Day 17 - 5/21 - More of the "fun stuff" plus, stand back, "I'm going to try science"

If you are just tuning into to the ongoing drama that is the first ever BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience, then you'll need to know that yesterday we spend about 3 hours learning about life in the nekton.  Today's topic was a follow up to yesterday's intro.  We spent about 3 hours today discussing the life and times of whales, seals, sea lions, sea turtles, sea snakes, etc.  The class loved it, though they do sometimes have a tough time keeping the old eyelids open during the class meeting after lunch.  That's OK, I get it.  After all, some of them are up the middle of the night collecting data and making other time-sensitive observations.

We have had absolutely fantastic weather so far this trip...but today a front moved through.  And we finally arrived in Oregon geographically AND climatically.  It wasn't bad though...after all, it's supposed to rain...it's Oregon!

I took a break after dinner this evening after working on lecture materials, and I popped over to the lab to see if science was happening.

Here's what I found at the lab:

Blake and Dallas were running experiments to see how dungeness crab larvae react to different colors of light.. 

Dallas and Blake were selecting juvenile crabs to use in the next run of their experiment...

And I'm here to tell you that having a hand-full of these little critters is a strange sensation.

Jessica and Bailey's work station for measuring chlorophyll concentrations was all set up and ready to run the the next day's samples.

Daniel and Tony's data were entered into a spreadsheet after the day's work.

Here's the experimental set-up for their substrate choice experiment.  Just FYI, it's a Randomized Complete Block Design.  You'll have to ask them about that.

Elysa, Mackenzie, Tony, and Daniel's larval cultures were in good shape in the seawater table...

...and the embryology station was ready for the next person's turn to check the cultures and record data.

Lindsey (L) and Kristin (R) were collecting temperature and salinity readings as part of their work...

...and, yes, all of the students smile like this ALL THE TIME as they work.  You try it and see what it feels like when you generate your own data!

In the meanwhile Tony was hard at work uploading photos for a slide presentation each student is required to submit by the end of the course.

That was the action in the lab, so I strolled over toward the library...

Elysa and Mackenzie were hard at work in the library doing background reading and a literature search (again - way to go!) as part of their work for the sea slug embryology project.

So, yep, science is actually happening.  You might want to stand back!

That's a wrap for Day 17.

Day 4 - Of things small and most curious...plankton day

Not all class days can or should be 15+ hours long.  So today was a bit lighter.

The word for the day is “plankton”.  Plankton are little creatures so small or weak that they cannot overcome currents.  If you recall, at the end of Day 3 we collected 100s of larval crabs.  

Megalops stage of Dungeness crabs Cancer/Metacarinus magister

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak 

The first order of the day today was to take a close look at those crab larvae and the juvenile crabs they metamorphose into…and there was a lot of metamorphosis going on.  This was a prime opportunity for the class to see things that few people ever see firsthand.  So with scopes on the lab benches and pencils at the ready, they dove into looking, drawing, and thinking about crabs. 

RL: Elysa and Mackenzie

Tony 

Blake and Kristin

 

 LR: Jessica, Bailey, Daniel, Dallas

Our teaching lab at OIMB

During the middle of this session Craig Young, Director of OIMB, popped in to see if we were here and how we were doing.  I’ve known Craig for, yikes, close to 30 years.  He has been inviting me to come to OIMB for the past several years.  I’m so glad that we finally made it.  Anyway…

After about an hour with the crabs it was time to move onto lecture material for the day.  We spent about the next 1.5 hours going over structure and processes of plankton communities including everything from marine viruses and bacteria to large plankton like krill and jellyfishes. 

With a good dose of theory in our bellies we needed a break, so we went on plankton safari to the Charleston, OR, marina, and with plankton net and dip buckets in hand we were off.

Unfortunately there were no jellies to be seen, so we had to rely on the plankton net for samples.   That’s OK, and we finished collecting samples just in time for lunch.

 Off to the Charleston, OR, harbor

Tony does a plankton tow. 

 The crew takes a look at life on the docks

After lunch we finished our lecture material for the day and walked down to the pier by the Boat House at OIMB to collect more plankton, we hoped.  Then it was time to go back to the lab.  Students pulled out the scopes and got to work seeing what they could see.  They say larval worms, snails, crabs, copepods, and barnacles, along with diatoms and other things.  It’s always an adventure to see what tiny creatures abound in a drop of water.

Off to the OIMB Boat House pier to do more plankton tows.

Lindsey take a turn collecting samples.  Blake and Tony look on.

That work went right up until dinner…and we had a short meeting to discuss the next few days.

We had a short group meeting at 7p to discuss the next few days.  There’s good news and there’s bad news.  The good news is that we will have negative low tides for the next several days.  The bad news is that tomorrow the low tide is at 6am.  Heh heh.  We plan to leave at 5:45 am to work this low tide.

By the way, the crew decided to head back to the harbor tonight to see if the megalops crab larvae are still there.  They might be a very nice little research organism for a team or two to work on.  

Oh well, if students wanted to sleep they could have stayed in Rexburg, because when the tide’s low we go!