Humidity and Dew Point as Abiotic Factors at Race Rocks

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Humidity as an Abiotic Factor at Race Rocks

The current Humidity, measured by a sensor 1.5 metres above the rock surface at Race Rocks. Humidity in concert with Temperature, Sunlight and Wind is an important factor which all organisms have to tolerate or adjust to at Race Rocks. The humidity changes widely in a number of micro ecosystems, even in the intertidal area, such as in crevices and under vegetation.
See the graph of today’s humidity at Race Rocks. Also the humidity for the past week and month are available on that page….victoriaweather.ca

TODAY’S HUMIDITY

THIS PAST WEEK’S HUMIDITY

THIS PAST MONTH’S HUMIDITY

The Dew Point:
Dew points indicate the amount moisture in the air. The higher the dew points, the higher the moisture content of the air at a given temperature. Dew point temperature is defined as the temperature to which the air would have to cool (at constant pressure and constant water vapor content) in order to reach saturation. A state of saturation exists when the air is holding the maximum amount of water vapor possible at the existing temperature and pressure.
When the dew point temperature and air temperature are equal, the air is said to be saturated. Dew point temperature is NEVER GREATER than the air temperature. Therefore, if the air cools, moisture must be removed from the air and this is accomplished through condensation. This process results in the formation of tiny water droplets that can lead to the development of fog, frost, clouds, or even precipitation.
Relative Humidity can be inferred from dew point values. When air temperature and dew point temperatures are very close, the air has a high relative humidity. The opposite is true when there is a large difference between air and dew point temperatures, which indicates air with lower relative humidity. Locations with high relative humidities indicate that the air is nearly saturated with moisture; clouds and precipitation are therefore quite possible. Weather conditions at locations with high dew point temperatures (65 or greater) are likely to be uncomfortably humid.

TODAY’S DEWPOINT

THIS PAST WEEK”S DEWPOINT

THIS PAST MONTH”S DEWPOINT

Idotea wosnesenskii: Isopod–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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1– Global Distribution: Ranges from Alaska (and Russia) to Estero Bay, San Luis Obispo County.

2- Habitat: You can find it under rocks, under cobble at the edges of tide pools, in blades of seaweed, attached to floats and on eelgrass. Hangs onto holdfasts stalks, worm tubes and other objects. But the most common place is under rocks on the shore.

3- Physical Description: They are large isopods, measuring up to 3-4 cm long and quite dark. Generally their color is olive-green but it may vary from bright green to brown or nearly black. The abdominal region is mostly unsegmented and their terminal portion is rather smoothly rounded, except for a tiny blunt tooth at the tip See the ventral image on the left.
4- Feeding: It feeds on algal detritus and reproductively mature plants, but avoids non-fertile individuals. It doesn’t eat immature plants by the algae’s cuticle.

5- Predators: Other arthropods and invertebrates, fishes, birds, reptiles and mammals.

6- Reproduction: “During reproduction, the male isopod carries the female for a short period known as pre-copula which lasts until the moult at which time copulation occurs. The sperm are transferred from the male to the female genital duct. In most species, the female releases the eggs into a ventral brood chamber where they are incubated until after hatching.” Idotea wosnesenskii incubate their eggs and juveniles in pockets of the body which open from the brood chamber. “Unlike crabs and shrimps isopods are not released as free-swimming zoea larva. Instead, when hatched they look very much like adults but have 6 rather than 7 pereonal segments. Some species care for their young after leaving the chamber but most species do not.” (Quoted from source b)

7- An Interesting Fact: It does not look like much of a swimmer, but it is surprisingly agile and graceful when it does swim. The paddlelike appendages on the underside of its abdomen propel it with seeming effortlessness, while the legs are spread as if to take hold of any firm object that comes along
8- References:

a) EZIDweb-Idotea wosnesenskii. October 1, 2002.
Webmaster: Beach Watcher Joan Gerteis. November 13th 2005.
http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/ezidweb/animals/Idoteawosnesenskii2.htm
b) Biology of Isopods. 1996.
© Museum Victoria Australia. November 13th 2005.
http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/crust/isopbiol.html

c) Edward F. Ricketts, Jack Calvin, Joel W. Hedgpeth. Between Pacific Tides. 5th Edition.

d) Kozloff, Eugene N. Seashore Life of Pudget Sound, The Strait Of Georgia, and The San Juan Archipelago.

e) Yates, Steve. Marine Wildlife From Pudget Sound Through The Inside Passage.

Other Members of the Phylum Arthropoda at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. This file was originally written by Claudia Aliaga, Chile, Pearson College student , Year 32 -2006

 

Correlation : Wind and Barometric Pressure Relationships

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Below are presented some of the historical graphs of wind direction, wind speed and barometric pressure as recorded on the weather station at Race Rocks. . Several interesting problems can be posed from which one could form some hypotheses using these data. Make a similar comparison with the current week’s graphs.

