Part 6: FUTURE DATABASE LINKAGES
Some other databases have yet to be linked in to the database.
In January of 1999, as part of the requirements of the Marine Protected Areas Pilot review process, Garry Fletcher was contracted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to complete The Race Rocks Ecological Overview. An MS Access metadatabase of all the relevant Race Rocks ecological information to that date was assembled over the next few months. This database and accompanying references and audiovisual materials are now available in the library and biology lab at Lester B. Pearson College.
PART 1: RACE ROCKS ECOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE 1
PART 1– CONTENTS
PART 2– Abstract-
The Project Identification—Information from the RREO metadatabase:
Project Name: Race Rocks Ecological Overview
Publication Date April 19,1999
Author Garry L. Fletcher
PART 3– AGENDA
PILOT MPA Workshop at Lester Pearson College
AGENDA APRIL 7, 1999
THE RACE ROCKS 
PILOT MPA
ECOSYSTEM OVERVIEW WORKSHOP
LESTER B. PEARSON COLLEGE
8:15 –Depart Pearson College docks for Race Rocks field trip
10:00— Return to Pearson College and go to the library for a quick view of the Race Rocks MPA Collection.
10:10— To the Faculty Common Room for Coffee
10:30 — Introduction to the Pilot MPA process in Max Bell Hall : Brian Smiley
10:45 — Managed Surveys : Jim Galloway, John Harper and Jon Preston
12:00 – Scott Wallace –Benthos Research at Race Rocks
12:30- Lunch served in the Dining Hall
1: 30 PM- The RREO Database presented by Garry Fletcher and Norm Healey
2: 45 – A discussion on the gaps in Science at the Race Rocks Pilot MPA
and the future of the protected area.
4:00 – A view of Underwater towed video- Pam Thuringer of Archipelago Marine
4:30—Workshop ends
Garry Fletcher, April, 1999
PART 4– Summary Report: RREO – PILOT MARINE PROTECTED AREA WORKSHOP –APRIL 7/99
PART 5–SCIENCE AND PLANNING FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE:
Gaps in research Projects for the islands: Some Actions that need to be taken
PART 6—FUTURE DATABASE LINKAGES
PART 7–ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY FOR RACE ROCKS — DESTAFFING
TITLE PAGE 2 
PART 8.-–THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE AND RACE ROCKS
PART 9-–EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE DATABASE.
PART 10-–LIST OF WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
PART 11--SAMPLE SHORT FORM of RR DATABASE.
PART 12 — RACE ROCKS CONTACTS INCLUDED IN DATABASE
PART 13--SAMPLES OF OTHER SECTIONS OF THE DATABASE
APPENDIX 1 : THE RACE ROCKS ECOLOGICAL RESERVE MANAGEMENT PLAN (June 1988 version)
APPENDIX 2: PERMIT FOR ACTIVITIES IN THE RESERVE
APPENDIX 3: BAMBERTON REPORT OF FIRST NATIONS MARINE RESOURCES.
APPENDIX 4: EXCERPT FROM PROPOSED PARK STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA 1976
APPENDIX 5: EXCERPT FROM THE RACE ROCKS NATIONAL MARINE PARK PROPOSAL. 1976
The Higher Level Biology students traditionally have done several field trips each year to Race Rocks. On this trip in April of 1999, each of the groups in the class were documenting the profile and the populations of organisms along transects they had chosen in the Intertidal Zone.
In 1998, we began a long term research program, initiated by Dr. Scott Wallace, on the population dynamics of the Northern Abalone
(Haliotis kamtschatkana). For several years, the Pearson College divers monitored the population. In this video, Pearson College graduate Jim Palardy (PC yr.25) explains the process.
April 1998: For this Exercise, a section of gently sloping shoreline to the East of the Docks at Peg #15 was chosen.(large old original oil-barge docking post This intertidal zone rock is exposed to the North West, but protected by the corner of Great Race Island projecting to the West. The transect was laid at a bearing of 285 degrees. Maximum exposure of the area occurs when the wind blows from the North East in the winter months. This work was done in April when the area experiences the first of the low tides in the early part of the day.
Also see the images of the Royal Roads students working on peg 15 in the summer of 1999.
The following is the transect strip. It will take a few minutes to download the whole strip ..
The photos for the transect strips were taken in 8mm video by Sebastian and Garry after the class recorded the details of species distribution over the 50 cm strip, running perpendicular to the shoreline.
Images of the students were scanned from slides taken by Duane Prentice, a professional photographer who lives in Victoria and is an Alumni of Pearson College.. Images copyrighted, 1999 by Duane Prentice.
