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On May 10th, my Marine Ecology class went to Pt. Piños in Pacific Grove to explore the intertidal. (You may have already seen pictures for this field trip.) I brought along my foldscope and some supplies to hopefully view some things microscopically. I do not have a Smart phone, so thankfully one of my classmates helped me by taking pictures with her phone so that I could post them here.
I think that green algae is awesome, so that is what I searched for on this field trip. In this first picture, you see Cladophora columbiana (Green pin-cushion algae) with forceps in the photo for scale. (You can also see Tar-spot algae and likely some Turkish towel algae, which are not green!)
As you can see in the photo green pin-cushion algae is spongy and looks just like a pin cushion. It is a little green clump that is made up of branching filaments. You can see the filaments in the microscopic photos below.
Cladophora columbiana from Pt. Piños. Photo credit E. Senyk.
Cladophora columbiana from Pt. Piños. Photo credit E. Senyk.
Sea lettuce ( Ulva sp .) can also be found in our area. Unlike Cladophora , Ulva is a thin, smooth and flat algae that is only 2 cells thick. It is easily ripped off by waves and it often washes up on the beach. Below you can see a bed of lettuce (along with mussels and some reds and browns). This bed of sea lettuce surprised me a little. I am used to seeing larger blades of Ulva , but these were fairly compact.
Doesn’t that picture just remind you of a great salad??
Below is a piece of Ulva in a foldscope. You can definitely see how flat it is compared to Cladophora and you can also see that it is relatively thin.
The edge of an Ulva. Photo credit E. Senyk.
Here are a couple of other things I looked at under the foldscope. These two are photos of a red algae found in the intertidal. I loved to see the little spines on these filaments.
Red algae spines. Photo credit E. Senyk.
Red algae spines. Photo credit E. Senyk.
Although it is not really in focus, here is a photo of the edge of a Feather Boa Kelp ( Egregia menziesii ).
The edge of the brown Feather Boa Kelp (Egregia menziesii). Photo credit E. Senyk.
My trip would not be complete without wearing the Feather Boa Kelp as seen below.
See you soon!