Tag Archives: algae

March 18 – Divers Clean the Underwater Camera

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Sunny
Wind: SW 5-14 knots in the morning, NE 5-9 knots in the late morning to afternoon, calm in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 7.8°C, High 10.7°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.8°C

Nine students came this afternoon with Courtney, Laura and Nazim to dive from the jetty. The seven divers were in groups of two and three for 30 minute dives. The others provided support from above.

Bader and Sean dove together and followed the cable out to the underwater camera, which lies at a depth of 12m of water out from the end of the jetty. They cleaned the plastic dome, which had become dirty with diatoms. See the photos below.

The divers mentioned seeing lots of vivid colours and amazing species including: urchin, anemone, rockfish, greenling, rose star and bull kelp.

Up on land, there was lots of vitamin D to soak up today while doing outdoor tasks: chopping firewood, stacking firewood, sweeping and tending to compost.

There was one fishing boat seen passing through the reserve today.

March 15 – Raining

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Rain (22.6 mm in total)
Wind: 2-9 knots NE in the morning, 4-29 knots NE to WSW in the afternoon/evening
Air Temperature: Low 6.3°C, High 8.9°C
Ocean Temperature: 9.0°C

The students visiting from Pearson were picked up this morning by Chris in Second Nature. They were a great help around the island for the past week as they helped clean and organize. They also pursued their own projects in diving, photography, identifying the flora and fauna, catching up on their studying and locating the mysterious secret room at Race Rocks.

The day was spent doing lots of odd jobs around the island: securing a large log for firewood, cleaning windows, de-algaefying buildings and computer work.

There were a lot of new puddles formed today in the grass and rocks. 22.6 mm of rain was recorded by the Davis weather station, which is located in the middle of Great Race near the flagpole.

A large river otter was spotted this morning scampering up the jetty beach, then underneath the boardwalk by the tank room.

March 11 – Cleaning, Diving and Nearby Blasting

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Overcast with periods of sun and rain
Wind: 1 – 17 knots NE, switching to W in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 9.0°C, High 11.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 9.0°C

In the morning, the visiting students helped with a service project to clean the algae off the exterior walls of the tank room and boat house. Elbow grease, a non toxic de-algae formula, brushes and water were used to tackle the algae. Rain water was pumped from the collection tank at the Ecoguardian’s House, which saves the energy intensive desalinated water for the kitchens and washrooms.

For several hours beginning at 10:30, DND set off explosives on nearby Bentinck Island, which is less than 1km from the ecological reserve. Birds, marine mammals and an Ecoguardian were startled by the blasts.

This afternoon, the four students doing the rescue diving course practiced more scenarios off the jetty with Chris.

Chris brought a volunteer from Pearson to visit for a couple hours. Myriam Guilbert, who is the mother of second year student Chloé, toured around the island snapping photos of the flora, fauna and views. She had heard lots of stories about Race Rocks from her daughter.

There were two eco tour boats, one recreational boat and the Pearson’s Haiku in the reserve today.

Marine Macroalgae Archived Video

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 “Saltwater” the images of kelp at Race Rocks set to the music of Holly Arntzen.  The “Color of Kelp” .. a different view of the effects of sunlight transferred through kelp blades. epiphytes on Phyllospadix or surf grass at Race Rocks.  Epiphytes on Pterygophora californicus.
 Subtidal Lithothamnion with its typical community of invertebrates.

Marine Plants at Race Rocks form a valuable base of energy flow and habitat they offer other organisms. This file will have examples of single species as well as associations. The biology and environmental systems class projects and diver assistance the process of documentation of these species and habitats of Race Rocks is continuing. Video clips as well as links to other documentation are available here.

This file has links to other resources on Algae at Race Rocks.

 

 

 

Macroalgae at Race Rocks.

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There is great biodiversity in the Macroalgal species at Race Rocks . A herbarium of the species which have been found growing in the reserve is kept in the Biology and Marine Environmental Systems lab at Lester B. Pearson College. These students are floating a filamentous algal form onto a herbarium sheet in a tank of seawater. The algae are then dried between blotters in a drier with heat and circulating air.

Suggestion:Perhaps a student can digitize the herbarium sheets so we can see them posted here?

 

Refer to this file for archived video of Algae at Race Rocks

 

 

 

For a complete list of many of the species of  algae at Race Rocks scroll down to Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta and Phaeophyta in the Race Rocks taxonomy

 

Refer to this extended essay on Halosaccion glandiforme with a focus on position on the shore considering height and slope as factors in intertidal zonation

 

 

Ryan Murphy, former LBPC student returned to Race Rocks to do research for Mt.Allison University on the macroalgal community. He constructed this Digital Herbarium using photographs he took while at the reserve.