Week 9 and I wish I had more time. The sea tables are dry, the chitons are free, and finally I don’t have at least one pair of socks soaked in seawater. This week I finished releasing my chitons with the help of Alondra and Nicole. We went out to Lighthouse Beach, North Cove, and South Cove. Putting the chitons back made me realize how well I had learned their specific habitat. I could look at a rock and think to myself, there are probably some chitons (C. dentienshere), lift a couple blades of algae and find several clinging to the rock. I guess you develop a knack for finding chitons when you’ve collected somewhere north of 200 of them! It was nice to enjoy the intertidal one last time before leaving for school in land locked Philadelphia. It has been neat to see the intertidal here and compare it to the intertidal near my hometown in Southern California. Seeing the differences in species and how species rich Oregon is has been so much fun. I think my favorite animal to have learned about (outside of chitons and echinoderms) in the intertidal here has been nermerteans (non-segmented worms, figure 1). I had never considered that worms would exist in the rocky intertidal but now I see them everywhere thanks to my fellow REUs Rebecca and Jacob (check out their blogs to learn more about these wicked-cool worms). I’m excited to see if I can find them in the places I go in Southern California this winter break. And so, as we face the final curtain, posters printed, and the final poster presentation (at the time of writing) inching closer I bid adieu and give thanks to Richard, Nicole, Maya, my lab mates (Alondra and Nick), and all the other REUs who made this summer memorable. And for you, the reader, I’m leaving you with pictures of many of the cool invertebrates I found this summer, enjoy and thanks for tuning in!
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Its week 8 and the summer has been great! This week has been all about posters and trying to fit every piece of information I want to convey in a concise and clear manner in the space I have. To do so I’ve spent a lot of time in R and Photoshop, thinking (maybe too much) about statistical tests and models. It’s definitely helped my proficiency with coding and visual representation of my data! I have also; sadly, have begun taking down my sea tables and returning my adult chitons back to where I collected them. While the chiton exodus is sad for me, I get to enjoy the intertidal here a couple of last times. Which means (back by popular demand), more pictures of sculpins out of water (Figure 1)! Outside of making final poster edits and raising chitons, I have been able to enjoy my now limited time in Coos Bay. This weekend we went out to Hall Lake to enjoy the warmer weather inland. While we didn’t see a whole lot of aquatic invertebrates, the scenery was quite beautiful and dynamic. Right next to the lake was a sand dune with an incline close (or at least felt like it was) to 60 degrees, once you reached the top you could see ocean, sand dunes, and forest all in one shot (Figure 2).
Week seven and I named a chiton Devin (Figure 1). This week was the last series of low tides before I need to get my poster together. As a result, I have been spending my mornings in the tide pools collecting adults to spawn and my evenings taking pictures of larvae. I’m also doing experiments, organizing my data, focusing the narrative for my poster, and planning what final experiments I want to try. My last stint of experiments is going to focus on chitons’ ability to regrow their mysterious crystals. When I initially tired the boneless chicken water on my chiton larvae I found if left them in too long, the crystals would disappear or become noticeably reduced (in addition to calcium carbonate spicules). Originally an unfortunate byproduct, I want to take advantage of this phenomenon and demonstrate that chitons can grow these structures back. I observed this in two chitons when I first tried it but I want to demonstrate it more rigorously. This will provide direct evidence that chitons continually add to these structures. It will also allow me to see what conditions affect their ability to regrow them. Hopefully I can test the effect calcium has on their regrowth to compliment my other experiments, revealing if low calcium simply delays overall development or actually impacts crystal formation.
Outside of work I got to explore some of the greater Coos Bay area. Nick, Alondra, and I went out to the south fork of the Coos River. It was nice to get some sun, its most often cloudy here on the coast. The Southern Californian in me has needed some solar radiation! The river was quite beautiful and slippery. I certainly fell more times than I usually do in the intertidal, but it was worth it. We saw loads of crawdads and some newts, a change of pace from the usual chitons and urchins! |
AuthorI'm a rising fourth year at Villanova University in Pennsylvania from San Diego, California. I enjoy going tidepooling and making music. I'm looking forward to a great summer at OIMB! Archives
August 2021
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