Transect Study- Environmental Systems Class peg-15

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PEG 15 TRANSECT
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS CLASS

transect_gfApril 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.

 

 

RoyalRoadstransectAlso 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.

PEG 15 : PHOTO BELT TRANSECT
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

Distance in metres from peg 15 is at the bottom of the picture 
Comments and species identification follow the pictures

Notes: at 0.5 metres: This is the upper level just below peg15 The yellow lichen at the top by the peg is Xanthoria parietina
At 1.0 Metres : Life is very sparse in this high splash zone, although a prominent invertebrate that we find is the tiny red miteNeomolgus.sp.
At 2.0 metres: Life is very sparse in this high splash zone, although a prominent invertebrate that we find is the tiny red mite Neomolgus.sp
At 3.5 metres: A few barnacles are starting to appear in the moist crevices.
At 6.5 Metres :Barnacles almost totally cover this areas for several meters
At 8.0 metres: The sea lettuce, Ulva lactuca starts to appear.
At 9.5 metres: The brown algae here is Alaria sp
At 11.5 metres: The wrinkled brown algae: Hedophyllum sp.
At 12.5 metres : The green grass-like plant is Phyllospadix sp , (an Angiosperm, not an Algae)

See Transect A0050101
See Transect A0050102
See Transect A0050103

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Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..

wintering gulls departing

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10:45 – called tour boat” Great Pacific adventure to close to West and of North rocks chased three sea lions into water. We talked to Andrew.

11:52 small blast, no wildlife disturbed. Nesting goals visiting nesting areas early a.m. but do not stay all day. There are more glaucous-winged gulls arriving every day. gulls  that over wintered [probably Thayer’s] are all gone except for 30. On February 14 they had all left
February 15 , 5 tour boats through reserve.

Cleaning chimneys, furnace filters etc.

Pearson divers out

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four bald eagles – three mature
one California sea lion hauled out 20 feet above high tide  On the east side of great race – it has been there five days, there are no visible injuries.

15:00 hours –  Second Nature  out with Garry and students doing a drift dive and getting specimens for the tanks. Departed 16:25.

Installed weatherstripping on both houses.

visit

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Thursday, January 29: repairing shingles on North Side of science house roof. Marcos and Giovanni +2 guests out in second nature.

Friday, January 30: Chris out Re:  list of jobs for takeover by parks from the Coast Guard. 1132–1340:  3000 seagulls, Eagles, cormorant, terns  feeding Whirl Bay– –  North rocks inside the reserve.

Saturday:  January 31 – – repairing saltwater pump main house toilet.

military blasting

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winds in Northeast 25 kn.

14:30– a large blast from military on then on Bentinck island  shook the house and 200 birds took flight. 14:31 – – another blast approximately 100 sea lions went into the water.   14:32 – – blast, approximately 30 more sea lions went into water. 14:56 blast cleared rocks of gulls and cormorants, seals and sea lions were inserted but did not enter the water.

14  bald eagles including nine mature, five immature, on Great Race. total sea lions in the reserve: 350,  including 150 Steller’s.