Difficulties of Experiments in the Field

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This past week we traveled to Salmon River again and to Siletz Bay for more testing on the nutrient uptake project. I chose to work on the chambers placed in the channel at Salmon River and we were surprised to find shortly into our experiment that the tide was coming in fast. Apparently the low low tides we’ve been having also come with high high tides. The experiment takes one hour so we hurried to get the clock rolling. Near the end, however, water was close to pouring over the top of the chamber, but we managed one more water sample before it all was ruined.

We’ve also looked at the results from our first two days of experiments testing the effects of temperature and nitrogen to phosphorous ratio on nutrient uptake of the harsh marsh behind the aquarium. In previous experiments, our graphs for nitrogen content in our water samples have a set height at time zero, indicating the amount we know we put in, and a lower bar at time sixty minutes, indicating the marsh plants have taken up nitrogen. We were surprised to find in our first day of these new experiments that some of the treatments were gaining nitrogen as time progressed. These odd results were sporadic throughout the treatments and the second day showed none of these oddities.

While discussing these results with my mentor, I mentioned that on the first day there was some dog poop on the path to our study location. One of my coworkers stepped in it and he put his foot on the boards we used to pound the chamber in. Everything stunk after that as the poop clung to the boards. My theory was that some of the poop may have fallen in and gradually leeched into the water. My mentor then said, “So all this data from the first day is sh*t.” I replied, “Yes, literally.” Who knows? But the moral of the story is that we cannot use that data.

Next week we do more replicates for our experiments and we have an overnight trip to Coquille, which is three hours away and we need to time the tides right. I feel like all the logistics will be a challenge for this trip. There will be two field days in a row and we have to keep the water cold for the second day, so we’ll need 8 large coolers with ice. It should be interesting.

Celebrating the 4th in Newport was enjoyable. We looked at the tide pools in the morning, and then I went clamming with my roommates Hilary and Maryna, and managed to dig up…one! Maryna is very good at it, though. Sticking my hand into a dark hole of mud to find a squirmy, shelled creature is a little scary to me. I must be more brave!

New Octopus and Movie!

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You know when an announcer talks over the PA system at a grocery store or department store and you ask yourself, “What’s she saying?…Huh?”…That’s what I feel like.  I talk on the PA system quite a bit and for many different reasons.  To announce the estuary walk, ocean quest as well as movies. All of these announcements have made my voice become scratchy as well as highly known to the Visitor’s center staff.  At least the other staff members say they can hear me loud and clear on the PA system and quite like it.  Even with all the ocean quest presentations, estuary walks and announcements, the newest and coolest thing that occurred this week was the new octopus being put in.  First of all, Aurora (new octopus) is very friendly and moves around the tank quite a bit.  Also, moving all the sea creatures that live in the tank with her like sea anemones and sea stars needed to be taken out and the tank cleaned; that job is a huge deal in itself.  Squirt will be put back into the visitor’s center tank in 3 weeks, so for now our lovely aurora will be on displey.

Overall, I learned so much this week including different ways to give the estuary tour, how to present Ocean Quest, and a delicate way to tell people that they have misidentified a sea creature such as that sunflower sea star is not an octopus.  I love that I keep learning more and more about how to be an aquarist and what goes on in the sea creature tanks as well as what goes on behind the scenes.  Challenges come up all the time since I know less about the state of Oregon and some of the marine like here than the volunteers, but overcoming them is becoming easier and easier as time goes on.

I’m really excited that I found someone living at Hatfield who also has Wednesdays and Thursdays as their weekend and has a car.  That way I can do more new things such as sand dune surfing, scuba diving, going to Tillamook and various other things.  Also, it’s awesome that she plays rugby, that way I can  have more rugby talks with someone here.  I am exited to be planning my 4 day trip that includes 2 days in Vancouver, Canada and 2 days in Seattle, Washington.  It’s not until mid-August, but I still cannot wait.  For the Visitor’s center, the only knew things for me will be working more and more on my section of the wave energy tanks and trying to feed our new octopus.

My section of wave energy is about how it effects erosion on sandy shorelines.  I’m really excited because we got brand new sand that works really well in the tank, new items to put in the tank such as mesh bags with gravel to show dynamic reventment and rocks to simulate riprack.  My advisers love my ideas so far and my enthusiasm for my project.  The visitor’s center is supposed to open it up to the public next week, but we’ll see how it goes.  Sometimes water, toys, sand and kids don’t mix.  Yet, I have the highest of hopes for it and have more ideas to put towards it.  Lego’s, plastic plants, rocks, sand, blocks and other fun things get put in my tank and so far it’s working out well.  Even if my project is not totally ready, I still want kids to be able to try it out, because it’s one thing for 20-40 year old to love it, will a 10 year old? Also, will that 10 year old understand what it’s supposed to show? Children are the future and should be treated as such, thus I need to make sure my project is fun, informational and child-proof…looks like I’ve got some work ahead of me! Wish me luck!!!!

