One might think that it would be difficult to get algae to stay in place once quantified, but we have developed a protocol that seems to do the job.... well, at least for a couple of low tides when we can still see what's going on. The key is to get rid of the air bubbles lodged in the algae. After these are gone, it becomes negatively buoyant, and hopefully a significant amount is retained within the corral by the structure itself, and the eelgrass shoots. There are a couple of key moves to employ, and best be on top of these as soon as the tide starts to flood!
The initial Poke-Down (using bamboo spears) gets out most of the air bubbles, and we trap some of the algae by pinning it down in the sediment with the spears. This move is followed by the...
Shimy Shake. See Wyatt's manual force-down using his bare hands. See also Sea-oh's poke-down/half twist manoeuver. Seda (back right), is using the individual poke for find-tuning. The Final Fling occurs when the tide is over the top of the corral structure. At this point its important to keep proding the algae, while at the same time flinging escaped algae back into the corral. Don't get me wrong, we can't get to every little fragment of ulvoid, but we can keep most of it at bay. It especially likes to accumulate in the back corners of the corral where it is pushed by the incoming tide. It tries to escape here, but using the Final Fling, you can make sure it stays where its meant to be. Usually, at this time, I am still final flinging while the rest of the crew has given up and has headed for high ground. I call it quits once I feel like I can do no more to help out the macroalgae addition treatment, or the allure of the coffee shop wins me over.
During the last tide series we spent a good deal of time fabricating nutrient diffusers out of 2 ft sections of PVC. I bribed the nice young men at Home Depot with cookies and juice to cut up the PVC, which they did by hand, only to find that I could operate the power saw at the OIMB shop with ease. We then drilled big holes into the side of these (Wyatt was the master of this), then suspended 500g of slow release fertilizer within them using women's panty hose. I had a hard time figuring out how other experiments had added the little fertilizer pellets without them spilling out all over the eelgrass bed. I had to e-mail a researcher to find the solution... apparently you aren't aloud to mention nylons in a scientific publication!
This is what the "nut diffs" look like once installed in the field. We also installed "blanks" in the non-nutrient corral plots. The goal is to see if the algae and eelgrass respond to a heavy additional dose of nutrients. This is already a nutrient rich locale, and there is a lot of mixing, so it may be hard to detect a response, but will be very cool if get one! We're going to replace the osmocote fertilizer in August and perhaps September so that there is a constant influx of nutrients available to the corrals.
After fabricating all that algae I realized we needed even more! Luckily, as I was purchasing another round of expensive silicon impregnated algae at the Rain Shed the lady there suggested that I use zap straps (aka zip ties in american lingo). Why hadn't I thought of that!!!!!! So we assembled the remaining algae during the last tide series in about a quarter of the time. There are now over 200 fake algae hanging out the estuary in the corral experiment - this probably amounts of over a grand in material costs!!!! They are doing what all good algae with fake holdfasts do - accumulate sediment, make habitat for polychaetes, and will hopefully do something to change the light environment of their co-habitants, the eelgrass (the goal of this crazy fake algae production).
For those of you who aren't aware, my supervisor, Sally Hacker, has a very intimate connection with a nook of YaquinaBay baring her name. The name of the spot, Sally's Bend pre-existed her, but I think she can now rightfully claim the namesake based on the number of hours she has spent emerged in in its muddy depths. You see, Sally has been conducting an experiment on the two species of mud shrimp that co-occur here for the past 2+ years. Granted, she has had some help in the mud, but its only through her perseverance, fortitude and gumption that the experiment has persisted. Most sane people would have given up after day 1, but not Sally or her students - they are a bit nuts and very hard core. Here are some reasons why:
1) you can't walk in mud: no you have to do a special strut with lots of forward momentum to go anywhere. some people have it, some people learn it, others wallow. alternatively, and especially near the end of the day, you can crawl or try the back-crawl. it takes awhile to perfect these techniques and some people lose it trying to take a step.
2) early mornings and long days: its not so bad waking up really early for fieldwork, there's always a lot of coffee to get you going, but the early hour tends to catch up with you once you've been out on the mud flat for 6 hours digging, strutting and hauling things around. I joined Sally and Jer on day 7 or 8 of the experiment take-down. At 5-6 hours a pop that makes for a lot of hours in the mud! Given the coffee consumption at dawn one undoubtfully has to take a break at some point. The guys are lucky, the girls have to head for shore.....
