  Partway down the trail you catch a glimpse of a broad algae-covered rocky shelf.  It's beautiful.  Coastal Oregon seldom fails to please.

The mouth of the tunnel appears as you round a corner.  As you can see, it's not that long - you can see the other end of the tunnel in this shot.

The shot below is looking back out of the tunnel mouth, and the one below shows the opening at the far end.  It's not a long walk to get to the other end, but there were several places where I saw rock that had come down recently, so be aware as you walk through.

Here's the scene at the far end of the tunnel.

Though not shown in this photo, if you could see farther to the left you could see another tunnel. These tunnels were built during the early 1900s when the south breakwater protecting the mouth to Coos Bay was built.  It was extremely difficult to get equipment and materials in place to construct the south breakwater so the Army Corps of Engineers built the tunnels and a rail spur line through them to deliver those things to the construction site.

The photo below shows the entrance to Coos Bay.  The south breakwater is the one on the right-hand side of the photo. 

(Photo courtesy of  FLICKR/ ALEX1DERR)

The trestles are now all gone, but the tunnels remain.  It's pretty cool!

Day 13 - Sunday May 3rd

The crew had more down time after Church. Then at 7pm we had our weekly group FHE.  Rachel S gave a thought, we played a version of Apples to Apples, and then students were invited to stay for a Sunday evening movie, "The Big Year".

It was another fantastic week.  Stay tuned for more updates.

MBFE - Day 11 - Student research plans

Here we are eleven days into the BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience.  And today we entered the research phase of the experience.  Oh we'll still have classes every day, but other than that time is devoted to student research.

I met with each research team earlier today, and here are the projects that they are targeting:

• Isaac and Shannon: Interspecific behavioral interactions of hermit crabs in the presence of predators and food stimuli.
• Joseph, Luke, and Devon: Substrate preferences of early post-metamorphic juveniles of the the commercially important dungeness crab.
• Rachel S and Skyler: Behavioral response of individual and schooling sand lance (fish) in response to simulated predatory bird attack.
• Rachel M, Danielle, and Courtney: Comparative timing of development of sea slug embryos through hatching when reared under traditional versus flow through culture regimes.
• Arianne, Jessica, and Kelly: Shell selection behavior of hermit crabs in the presence of predator stimuli.
• Eileen and Jennifer: Population genetics of shell color in the smooth muscle Mytilus trosselus and the effects of that trait on mortality of individuals with different shell colors..

Everyone is enthusiastic about getting started on their research.  

Then at 4pm everyone attended the weekly OIMB Friday seminar.  This week Dr. Shawn Arellano of Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Station presented a talk titled "Will Climate Change Cause "Lazy Larvae"?"  She told us about extremely interesting research she and her students have been doing on larvae of commercially important oyster species and their growth and swimming behavior under different temperature and water pH regimes.

That's the excitement for the day!  

MBFE - Day 10 - A three-hour tour near the mouth of Coos Bay

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip..." (from the Ballad of Gilligan's Island)

The photo above is this year's official MBFE group photo.  L-R: Dr. Holyoak (on dock), Arianne, Rachel S., Eileen, Skyler, Isaac (back), Devon, Kelly, Jessica, Rachel M., Danielle, Courtney, Jennifer, Shannon, Luke, Joseph.

This is Captain Larry.  He always gives a safety briefing before departing.  He took good care of us, he's retired Coast Guard.

It's easy to see that the class enjoyed the outing. L-R: Arianne, Kelly, Shannon, Jessica

L-R: Isaac (back to camera), Joseph, Devon, Jessica, Kelly, and Luke

L-R: Courtney, Danielle, Rachel M, Isaac, Joseph, Devon, Arianne

L-R: Arianne, Eilen, Isaac, Luke (over Isaac's shoulder), Danielle (background), and Skyler.

Because Capt Larry was piloting the boat students worked the deck (under his direction).  In this photo Isaac is working the winch that lowers and raises the small trawl net we used to collect specimens.  L-R Courtney, Danielle, and Rachel M look on.

Here are L-R: Kelly, Jennifer, and Skyler retrieved a net full of shells, crabs, fish, and other things.

Later Jennifer tried her hand on the winch.  Yep, she's NOT having fun.

 Skyler and Arianne retrieved the net this time.

Skyler is a real "fish guy" so he was happy to make the acquaintance of this flatfish.  You can tell he's thrilled by the look on his face.

Midway through the trip Capt Larry took us close to a beach with around 100 harbor seals, here are a few of them. 

On the way back to port Eileen, our group's bird enthusiast, was treated to some nice sea birds

Here's a pelagic cormorant (it's actually got a small fish in its bill).

Here's a shot of a pelican during take-off.

And these gulls followed us for part of the outing...they love to do this, just in case there's a chance that some scraps or other things that they might be able to swoop down and scoop up.

About three hours later we were back in port with great experiences had, memories made, and friendships deepened.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

MBFE - Day 9 - Docks Piers and Piling Communities - Oh My!

The MBFE adventure for the day today (Weds 4/29) was to discuss dock, pier, and piling communities in the morning, then to walk to the Charleston Marina and explore them.  We expected to see lots of marine invertebrates and algae growing below the water line on the docks, and we were not disappointed.

Here are some shots of the crew checking out the life on the docks:

Eileen and Isaac are on the dock in the foreground with Skyler hanging over the dock in the background.

Here are L-R Rachel M, Danielle, and Courtney...

Rachel M is standing on the dock in the background with Danielle, Isaac, and Courtney lying down, with Skyler in the foreground.

Here's Jessica getting a good close look at the dock community.

Here are a few things we spotted:

Giant barnacles Balanus nubilus...

...sponges and small thread-like caprellid sprimp...

...more sponges and tube worms...

...giant green anemones...

...and smaller white anemones among other things...

What we DID NOT expect was that while we were hanging over the edge of the dock with our faces within inches of the water that we would be observed by something else...

A class member was hanging over the end of a dock and there was a large splash right next to them - it was a harbor seal.  Shortly after that I was hanging over the edge of a dock checking things out and taking a few pictures when I heard a swish in the water close to my head.  I was wearing a baseball hat so I couldn't see what it was, but when I looked up there was an adult harbor seal (Phoca vitlulina) and there were only about 6" between our noses.  I had a waterproof camera in my hand off to one side so I pointed it in the general direction and shot...this is what I got!  After a few more seconds the seal flopped down and with a splash was gone.  Wow!  There's a journal entry experience.

I wasn't the only one to have a visitor while we were on the docks...an adult male northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) made an appearance as well.  Here he is taking a good long look at Shannon and Jennifer.

Right after that it cruised over and got acquainted with Jessica, Arianne, and Kelly.  This shot was taken just as it dove..

...and here he is in a slip at the marina giving Skyler, Shannon and Kelly a good look. 

This is a day that we will all remember for a good long time.  It wasn't our plan to observed marine mammals along with the invertebrate dock community, but in this life you don't always get what you expect...sometimes it's better than that.