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PEG 15 : PHOTO BELT TRANSECT
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Bearing 285 degrees. This area has a fairly constant slope for the 12.5 meters over a vertical range of 3 meters.The photos, one half meter in length, were taken from a video at low tide, in APRIL 1998 by Garry and Sebastian. |
| Investigation: | 1. Plot a profile of the shoreline given the information provided.2. Determine the percentage coverage of the different species of algae shown.3. The physical factors of the habitat of an algae living high in the intertidal zone like Porphyra changes with the seasons. In this area, our low tides occur in the daytime in the summer and in the night time during the winter. It would be revealing to compare the exposure during the daytime in February or March with the exposure in June. First determine from the profile drawn above, the range of tidal level where this species lives intertidal. Then go to the data page where you can access the Tidal Predictions for Race Rocks . From the tidal level profile for Victoria, you will be able to see a graph of the tide levels .Determine how many hours this Porphyra will be exposed to the air by recording the cumulative lengths of time that the water level does not go above the lower limit of the algae. If you do this for different times of the year, you will be able to quantify the time spent submerged or emmerged over a number of days. Be sure to take into account the time of the tidal cycle when choosing days to measure, because you will notice a two week pattern of Spring ( maximum range ) and Neap( minimum range) tides.
Based on your evidence, suggest a hypothesis that could explain why this algae disappears from this area for most of the summer. |
BELT TRANSECT PHOTO
See Transect A0050101
See Transect A0050102
See Transect A0050103
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Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..
THE OVERVIEW:
Images of transects applied to biological systems provide educators and students an opportunity to explore a wide diversity of systems and habitats. Traditionally, transects have been used in ecological studies to understand populations and community associations within selected habitats. The same concepts may be used to investigate any number of other biological systems ranging from individual organisms, or parts of organisms, to global ecosystems.
The transect provides a tool to focus attention on specific, selected systems and the effects of abiotic and biotic parameters affecting those biological units in the system. Qualitative and quantitative analyses by students at many levels, utilizing the resources of the world wide web, will provide the ability to study not only the specific transect site, but to link those studies with related research and information. It is our expectation that this exercise will not only provide an opportunity for an actual educational experience but will form the initial stimulus for contributions on new sites by other individuals and groups on a world wide basis. This would transfer the collaborative classroom exercise to a research activity reflecting the collaborative nature of international science.Educators and students are encouraged to use, among others, the Bio
QUEST philosophy of collaborative learning to develop additional exercises that support the use of transects as a tool for biological investigations and learning.
Using the internet with biological transects can enhance knowledge and appreciation of important relationships in established biological systems. It is an ideal technique to foster and promote collaboration among students of a class, or between students from different geographic areas, the states or provinces, and countries. Teachers at all levels (K- 16) can take advantage of this medium to introduce students to the WWW as an information-providing tool, and as a research tool (example: NIH Image). Furthermore, they are encouraged to get their students to provide other examples of transects so that a transect data base on the web can be expanded. It could eventually include a wide variety of biological systems whether from a microscopic view point or a satellite perspective.
TECHNIQUES:
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Transects may be used in any biological system that is appropriate to the educational and scientific mission. What is presented here are suggestions for choosing habitats; the list is not all-inclusive, but hopefully a stimulus for further selection and development of sites. Most of our natural ecosystems in the world are being affected by the onset of Climate Change. If we are to know what the components of a natural ecosystem are , we need to document them before irreversible change occurs,
We hope that this page will soon expand to include a wide range of images of very different transects. Some of the transects we would like to see contributed are :
HOW DOES ONE PREPARE IMAGES TO BE ANALYZED?
ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELING: This file gives detailed instructions on the method used to download pictures for processing, measuring, and further work. It also contains details for an exercise on the 3D modelling of ecological niches of organisms.
ORIGINAL AUTHORS:
| This program was developed at the 1995 BioQUEST Summer Workshop on Collaborative Learning, Peer Review, and Persuasion in Biology Education at Beloit College, WI. USA The authors of the program were :
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Peg 5 sample transects
See Transect A0050101
See Transect A0050102
See Transect A0050103
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Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..
SPECIES LIST:
Compiled by:Donna Gibbs of the Vancouver Acquarium on dives made at Rosedale Rock, West Race Rocks and William Head in the summer of 1997. Groupings are made in Phylums or Divisions.
