Blog Post #3 : Ongoing field Observations
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022.
Time of Visit: 1730-1845.
Location: Sheltered lagoon region, to the west side of Goose Spit Regional Park. 49.6653° N, 124.9016° W.
Weather during Visit: Overcast, cold, and very windy. My phone indicates a current temperature of 41 F with winds blowing south east at 18 mph, with gusting up to 22 mph.
General Observations along Environmental Gradients: I timed my visit for when the tide was fully out so that I could investigate different regions within the inter-tidal zone. After spending a lot of time looking for patterns I began to notice differences among barnacles in terms of location, size, and density and therefore decided to focus my observations on this particular organism.
I selected the following areas for for investigation within the inter-tidal region (see field journal for drawing showing different zones).
Area A: Approximately midway into the inter-tidal region where it is more common to find larger rocks than anywhere else within the inter-tidal space.
-Barnacles are frequently found along the sides of rocks, most densely populated around the NW side of the rock facing the beach. Also, more densely populated closer to the ground or in crevices within the rock.
-Barnacles closer to the top edge of the rock are smaller and it is more common to find dead barnacles when comparing to bottom section.
-The further down the rock in the more dense regions, it was common to see barnacles protruding further out from the rock surface compared to other barnacles higher up on the rock.
Area B: Within the grass zone, higher up shore
-A few rocks, sparsely populated with barnacles
-No barnacles located on top of rocks
-When barnacles are found they are lower down on rock (NW side the facing beach).
-Most common location for finding dead barnacles
Area C: Along the creek side
-Rocks within the creek have barnacles located on them but less densely populated when compared to others in region A and D.
Area D: Close to the water’s edge (when tide is fully out) where ground continues to be saturated by water
-Densely populated region of shellfish, especially oysters, almost all densely populated by barnacles.
-Barnacles of varying sizes, but appear to be much longer when compared to barnacles on rocks higher up shore.
-In instances where an entire shell is covered by barnacles, it appears in some areas that the plates surrounding the barnacles are completely fused with its neighbours.
-Barnacles found on all aspects of shells; The do not appear to be favoring any one side.
-Out of all areas investigated this was the only location where other visually detectable sea creatures such as snails were found living within the barnacles.
There were a lot of different factors to consider with regards to influencing the patterns of barnacle growth. I have decided to focus my hypothesis on the following:
Hypothesis: Competition for space/resources influences the pattern of barnacle growth on a given surface (Growing further out from the surface compared to further across the surface).
Prediction: The longest barnacles (ones that protrude furthest from their surface attachment) will be located in the regions that are most densely populated.
Response Variable: Growth pattern of barnacle (thin and long verses short and wide).
Potential Explanatory Variable: Population density within a given surface area. This is a continuous variable as it can be measured and provided with a numerical value.