3) mud is yucky: which brings me to the next point. you get used to being covered in dirt and grime while in the mud. waders keep you nice and protected and you begin to sport mud flecs on your face as war wounds. However, some bodily places are just not made for mud, and it is really disgusting to get it in your ears, nostrils and other places that get exposed when you have to make that bathroom break - yuck!
4) mud sucks you in: for this experiment we use a giant metal core as a sampling unit (it can fit a child inside it). we dig out all the mud within the enclosed core area. one person is in charge of digging out the core, while the others go through the pallards of mud and collect all the shrimp and clams for later analysis. as you sit there digging or picking you gradually sink into the mud. this doesn't seem like a problem until its time to move or your foot goes numb. at this point you have to dig yourself out. you're on your own for this one - doesn't working well digging others out. so you have to do a dance, a wiggle back and forth motion with all sorts of twists and turns thrown in to extricate yourself. being limber might actually be the best attibute of a mud worker!
5) gross creatures lurk in the mud: you never know what you're going to unearth in the mud... for the most part we get harmless shrimp who are pathetic once you get over the size of their claws. but occasionally you find ginormous (apparently now an official dictionary word) worms. if you see or touch one of these beasts, most likely a Nereis spp. you can't help but squeal. even the most macho of guys can't help themselves. their undulating parapodia give anyone the heebee geebees.
I hope I've convinced you that this work isn't for everyone, but haven't deterred anyone too much. You're curious right? Everyone should try it at least once, its fun stuff, but a warning that it can be addictive for some unknown reason (perhaps the sulfur fumes?). All in the name of science you could say..... Do the two morphologically different species, Upogebia pugettensis and Neotrypea californianus compete? Do they bioturmate and change the sediment in difference ways as they burrow about? What structures their marked zonation in the mudflat? But there's got to be more ....... Its an excellent work out with market potential as the next exercise/diet craze - both quads, upper body and abs all at once, coupled with a menu of giant pizza slices, cupcakes and cinnamon roll bread pudding (with vanilla sauce) afterwards. Most of all though, its the feeling you have when its all over, re-hashing the morning's events in the coffee shop with your mud-mates, still speckled in salty earth, but relishing the fact that very few people could ever fully comprehend what you've already experienced that day.
I'm back in Corvallis right now, getting things together for our next big trip down to Coos Bay and doing some office work. But in the interim, here's a recap of the last trip. Val and John came with me again. We did the usual monitoring routine at four sites and marked some shoots that will be collected next time to measure eelgrass growth. Tides were pretty darn early..... in fact the latest sleep-in was 4 am! I think I'm still recuperating from lack of sleep. Weather here has been downright nasty of late, although we lucked out on 2 of the 3 mornings. Rumor has it that NOAA is on the verge of declaring La Nina!
Here's a glimpse of the state of our awakeness on Day 3. Note: vocalization at this hour is sometimes difficult...
We did have time to show Valerie some of the local sites on the first afternoon (before we attacked the mega algae sites the next two days, which take all afternoon to process). We explored a new down-home breaky joint (Joe & Jeannie's) where we were encouraged to dance, play guitar and chose some tunes on the juke box (at 8am we weren't really in the mood). I tried to get Val to come to Wall-Mart with us to get a true sense of local culture, but she declined. And then we went to the Cape to have a gander at the sea lions (Val couldn't understand why the other tourists were some entranced with their laziness and annoyingly repetitive barks - arf arf arfffff!). At South Cove a pair of Harlequins with their namesake plumage put on quite the show for us, and Pelagic Cormorants whizzed by. We were en route back to the lab when the sun made a sudden appearance, so we followed it out to the bluffs and rejoiced for a bit:
My signature move
My field assistants were, as always, marvelous! Valerie, visiting from Quebec was especially remarkable in her ability to laugh it off with too-big waders in too-deep mud. John kept us all going with his yarns and humour once again. Here are some pics of Val to show to friends at home.
Valerie post-mud at Danger Point (she didn't get sucked in!)
Val with her new friend the Roughskin Newt (Taricha granulosa) (little does she know that they can be toxic!).
We stopped for a picnic leftover lunch at Honeyman State park en route back to Corvallis. The sky was going crazy with colliding weather systems manifesting in a bizarre array of clouds. I think someone was trying to tell us something, but we couldn't quite figure it out. Stormy? Sneezy? Super? Whatever the sign may have been it passed directly overhead and then snaked off to the South.