Note: you may find some variations in patterns in the summer.

Bubo scandiacus: Snowy owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Pam was interviewed recently about her wildlife viewing on racerocks.com ref: Anderson, Charlie, “Live Wildlife for your Living Room “,The Province (newspaper) , Vancouver, B.C. ( Sunday, Nov.21, 2004)

A comment from David Allinson of the Rocky Point Bird Observatory:
Pam Birley captured the pictures of this rare sighting at Race Rocks remotely on robotic camera 5.
“This is the second sighting of snowy owls at Race Rocks.The last historical record was almost exactly 40years ago when 7 birds were present on December 3, 1966 at Race Rocks.
I suspect there have been other records since, but they can easily be overlooked out there. We have no records for Rocky Point proper, but Race Rocks is in the checklist area. The bird appears to be an immature due to heavy barring. It is hard to be certain of its age/sex.
….. Note also that the AOU in 2003 announced a taxonomic change to Snowy Owl –it is now ‘Bubo scandiacus’ (was ‘Nyctea scandiaca’) as it is more closely related genetically to other owls in the ‘Bubo’ genus (e.g. Great Horned). The specific name is an adjective and changes to agree with the gender of the generic name.”

Pam Birley captured the pictures of this rare sighting at Race Rocks remotely on robotic camera 5.
Other Owl sightings at Race Rocks

Below are some of the images taken by ecoguardians in other years:

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl

 

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 name –year (PC)

Pat Carney. Continued her fight for heritage protection for lighthouses

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Debates of the Senate (Hansard)

1st Session, 39th Parliament,
Volume 143, Issue 44

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
The Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker

Heritage Lighthouse Protection Bill

Second Reading—Debate Adjourned

Hon. Pat Carney moved second reading of Bill S-220, to protect heritage lighthouses.

She said: Honourable senators, this bill represents the sixth attempt in as many years to grant protection to heritage lighthouses of Canada. It was introduced five times previously, including during the Second Session of the Thirty-sixth Parliament, the First, Second and Third Sessions of the Thirty-seventh Parliament, and the First Session of the Thirty-eighth Parliament, and it has proceeded to committee stage in the other place. It never received Royal Assent before those parliaments rose.

While this bill was co-authored by me and the late Senator Forrestall, it was introduced five times by him, and it is in his memory that I speak today.

Despite the broad support in Parliament for this bill from all parties, the fact that we have not been able to enact it thus far represents a legislative embarrassment. It should be noted that this bill is supported in principle by the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Fisheries and Oceans. Aside from the obvious negative political optics of such failure, even more regrettable is the practical damage being sustained by the lighthouses no longer in operation and the loss to the communities they have served, and where they stand as a proud pillar of heritage. Each day that goes by without the kind of legal protection afforded by the heritage lighthouse protection bill is a day that lighthouses are left exposed to neglect.

This bill addresses the problem that lighthouses, once deemed to be surplus to operational requirements, have no mechanism for their preservation. In the past they have been blown up, burned down, jack-hammered or left prey to vandalism, because the operational departments have no means of transferring them to interested community groups that are prepared to take on their maintenance. The present heritage designations are too restrictive to apply to most and do not provide a public consultation process.

The main feature of this bill is to facilitate the designation and preservation of heritage lighthouses as part of Canada’s culture and history, and to protect them from being altered or disposed of without public consultation. The bill defines heritage lighthouses as any lighthouse, together with all buildings and other works belonging thereto and in connection with which, as designated by the minister on the recommendation of the board as a heritage lighthouse.

The board referred to is the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board.

It defines “alter” as “to change in any manner” and includes “to restore or renovate” but does not include the performance of routine maintenance and repairs.

Honourable senators, I could take the time of the Senate to read the other main purposes of this short bill, but it would serve the interests of the Senate better to move this bill into committee where these aspects can be addressed.

The key to this bill is that the Canadian public will be consulted before any lighthouse is disposed of or destroyed, because currently there is no method by which to protect those structures.

The substantive provisions of this bill remain the same as they were the past five times it was introduced, and each time it received unanimous support in this chamber. I have been in communication with the government and believe that there may be minor amendments made to the bill at committee stage to align it with other legislation that was passed since this bill was first proposed.

I hope this bill can be referred to committee today.

Hon. Jim Munson: Honourable senators, I agree that this bill should be sent to the appropriate committee today. I have a keen interest in this bill. My great-great-uncle, James Munson, was the first lighthouse keeper in Cape Enrage, New Brunswick. It is a wonderful place just outside of Fundy National Park. It is the home of regulation-sized Munsons. I somehow got short shrift.

