Censusing the history of ecology

We had a unique opportunity this past week to revisit a chapter in the history of both marine ecology and the Marine Science Center by surveying an experiment set up 35 years ago. In 1974, Professor Bruce Menge, then a faculty member at UMass Boston, cleared the dominant seaweed species, knotted wrackweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) from two 2-meter wide vertical swaths of the intertidal zone in Canoe Beach Cove. He also removed all barnacles (Semibalanus) from one of the vertical swaths. A third, adjacent uncleared area was marked as a control.

When Bruce visited the MSC this past spring to present the annual Riser Lecture, he and I revisited some of his field sites in the area. We were amazed to not only find some of the old bolts marking his experiment, but also to find that the cleared swaths were still visibly different from the surrounding fucoid zone.

After some head scratching and bolt-hole hunting, we relocated all three transects on last Wednesday's afternoon tide. We censused the swaths and found that there are large and persistent differences between cleared and uncleared areas, even 35 years after clearing. This is a system that takes a long time to recover from major disturbances!

35-year-old bolt

Censusing transects

The Beauty of the Three Seas Program...so far!

It can be hard to focus when your new home is located in beautiful Nahant, MA. This is our view every single morning on our way to the Marine Science Center, and I have to say, it is a pretty good way to start the day. As a newcomer to New England (I am from the Midwest), the ocean views on a clear day are spectacular.
Then you go to Maine. Here is the class working hard in the early morning light of a sunrise. This just happened to be one of the few dry moments encountered during our four day stint at Cobscook Bay, ME.
Our second morning in Maine also happened to be quite nice; the sun came out! This is the Quoddy Head lighthouse, which is the eastern-most point in the United States. The land across the water is Canada. You can see the class heading towards the lighthouse to the rocky intertidal to conduct tide-height surveys.

The tide waits for no one. Instructor Catherine Matassa lays out the first transect of the morning at Quoddy Head, Maine. Students sampled intertidal diversity up and down the shore in the light of the sunrise. 

Fall in New England

Greetings from Lubec, Maine! We - the Three Seas students, faculty, TAs, and friends - are spending a week at the easternmost point in the U.S., conducting surveys of the local benthic flora and fauna. We are 1/3 of the way through the New England portion of the year, and students are taking courses in diving research methods, marine ecology, experimental design, invertebrate zoology, marine botany, and molecular ecology and evolution. Highlights of the fall have included sunny weather in Nahant, the annual departmental clambake, a cruise on the R/V Gulf Challenger out of Portsmouth, and our current excursion to Maine.

Surveys of distribution and abundance in Nahant

Aboard the R/V Gulf Challenger

Quoddy Head