THE ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S PUZZLE IS . . . . . . drum roll, please . . . Microcladia coulteri! I showed you this: but what you really needed to be certain of the ID was the rest of the photo: Huzzah again for natural history! I love it when natural history provides the answer to…
Marine biology
A tale of two algae, and a puzzle
If you visit the California rocky intertidal in the spring or summer, one of the first things you notice will be the macroalgae, or seaweeds. They are incredibly abundant and diverse this time of year, covering just about every bit of rock. In fact, in a landscape sense the only visible organisms are macroalgae and surfgrass:…
Branching out
Today I decided to look at some scuzz growing in one of the seawater tables at the marine lab. This table is populated mostly by coralline rocks, although I have some pet chitons running around in it. I picked out a promising rock and examined it under some decent light. Most of the rocks have…
Growing fast
Today my Pisaster ochraceus larvae are 10 days old. Although they seemed to be developing slowly, compared to the urchins that I’m more used to, in the past several days they have changed quite a bit. They’ve also been growing quickly, which makes me think that they’re off to a strong start. Of course, there’s…
Green is the new sexy, Part II
Part of what makes the marine algae so fascinating to me is their life cycles. I’m intrigued by organisms that do things differently from us. And to be honest, from the perspective of someone who studies invertebrates and their life cycles, we humans are rather boring: we’re born into in one body, reproduce (maybe), and then…
Green is the new sexy, Part I
I was making my last run through the wet lab today, about to head off to forage for lunch before a meeting elsewhere, when I saw this in one of my bowls: This is one of my feeding treatments for the juvenile urchins. The sheet of green stuff is Ulva sp., a green alga several species…
Feeling blue?
This spring and summer the local beaches have at times been covered by what appear to be small, desiccated, blue or white potato chips. They would typically be seen in windrows at and just below the high-tide line, or blown into piles. The most recently washed up ones are a dark blue-violet color, while the…
Slow and steady (I think)
Today the Pisaster larvae that Scott and I are following are a week old. Happy birthday, little dudes! Yesterday we did the twice-weekly water change and looked at them. They’re getting big fast since we started feeding them on Saturday when their mouths finally broke through. At this stage they are sort of jellybean-shaped and extremely flexible–they don’t…
Early morning low tides are the best
This morning I went on a solo trip to one of my favorite intertidal sites up the coast a bit. I’ve been busy with stuff at the marine lab and my house is a construction zone this summer so it was really nice being alone in nature for a couple of hours before most people…
A glass half full
It’s becoming quite clear that I don’t have to worry about having too many sea star larvae to deal with. While the embryos from my F1 x M1 (Purple x Purple) cross had hatched this morning, nothing from the F2 x M1 (Orange x Purple) cross looked promising. I’m about ready to write off these…