The Amazing Adventures of Nicholas Pitz (week 3 blog)

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On Tuesday we started giving the “Ocean Quest” multimedia presentation in the visitor center. Some of the sciences of the presentation seemed to go over the heads of some of the younger people present and needless to say that the number of people present in the auditorium was much higher at the beginning of the presentation than it was at the end. For the rest of the day we helped to work on Diana Roman’s project on shore erosion (in one of our new wave tanks). We removed the sand from the tank (which was clouding up the water) and replaced it with plastic pellets.

Wednesday was the 4th of July. For the occasion I wore a little British Union Jack button. I also gave an estuary tour on that day. Several of the people on the tour desperately wanted to see a small crab. I spent about 5 minutes chasing a good sized Purple Shore crab through the rocks in our salt water stream. When I finally caught him, he pinched me on the finger; ouch! Finally i just picked him up in my hat, that seemed to be amusing enough for the people. Around noon some strange person came into the visitor center and started asking us about the possibility of “artificially creating hurricanes in order to reflect more sun light in an effort to combat climate change”. We told him that that might be a tiny bit problematic but that we would be sure to ask an expert about.

On Thursday we did another ocean quest presentation. Fewer people left this time and I sat in the audience and took notes on the presentation so that we might find ways of improving it. I offered to do the estuary walk a second day in a row. This time I was able to keep the crowd busy the entire time by letting them play with the shrimp slurped out on the mud flats.

On Friday we got to work on our wave tanks again. Some of the calculations that we had been playing with in the previous week for the Tsunami tank were entered into the computer. Now the wave tank would not splash as much. We gave another Ocean Quest Presentation as well. I think that they are starting to get better but we still have a few bugs that we need to work out, such as getting more exciting videos of volcanic eruptions.

Saturday was my last day. We did yet another ocean quest presentation and an estuary tour. I had forgotten to eat breakfast that day so i ran into the gift shop and bought some “Astronaut Ice cream.” It was interesting to say the least, I don’t know how they figure that its ice cream though. The day was nearly as busy as the fourth of July had been. It finally winded down by 4:00. During the day instead of showing one long film (like Blue Planet) we decided that it would be better to “control the crowds”. When we locked up for the day we discovered that a family was missing their daughter. After a 5 minute search she was found hiding in the Woman’s restroom. Crisis averted.

 

 

 

Pressure Counts

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This week has been a lot more of the same with completing pressure counts. I feel like I have gotten good at figuring out the demographic information of the people that I am counting rather quickly. Also, I had some of the highest counts yet this week, with the gorgeous weather and the Fourth of July Holiday. I felt sort of in over my head at one stop, where the people seemed to be moving everywhere, making it difficult to count, and when I got done I realized I had counted over 150 visitors!  Its also interesting to see the patterns that play out with the numbers of visitors, so far I think that the weather has more of an effect than whether or not it is a weekend/weekday.

I took advantage of my time off this week with the holiday to try some new activities. Maryna, Kate, my friend Liz and I went clamming on the 4th of July. I came to find that it can be kind of addicting once you start having success. We ended up collecting enough to make a Clam Boil for our 4th of July potluck. I also took my first stab at surfing today! Maryna and Liz make it look so easy! I was able to surf on my knees but I can’t stand up yet, so I am hoping that I can get some more practice in this summer!

 

Another week of great variety in Charleston.

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Last week once again saw me participating in a variety of activities for ODFW. On Monday and Tuesday, we finished the summer sampling session for bay crabs in Charleston marina. We measures, weighed, and tagged 325 (±) Red Rock crabs (Cancer productus) and 350 (±) Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister) in a week’s time (no tagging for these). The next sampling will occur in October, well after I’m back at OSU. I detailed the methodology of the study in my last couple of posts. Here I’ll briefly mention the purpose: Red Rock crabs are native to Oregon and, although they do not provide as much meat as Dungeness crabs, they are still sought after for the table. Red Rock crabs seem to be a sustainable resource—there are no size or sex regulations governing their taking—however little research has been conducted into their life histories. The study I’ve participated in, being conducted by Sylvia Yamada of OSU, is to assess various aspects of the life histories of Red Rock crabs in the Coos Bay area: how fast they grow, how old they get, how often they molt, and their movements between sites. We took measurements for the Dungeness crabs as part of an ongoing monitoring effort by my mentor, Scott.