It is a great historical story which must be put on the record. I would like to speak to this bill at report stage when it returns from committee.

The Hon. the Speaker: Are honourable senators ready for the question?

Some Hon. Senators: Question!

Hon. Gerald J. Comeau (Deputy Leader of the Government): I move the adjournment of the debate.

Senator Carney: Honourable senators, it was my understanding from my house leader that this bill would go to committee today. Can I be told why the deputy leader has moved the adjournment of the debate when it has been agreed with the opposition and the committee that it be sent to committee?

Senator Comeau: There is no agreement that it would be sent to committee today.

On motion of Senator Comeau, debate adjourned.

Temperature Changes Through Time

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BACKGROUND: With so much information in the media about Climate Change, it is important to be able to sort out and analyze the evidence first hand. From 1921 until the present, records of temperature of the sea water have been taken daily at Race Rocks. The question is, do we have evidence of an increase in ocean temperature over this time period?
OBJECTIVES: After doing this assignments, you will be able to:
a) Comment on the importance of maintaining a database of environmental factors over time.b) Compare the monthly temperature averages for the decade of the 1920’s with the last decade c) Examine data temperature records and determine if there is evidence of a change through time..d) Evaluate temperature change through time as an abiotic factor that affects the biodiversity of organisms in an ecosystem.e) Account for the geoclimatic reasons for similarities and differences of water temperatures, and indicate the implications for organisms living in these ecosystems.

PROCEDURE: 1. Describe how this set of sea-water temperature records have been obtained. This file provides examples of the records which have been submitted to The Institute of Ocean Sciences at Sidney, Vancouver Island.

The students from Lester Pearson College often stay at the island and take over the daily duties such as the water sampling for temperature and salinity. This video shows the process used in the manual determination of these factors.

When the records have been submitted, they are added to a database which is maintained by the Institute of Ocean Sciences. This link shows historic sets of raw data from IOS for the British Columbia Light Stations.
 Seawater temperature and salinity observations in the past few years:
See

2. Go to this file to obtain the Race Rocks Mean Monthly Sea Temperature 1921-present,a) open an excel workbook and save it as “Temperature records at Race Rocks. We will copy the data for the first ten years of the record and the last ten years of the record to an empty Excel file.

b) Highlight years 1921 to 1930 from the data, copy and paste to the open Excel file.

c) Cut out each year and paste it side by side so that you have the rows representing the months and the columns representing the years. Make a horizontal table of the data

d) highlight across the able, the temperatures for each month of the ten year group. Then click on the symbol in the menu line which produces an average. This average will appear to the right of the last years column.

e) Do the same with the last ten years set of data. You now have two sets of averages by month of the two decades.

f) Compare the monthly averages for the two decades. What do you find?
3. There are of course many ways of looking at this data. Try summing the total averages for each decade. Simply highlight the column of averages and click on the tool for SUM. What is your finding.4. You could also do the same for all the decades.Once you have a chart made up of the monthly averages of all the decades, It is easy to have Excel draw a graph for you. Click on the Wizard symbol and choose the type of graph.

5. After manipulating the data, and looking at it in several ways, write a statement which expresses your understanding of the whether or not there has been a temperature change in the Strait of Juan de Fuca as measured by daily samples taken at Race Rocks. Be sure that you do not generalize beyond the evidence provided by your data. Also discuss the assumptions that you must recognize before drawing a conclusion from this data.

6. For Extension work: Run a statistical program to determine if the difference you find is significant.
7. For Extension work: Read the review below and if possible, read the book! Present a summary to your class. The long-term Sea temperature record at Race Rocks has been pointed out as one of the pieces of evidence that has accumulated on global warming. Author Terry Glavin, in reviewing the book The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery ( Harper Collins Publishers, 2006) says :

” The Pacific Ocean itself is getting warmer. Measurements at the Race Rocks lighthouse near Victoria show an average rise in temperature of 1°C since 1921, which doesn’t sound like much until you remember that its only 10°C in the other direction that separates us from the deep freeze of the Ice Age. The ocean, absorbing increasing volumes of carbon dioxide, is becoming more acidic, too, inhibiting the production of plankton, the basis of all life in the sea.”

The rest of the article may be seen at http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=17132
8. Refer to the file: Sea Temperature as an abiotic factor . Several ideas are discussed in this file about how the sea water temperature affects marine organisms. Discuss how organisms adapt to changes in sea temperature.
9. Extension: Find out the monthly water temperature averages from your own area. Compare them with Race Rocks and discuss the geoclimatic factors which lead to the similarities and or the differences, and the implications for organisms living in the two ecosystems.

