As for the new reader to my blog I am high school biology teacher of 33 years at North Shore Tech in Middleton. I do have a wide variety of graduate training in my field, including some marine biology. However with this graduate class on the Erica Lee (a most worthy vessel) we have had access and exposure to an incredible variety of marine ecosystems that would not be possible other wise. This provides for a greater depth and breath to the class. The instructional and marine experience of the instructional team are professional and always willing to share their wealth of knowledge.
Reflection for day one at the boat house.
This session was a simple forum where class members could get acquainted and Rob could introduce the course. It was interesting and intriguing when three "mates", who had completed a different marine biology class the prior week with Boat Camp, shared and presented their lessons. It was amazing how varied the projects were and how creative they had to be to convey the content and concepts. All three had very different back grounds, subject and grade levels to teach. All three developed lessons for lower grade levels, however it did give me perspective on how the younger minds needed a difference conceptual strategy, since they often are lacking in knowledge and experiences. Keep in mind during my entire professional life I have been dealing with a much older high school student, which I believe may have narrowed my instructional view. For example Megan used nesting tubes for an elementary school class in order for students to conceptualize the food chain. This was an incredible simple method yet a powerful means that immediately created a mental construct that could be used for any age. I should include Charlies demonstration of the Coriolis Effect, this I may steal for my marine unit that's still under development. I hope I can get it from his wiki page.
Plum Island Wave Action
Further, Rob's historic perspective of the river was informative and useful since I have found that students do frequently find historic information, preferably brief, interesting or at least curious if present well. I am looking forward to our "quantitative" methods of collecting information from and on the estuarine ecosystem. The Chart Hunt Survey activity was impressive for developing an understanding of chart reading and familiarity of a both general and specific details of the area. Marine chart reading at this time is not useful for my current instructional assignments but can be applied directly to terrestrial map reading that we do use in the field. This will be used this fall for our White Mountain trip. When I teach trophic levels I will be using Rob's demonstration of transferring the expected 10% energy transfer by having students transfer 10% of water given from student to student, starting with a liter, for visual energy availability.
Content Log for Day one lesson.
Estuary's are partly enclosed coastal bay with one or more rivers flowing into it with a free connection to the ocean. This creates a transitional zone; that has a significant marine influence, that include changes in salinity, tide effect, and waves action, where as the river impact is from warmer freshwater that distributes nutrients and sediment. The inflow of both forces provides high levels of nutrients, warm gentle wave actions and continuous purging effects. What is created are incredible valuable nursery and habitats for an enormous number of marine species, including birds of coarse.
Glacial scouring of the ocean floor created contours that are similar to that found on land. The marine significance of this is that with temperature induced currents, typical of cold water regions creates upwelling. When ocean currents flow along the the ocean floor, rising and falling as it travels over low and high points, the current hits a land rise that sends the current upward toward the surface that also brings nutrients upward with it. The ocean floor is nutrient rich because decomposition of dead marine organisms and their like and their "poo". The importance of this is that the nutrients now are available to support the marine food chain. Marine food chain appear inverted as compared to land food chains because the producers (phytoplankton) are near the surface (closest to the sunlight) with zooplankton as the first order consumer and so on, downward to much larger consumers. Larger consumers do suffer with population reduction because the available energy is only 10% transferring form one level to the next. This reduction of energy from level to level translates to very significant amounts, meaning very limited energy availability for higher order consumers, thus limiting population size.
Reflection for Day 2 at Plum Island Point
This day was spent mostly at Plum Island Point which is the northern most region along side the Merrimack River. This was my first time exposure to the part of the reservation so I have little to compare too or draw upon from the past. The missing dunes and unnatural litter definitely made an impact. Certainly the eroded dune as described ran 50 to 100 yard deep and several hundred yard long. This is obviously a natural occurrence but does raise questions of the influence of global warming in perspective of the fact that dunes have been shifting for millions of years. It clearly demonstrates the force of the ocean and the dynamics of barrier beaches, light of the fact that human efforts to control this force has likely caused more harm than good or nature rolling over right over peoples efforts to protect fixed objects of interest. The exposed "cut" into the dunes can be used instructionally because it does reveal the layers during dune building and the adaptation of the dune grasses, also very useful for me.
Personally the most disturbing aspect is human created debris, such a syringes and countless amounts of plastic items on the dunes. Instructionally,, students need to see this first hand and be given an opportunity to experience and discuss the the causes, effects and possible long term impact on the environment and their personal lives by this unnatural occurrence. I have a planned field trip to Cranes Beach in two weeks which will allow me and my students to discuss these issues. We can also discuss the impact of other human activities, such as dams, for example, that have devastated the sturgeon population locally. Dams have prevented the sturgeon from breeding upriver.
At the point, Megan and I did a beach profile using a relatively simple tool (crafted by Captain Rob), that allowed us to create what appeared to a fairly accurate profile of the beach from the dunes to the river. This Monday I am going have our carpentry department to help us with four sets to use at Cranes Beach. This in an impressively simple yet accurate tool for a very small amount of money. Fortunately Rob didn"t seem to mind our modification to his original design. This task, especially over time, can reveal unique patterns of erosion, adaptions of life, actions of wind and water and so on. It furthermore integrates mathematics in the slope values calculation and graphing, technology with computer plotting and with the biology. Currently integration and use of technology are priority initiatives for my school.
Captain Rob discussing Erosion and Anchoring by Beach Grass
Content Log for Day 2
Acidification of the oceans is a currently small but increasingly occurring event. One likely cause may the the increases absorption of carbon dioxide as we know is measurable increasing and perhaps other acid pollutant that may include acid rain and waste water effluent. The marine concern here is that acidity dissolves sea shell (calcium carbonate) which will weaken and disrupt life cycles of many mollusk and coelenterates such as corals.
Glaciation was instrumental for the formation of Barrier Beaches which are directly responsible for the formation of the estuary and provides protection to the mainland from the ocean. Rocky till from the glaciers forms the point of contact for the accumulation of sand from wind and water action that creates the dunes. The loose sand is held in place primarily by the roots of the beach grasses and plants. The sands of the area are made mostly of quarts,mica and sea shells, however there are great variations in the composition of ocean sands. The sand grain size can be influenced by tide action. Ocean waves hits the Plum Island Barrier Beach the net wave effect current is north to south. This mean the the current generally flows North to south carrying the smaller grain southward. The North beaches have a larger heavier sand grain with the southern point having the smaller lighter grains.
Asian Shore Crab a new Invasive Species
Biologically we identified two invasive species, the Asian shore crab and the green crab witch are out competing native species. We also observed harbor seals, one gray seal, number of cormorants, a few American Black Ducks, and one mostly white with some black on the head yet still unidentified gull-like bird. I did observe that the rocky area exposed to regular and frequent wave action had very little marine life. In fact the only thing I could find were sparsely attached barnacle. This make sense since the rough surf would make conditions tuff to adapt too.
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