Last Days at Hatfield

Well, Hatfield ended about a month ago now, but I just realized I never told you all how it ended! During the last week my group mates and I diligently researched the Theory of Island Biogeography and its application to tidepools.

Basically, the theory is that the number of species on an island is related to the distance of the island from the mainland and the size of the island (makes sense right? larger islands can hold more species?). We measured and calculated the volume for 30 tidepools on the Oregon coast and then counted the number of invertebrate species in each of them.

On Thursday, we presented our findings in a research paper and in an educational forum open to the public and the scientific community (a whopping 8 people came not including our class and instructors). The project and presentation went really well (I got an "A" in the class!!). Even though we did not have a very large sample size, our study did show a positive relation between the size of our tidepools and the number of invertebrate species. Although the data pool isn't huge, this data can add to previous studies focusing on fish and algae diversity under the same circumstances and hopefully, eventually, prove the application of this theory to the rocky intertidal.

On Friday we celebrated the end of the term. Many of my friends from the class went on to great jobs and research projects this summer. Trista, Justin, and Kristen went on to work for a research group named PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans) through OSU. Mike is studying marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands with our former teaching assistant Luis. Esther is now the Marine Science Director at a Boyscouts Camp in Catalina. I am returning this summer to study Marine Mammals for two weeks with Jim (the crazy Figian at the top of the page).

Thanks for reading my site and sending me all of the great notes! See you this summer!

Darcie