 | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Journals 2006/2007Peggy Deichstetter
July 21, 2006 The weather is not good, so we can do no sampling. We have nothing to do but to wait out the weather. After lunch the wind dies down and we decide to give sampling a try. Brenda and Katrin put on their dry suits and Ted and John get the boat launched and we are off to our first dive site. Brenda and Katrin are doing a biodiversity study on the waters off Alaska. They have seven sites here in Stefansson Sound. From each of these sites they make 10 transects to observe the variety of algae, and they make 10 transects to observe the invertebrates. They collect specimens from each transect to be identified and weighed back at the lab with the help of Susan.
We get to two of the seven dive sites before its dinnertime and we go back in. We stopped for dinner before we started identifying and weighing. After dinner, Ken and Susan drive to the Deadhorse Airport to pick up more boxes of equipment. They find all the boxes have arrived so we can get started on the water sampling tomorrow. After dinner, we begin by identifying and weighing the algae transects. You take the sample and put it in a tray. Then you tease out all the different types of alga you can find. Brenda or Katrin identify the algae and weigh it and log it into their notebook. We finish one site and then move on to the invertebrate transect. This is tougher. Not only does the algae need to be identified and weighed, but we are also now looking for all the invertebrates. This takes more time. All of the invertebrates that are in question have to be identified by Susan. We finish the sorting the first site around eleven and it time for bed.
|
||||||||||||||||||
