One of the important distinctions that my marine biology students learn about is the difference between organisms that are benthic and those that are pelagic. Organisms described as benthic live attached to or associated with a surface, often but not always the sea floor. In addition to the stationary sea floor itself, benthic organisms can…
Tag: marine invertebrates
Collateral damage
My home town of Santa Cruz made national news the other day, 23 December 2024, when a series of massive swells caused part of the Municipal Wharf to collapse into the ocean. People in the restaurants and other businesses had to evacuate immediately, and three people were dropped into the water of Monterey Bay (they…
A celebration of worms
Yesterday, 30 June 2023, was deemed by the National Museum of Natural History to be International Polychaete Day, and the Smithsonian had an entire day of talks and activities for visitors to learn about the marine segmented worms. And you know me: I’m in favor of any event that draws attention to the animals that…
Exception to the rule
Ask any marine biology student to list some interesting factoids about barnacles, and one of them should be “Barnacles are benthic and sessile” by which they mean that barnacles live their entire lives glued to a single spot. This definitely describes what it means to be benthic. Barnacles are indeed stuck, for better or worse,…
A most unusual sort of snail
One of the many delightful animals in the rocky intertidal is the vermetid snail, Thylacodes squamigerus. Unlike their more typical gastropod relations, the vermetids don’t live in a shell, per se. Instead, they live in a calcareous tube, which forms a loose coil draped over the surface of a rock. The tubes can be up…
Natural Bridges
Last week we had some of the best low tides of the season, and I was grateful to spend three consecutive mornings in the intertidal. The picture-taking conditions were fantastic when I went to Natural Bridges, and I snapped away like a madwoman. Unfortunately, last week was also finals week, and it wasn’t until I…
When things are just a little too swell
One of the things that I’ve been doing with my Ecology class since almost the very beginning is LiMPETS monitoring in the rocky intertidal. Usually we have a classroom training session before meeting in the field to do the actual work. This year we are teaching the class in a hybrid mode, with lecture material…
Glow
On this winter solstice, as we anticipate the return of light, I thought I’d write about a different kind of light. Merriam-Webster defines fluorescence as “luminescence that is caused by the absorption of radiation at one wavelength followed by nearly immediate reradiation usually at a different wavelength and that ceases almost at once when the…
Ready for battle
For some reason, many of the sunburst anemones (Anthopleura sola) in a certain area at Davenport Landing were geared up for a fight. I don’t know what was going on before I got there yesterday morning, but something got these flowers all riled up. We think of them as being placid animals, but that’s only…
Serendipity, once again
Sometimes things just work out, through no fault of my own. In terms of good minus tides occurring in daylight hours, this weekend’s tides are the best we will have all season. Today (Saturday 29 May) is the third of five intertidal excursions I have planned. This morning I went up to Pistachio Beach to…