Hello again!

I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with the LiMPETS program , which monitors sandy shore and rocky intertidal ecosystems.  As part of our Marine Ecology class at CSU-Monterey Bay, we participated in rocky intertidal monitoring at Carmel Point .  The idea is to monitor invertebrates and algae over long periods of time to see how the community changes.

Monitoring is done by counting organisms inside of a quadrat, which is placed at specific points on a long transect line:

We found many interesting species, but I was looking for something smaller.  I grabbed a small chunk of seaweed and found an amphipod, which I placed on a microscope slide for a closer look.

As you can see in this video, despite his tiny size the field of view is so narrow with the Foldscope that we can’t see its entire body.  Its pereopods and pleopods are clearly visible.

Amphipod video