See also https://racerocks.ca/category/education/climate-change/

Dodecaceria concharum: Coraline-fringed tubeworm–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Below is a  close up view of a colony of Dodecaceria concharum emerging from Lithothamnion. On the left is a cryptically coloured sculpin that takes advantage of the background for blending in. See the complete picture below.

rmsculp13a

dodeca

Taken in 2009 by Ryan Murphy off the North side of Great Race Rock

dodecaceria

Photo by Dr.A. Svoboda Typically, this Terebellid tube worm appears as a slight fuzz on the surface of the pink lithothamnion or on the hydrocorals.

 

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Subclass Palpata
Order Canalipalpata
Suborder Terebellida
Family Cirratulidae
Genus Dodecaceria
Species concharum
(Oerstad,1851)
Common Name: coralline fringed tube worm
This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty, staff and volunteers of
Lester B. Pearson College
 2006   Garry Fletcher

Heteropora pacifica: Staghorn Bryozoan–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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rmheteropora

The arms of brittle stars are tangled among the horns of this Heteropora cluster–photo by Ryan Murphy

Heteropora pacifica , the yellow staghorn bryozoa are shown in these pictures .surrounded by the typical associated invertebrates. This bryozoan occurs frequently in small clumps sub-tidally at Race Rocks.

amcurdyheterropora

Heteropora pacifica. beside the hydrocoral Allopora sp. and brooding anemone – Photo by Andrew McCurdy.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Bryozoa
Class Stenolaemata
Order Cyclostomatida
Suborder Ceriopoina
Family Heteroporidae
Genus Heteropora
Species pacifica (Borg, 1933)
Common Name: Staghorn byozoan
This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty, staff and volunteers of
Lester B. Pearson College

Numenius phaeopus: Whimbrel–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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whimbrelraisasept272010

Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus photo by Raisa Mirza

rmthree

Raisa Mirza took this image on May 9, 2010 as the whimbrel were migrating through the area. See her Flickr images here:

Raisa Mirza took these mages  on May 9, 2010 as the whimbrel were migrating through the area.
See her Flickr images here:

This video was taken by PB on the remote camera at Race Rocks on July 17, 2007.Of special note here is the nictitating membrane which shows as the bird doses off to sleep.

On June 4th 2006, I received two e-mails at the same time: The one from Pam Birley from England included pictures of an unidentified shorebird, taken at some distance from the remote camera. The other from David Alison from the Rocky Point Bird Observatory had the following observation:

Hi Garry,
On Thursday 31st, Rocky Point recorded its first Long-billed Curlew over the lower field right at the banding shack (#299 on our checklist!). This morning (Sunday 4th), two of us were lucky enough to observe via spotting scope no doubt the same (or perhaps a different?!) Long-billed Curlew on the North Race Rock. Not sure if you have recorded that species from Race Rocks before?
I’ll check your website’s video cams later to see if we can capture it on film (as we last saw it flying towards Great Race Rock)!
Cheers,
David Allinson
It turns out that the pictures were of another type of curlew, the whimbrel, not a long-billed curlew. It was from the second set of pictures that I made this slide show above.

After David saw the pictures, he wrote “Interesting…perhaps we jumped to the conclusion on our distant bird as the bird in the photo is clearly a whimbrel, not a Long-billed Curlew..? This has been a good spring for both species locally. Or perhaps indeed both species were present.…I know it may seem like coincidence, but I am still strongly inclined to “keep” our sighting from Sunday at 1115 on North Rock as a Long-billed Curlew (it was a large shorebird, big bill, and cinnamon wash which is not consistent with whimbrel ). As I mentioned, there have been good numbers of whimbrel  this spring (as many as 33 were at the Victoria Golf Course one day in May!), and both species are known to associate.
Whimbrel are annual at Rocky Point both in spring and fall migration, but particularly in “fall” (July to September, and November in 2015), and they presumably occur on Race Rocks regularly. However, there are less than a dozen accepted Long-billed Curlew records for Victoria, but 1-2 birds are reliably reported on the south island every spring during the last few years (the Victoria Golf Course in Oak Bay seems to be a best spot along with whimbrel and marbled godwits congregating on the green at the 5th tee).

David Allinson
Thanks to these two observers for their assistance in recording this species for Race Rocks.Further Reference:
A good reference on the tracking of migratory routes of whimbrels can be found at http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?project_id=369

See other posts on whimbrels on racerocks.ca.
em>Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.
 Oct 2006 Garry Fletcher

Phalacrocorax auritus: Double crested cormorant

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Double Crested Cormorants are winter residents at Race Rocks. They nest on other islands off Victoria.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Sub-Phylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Pelicaniformes
Family Phalacrocoracidae
Genus Phalacrocorax
Species auritus
Common Name: Double Crested cormorant

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks.
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.