Wednesday was, of course, Independence Day, and OIMB sponsored a nice BBQ for all the students and interns at Sunset Bay State Park. It was a good chance to get to know the staff of OIMB and talk to some of the students about their studies. However, the highlight of the BBQ was definitely culinary: grilled oysters on the half-shell. Yum!

Thursday and Friday were occupied by shore seining for salmonids in the morning and practice sessions with GIS, ‘R’ statistical software, and Microsoft Access in the afternoons. So far the computer activities have represented the greatest challenges for me during this internship. Up until now I’ve had zero experience with any of the afore mentioned programs, and I do not find them “user-friendly” in the slightest. Scott has been very helpful in writing some skeleton instructions and providing some basic activities to help me learn, but it’s still ultimately up to me to figure it all out. My learning has been through a combination of Scott’s guidance, online tutorials, and my own exploration/experimentation with the programs. This style of learning sometimes gets frustrating, because I tend to think in linear terms and prefer to have one source of info from which to work. I also admittedly find fieldwork much more attractive and exciting than sitting in the lab in front of a computer screen. However I have had some success in learning the programs, and I know it’s good to get outside of my comfort zone and experience a new style of learning. I also realize that skills in GIS and database management are essential to being competitive in the field of Fish & Wildlife science, so I’ve committed myself to spending a block of time each day to increase my proficiency.

For the upcoming week, I look forward to beginning my heart cockle study in earnest. So far, Scott and I have conducted a sort of exploratory study where we went out and investigated some sites in the south slough of Coos Bay and took some GPS coordinates. We also measured and weighed some cockles taken by a recreational harvester. These were basically introductory sessions to give me an overview of the fieldwork and protocols. This week, however, we’ll begin in-depth sampling of heart cockles and constructing the database. Stay tuned! More details to come!

Week 2: The Experiment Begins

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The Mesocosm or "Tank 1"

Monday arrived this past week, and with it came the dawn of the project I will be working on this summer. I collected 35 liters of water  from 4 sites throughout Yaquina Bay. One of the sites, “OSU Dock” as the EPA calls it, is right outside the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor’s Center. The other sites are further up river around the city of Toledo, with one site being labeled as “Toledo” and the other sites “Cannon Quarry” and “Elk City.” So why on earth am I collecting 35 liters of water and lugging it back to the EPA labs? Excellent question. Let me explain.

The purpose of collecting these 140 liters of water combined is to examine the nutrient limitations of phytoplankton throughout the estuary. After these samples were collected, we divided them up into 48 two liter bottles. We measured the initial nutrient concentrations as well as the chlorophyll a concentrations, and then proceeded to “spike” them. Along with a control of plain water, these spikes consisted of treatments in which a Nitrogen spike, or “N”, was added as well as Phosphorous, or “P” spike. To further confirm whether a given spike had an effect an “N+P” spike was also a treatment. The result is 3 replicates of each treatment for each site, or 3 x 4 x 4, totaling 48 bottles. Complicated, I know, and they proved to be a little difficult to manage as the experiment progressed.

Once these bottles were spiked according to the given treatment, they were randomly placed in a mesocosm or in this case two tanks with pumped sea water and UV lights. These tanks produce the environmental conditions found throughout the estuary, so they are quite useful in conducting experiments. They were placed in these tanks starting Monday night, and there they remained till Friday morning. Every day, I measured the temperature of the water in the tanks, and the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). More interestingly though, I also measured the relative fluorescence of each bottle, to get a sense of whether any given spike was having an effect. The result? The OSU Dock, or the site closest to the ocean, had a significant response for the “+N” and “N+P” treatments, suggesting that there wasn’t very strong upwelling prior to the sampling resulting in Nitrogen limitation. This may change as the summer progresses. The results further up river suggested “P” limitation, as the Toledo and Cannon Quarry sites showed significant results for the “+P” and “N+P” treatments. Elk City showed a significant response for the “+P” treatments, but mixed results for the “N+P” treatments. We believe that if given more time, the “N+P” treatments might further reflect the results from other sites. We will replicate this experiment several more times of the course of the summer so we will see how the results change as summer progresses. Regardless, from this week of the experiment it is evident that further up river phytoplankton appears to be limited by phosphorous concentrations. Keeping with my themes of leaving you hanging, I’ll get more into what this means next week! But I will say that I really enjoyed this week. Performing science at a high level, with the means and ability to conduct an experiment in a week is amazing, and I consider myself to be very, very lucky. Furthermore, it is a terrific feeling to know that the science you are doing is extremely pertinent to the state and the country in which I have largely spent my entire life. Alright, before I get too sentimental, I will say goodbye and remind you to look for next week’s post to learn more about what the results of my summer experiment mean for Oregon’s estuaries!