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Dive 433 – Rosedale, Race Rocks – June 13, 1997 |
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Dive 434 – West Race Rocks – June 13, 1997 |
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Dive 431 – William Head, Vancouver Island – June 12, 1997 |
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Pool 5 viewed from Pool 6
This file has been started to present some of the information we have accumulated on the pool in order to stimulate students to raise further questions and devise problems that can be investigated at the pool. It is also intended to be part of a cumulative digital legacy that those examining the pool can pass on to future students.
Tidepool 5 when the surge is filling it.
Pool 5 with a compass bearing of 210 degrees from Peg 6 is only cut off from the open ocean at a very low tide so it has a number of invertebrates that need cooler water to survive. Some anemone and purple urchins and several snail species inhabit this pool.
The following is a student lab done on an analysis of this pool:
TIDE POOL LABORATORY
BY: SARA PAVAN, ROCIO GIL, ANA MARIA VEGA, MARIUXI ZAMBRANO
Introduction
THE INTERTIDALZone: It is an area occupied by a great number of individuals and species. It is sufficiently inundated by tides and waves that provide plant nutrients, Oxygen and plankton. It is the zone where tide pools form.The intertidal zone of Race Rocks is very rich of tide pools. They are conventionally numbered for the purpose of identification. The tide pool that was studied for this lab is pool #5.
POOL NUMBER 5: It is a very low pool but very high in biodiversity. It is located in an area very open to the swells of the sea.
STRUCTURE OF THE LAB
BIOTIC FACTORS: measurement of horizontal and vertical distribution.
ABIOTIC FACTORS: temperature and salinity.
AIM OF THE LAB: TO STUDY THE HIGH BIODIVERSITY IN THE LOW POOL.
PROCEDURE AND ANALYSIS.
In the middle of the tide pool and at point#1.1 temperature and salinity were measured. The table shows the data collected.
| salinity-parts per thousand | temperature °Celsius | |
| middle-surface | 27.5 parts | 9° |
| middle-8 centimetres | 28.5 | 9° |
middle- 48 centimetres 9° 30
point 1- 8 centimetres 9° 28.5
point 1- 28.5 centimetres 9° 29
The above results were obtained in the morning and comparing with the results given by other groups at 4:00 pm, we can see that the temperature increased one degree.
The data collection process has caused some problems, as big swells came regularly every three minutes from 9:22 to 9:28, a smaller swell came at 9:31 and an even smaller one came at 9:36. At these times we had to clear a pool, this slowed down the process quite a bit.
The following species were found in the following points.
In point 2 Balanus was found at 20 cm. of depth to the surface. It was found also in point 3 at 23 cm. of depth to the surface.Two Anthopleura elegantissima were found at 25 cm. of deph. Two Purple Sea Urchins were found at the point of 1 metre of length, covered by rocks. Two cabezons were present as well as mussels. Fucus distichus algae were covering the left part of the pool.
Some of the species were weighed the same day that were collected.Then they were dried and weighed again, with the aim of obtaining the biomass. The next table shows the results obtained
Species Weight before dry Weight after dry Biomass
Corallina 14.1 g 4.8 g 34 %
Fucus 20.1 g 1.3 g 6.5 %
Green algae 8.7 g 0.6 g 0.6 %
Phylospadix (surf grass) -10.5 g 2.3 g 21.9 %
To get the Biomass results we multiplied the dry weight for 100 and divided by normal weight.
To get more data about pool 5, we measured the amount of plankton of each sample of water. The results were that there was less plankton in the surface than in the bottom due to the constant exchange of oxygen produced by the waves
Measurements of the pool 5.
1.Aea: 34546.95 cm2
2.Length: 1449.65 cm.
To obtain these measurements, refer to this file on using NIH IMAGE
Obviously, the level of oxygen in pool 5 must be really high due to the huge diversity of animals and plants found. As we know, the plants produce oxygen and the animals consume it while producing carbon dioxide, which provokes an interaction increasing and decreasing the level of ph and oxygen depending on whether sunlight is present for photosynthesis or not.
OUR EVALUATION.
From the beginning of the lab, we had some problems to take the samples due to the high tide that made the collecting of samples a lot more difficult. A more accurate study of the pool, could have been done by measuring the levels of ph and oxygen. Team work was effective, the effort came from everyone in the group and we succeeded in computer work by obtaining excellent pictures and measurements of the pool.
n April of 1996, the Pearson College Environmental Systems Class planned a field lab which would enable us to present a profile of the currents around the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. We had acquired a number of drogues as surplus which were used in current studies after the Alaskan Oil Spill. We have fitted them with radar reflectors so that we can determine the distances from the islands in our plotting process.
