Journals 2006/2007

Peggy Deichstetter
St. Edward High School, Elgin, IL

"Arctic Kelp Bed Study" July 16 - August 3, 2006

Journal Index: July 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23        24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 August 1 - 2 - 3 Additional Resources

July 23, 2006
Kelp! Kelp!

Ken, Brenda and Katrin are diving today to get more specimens for observation. I started the day by washing out all the sampling bottles.

I have a little down time until Ken, Brenda and Katrin come back with more specimens, time to get my wash done and write in my Journal.

In the water. View full version pop-up.

Susan and I have lunch before the new specimens arrive. Brenda, Katrin and I start with the Algae samples first, classifying and weighing the algae from each transect.

Ken asks me to help him measure the kelp. Kelp has been taken from each dive site visited thus far. It seems that kelp grow one blade each year, so you can tell how old kelp is by the number of blades it has. Ken measures each blade of the kelp as well as the overall length. As I am recording the data, Ken asks if there is anything I find interesting in the data. I note that the growth of third blade in all the kelp is quite small, in some cases only a 1-5 centimeters compared to other years that are 20 to 40 centimeters. Ken explains that the summer (2003) was one of very little light, so the kelp had no energy to grow on.

Measuring kelp. View full version pop-up.		Ken measuring kelp. View full version pop-up.

The final activity of the day is massing several of the TSS filter papers. Tomorrow I will mass them again. If they haven't lost any more weight, it means they are dry and all of them can be weighed.