Wave energy in Oregon

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This week was another that flew right by. I’m researching story pitches for a coastal magazine to help raise awareness about marine issues and the work OSG is doing. One pitch that came in late in the game was by far the most challenging, and the most interesting one out of the bunch because I didn’t know anything about the subject. Wave energy. What is it? How does it work? And why in the world is there so much hubbub surrounding it in Oregon? Well, after almost a full days research and very informative conversations with Mark Farley and Kaety Hildenbrand of the HMSC, I can answer all of those questions (mostly).

Wave energy is a very promising resource that if done right, may solve a lot of Oregon’s energy needs. But apparently there is a lot more that goes into harnessing wave energy than just floating a buoy around in the ocean. Wave energy requires a lot of space, whether it’s in a vertical or a horizontal sense. In addition to the mechanism that absorbs and collects the energy, a whole network of cables, mooring, pipes, and a bunch of other stuff is needed to keep the equipment from floating away or banging into each other, and to ensure that the energy that is collected makes it to land. Aside from the benefits of a renewable energy source, there are a lot of environmental factors that come into play when exploring wave energy farms. The cables and moorings are obtrusive and may block migratory paths or feeding grounds for marine animals and the electrical current can attract animals (like crab) to the cables. And on top of that, the rigid tethers and anchors could potentially make an entire soft-bottom substrate ecosystem disappear because they will attract hard-bottom animals like shellfish. They will in turn attract predators, and so on, potentially displacing entire populations. It’s a topic that could easily keep one researcher busy for months.

After delving into the subject, I have begun to fully appreciate the full scale of the Coastal Marine Spatial Planning OSG is involved in. The planning is a collaboration of land and water management and community stakeholders and the work falls under the premise of determining who and what will be the most or least affected by wave energy. In part, it’s the complexity of the situation that makes it so important that people are educated about the potential benefits and harmful “side effects” of wave energy. The resource planning spans the arenas of engineering, marine science, economics, philosophy, and sociology. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Week 2: Tsunami Marine Debris

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In last week’s post I expressed the possibility that I might work on tsunami marine debris issues, and as it would have it, in the last week the perfect opportunity arose. Earlier this week, I continued working on several tasks  concerning the Heceta Head Coastal Conference and other things related to Oregon State’s Marine sciences webpage. However, early on I was made aware of a proposal intended for submission to the National Sea Grant office to request for funds for a West Coast wide workshop to help West Coast scientists, managers and communicators to form a coherent framework for response, risk assessments, management, outreach, policy, and research relative to the introduction of nonnative species by marine debris. This workshop is tentatively scheduled for the end of July and therefore requires an extensive amount of work in planning and coordination in a short amount of time.

Enter, Melissa. I have been designated (if all goes according to plan, that is) as the person to “to spearhead and keep track of all workshop arrangements/details/logistics.” Immediately, I’m a little intimidated. This simple description requires me to have a  working know-how of everything that’s going on in the seemingly countless number of Federal and State agencies, NGOs, nonprofits and spin-off task forces containing any number of combination of representatives from these groups. Not to mention keeping up to date and making sure everyone who should be included, is, among other pertinent specifics.  While such details and responsibilities are still emerging, I find myself already intrigued by this process. The number of technical workshops I’ve attended in the past is largely limited to non-pressing/impending issues such as marine reserves or spatial planning, so to have a similar process be applied regionally to an issue that is will be of high importance on current and future scales, is very interesting. I am curious to see how necessary protocols will develop.

Heading into next week my agenda includes getting steering committee members and invitees signed up to newly created listservs as well as preparing for a conference call to initiate planning for a resultant pre-workshop working group which will prepare a document regarding risk communication and coordination. Specifically this group will work to “draft a evaluative-based framework for  risk communications , outreach and engagement plan  associated with an overall risk analysis to  more effectively and consistently communicate the threat and engage managers, researchers, policy makers, educators and stakeholders in appropriate planning, reporting  and responses to: a) biofouling organisms associated with the Japanese tsunami marine debris,  b) minimize risks to people, c)  minimize risks from further human-mediated spread, d) integrate risk communications and coordination with risk assessment and  risk.management.”

Many of the aspects covered by the conference for collaboration and communication are very new to me, but have exceedingly important implications for my interests in how scientific and economic principles are integrated and communicated within multidimensional processes, such as responding to an impending threat like invasive species which has the potential to adversely affect everything from our west-coast ecosystems to our economies. I therefore enter the next week excited about gaining new insights about inter-agency workings, but also the implications these have for my broader interests.