Salt Marsh Trip
2006 - At the Cape May
Wildlife Refuge (2-mile beach unit) Halloween 2006
Photos are at the bottom of the page
Biology
Team On our trip to the marsh
we found many different types of fish, crabs, and other marsh life. We used a
variety of nets to catch the marsh life. Some of the nets we used include the
seine net, and small and large nets. The first type of fish we caught was an
Atlantic Silverside. A Silverside is similar to a minnow. It has a silver
stripe on its side. We did not catch a lot of this fish. The next fish we
caught was a Mummichog. A Mummichog has a rounded head and tail. Males and
Females are easily told apart. Another marsh animal that we caught was a grass
shrimp. The shrimp we caught was slightly transparent. We caught very few
shrimps. We caught a purple sea urchin. A sea urchin is a purple spiky part of
the marsh life. The final thing we caught on our trip to the marsh was a female
green crab. The green crab is not native to the Jersey shore. The green crab
is similar to the Blue crab but smaller. The Blue crabs have paddles while the
green crab has back claws. Those are the marsh animals that we found on our
trip to the marsh. We brought back a variety of different marsh life.
Dry
Team To start off with, the
first thing we had to do was put the Secchi disk into the water. The disk went
down 1.3 meters before it disappeared. The next thing we had to
do was measure the pH of the water. We had to complete this process twice. The
first time we did it the pH was 9.5. The second time we found a
completely different answer. The pH was 9.0. The third thing we had to
complete was to measure the dissolved oxygen of the water. The first time
we did it the measurement of the dissolved oxygen was 5 ppm. The second
time we completed it we got an answer of 4 ppm. One of the last
things we had to do was a simple job completed by our partner. She had the job
of taking pictures. The last thing we had to record was our observations.
Since it was high tide, the smell of the water wasn’t that awful. When our
tasks were completed we watched the other kids complete theirs.
The
Plankton Team Our Team was
the Plankton Team; the point of our team was to collect plankton samples to test
once we got back to the lab. While at the marsh, though, we had to do two
things so that we could collect the plankton. The first thing that we had to do
was set up the plankton net, a small funnel-like net with a bottle to catch the
plankton. For this to work we had to wait about ten minutes, to catch a good
amount of plankton, we did this twice. Then we had to collect samples of soil
and water so that we could have enough samples of plankton with out having to
wait forty minutes with the plankton net, even though the plankton net was
sufficient. This way when we collected the soil with the water we could get the
plankton that lurked on the bottom of the water. Once we got back to the
lab we studied the plankton and other microscopic organisms, we even found an
amoeba-like organism and round things that looked like tiny eggs. The samples
were very interesting, they had many sand particles, but there were also a lot
of small organisms feasting on phytoplankton. There were also many moving
things that we couldn’t identify. These samples were very lively, interesting,
and enjoyable to study.
The
Soil Team When we were at the
marsh we were the soil team and we had to test the soil in the water. When we
picked up the soil with a shovel and put it in the screen and we shook it up and
we found all different types of invertebrates that were living in the soil.
When we were looking at the soil the color of it was dark brown with a little
bit of green with leaves and branches of the plants. After we were all finished
with our experiment we got to test other things.
Water Team We as the water team
gathered information about the water. First we filled up the 2L bottle and gave
it to the dry team to test. Next we measured the temperature of water at the
surface and the bottom. The surface temperature of the water was 58 degrees
F. The temperature at the bottom of the water was 54 degrees F. The
water was a brownish green. Also the water was smelly and misty. After our
jobs, we did other fun things. For example, we caught a female mummichog.
8R:
We first ventured into the deep marsh of
Cape May Wildlife Refuge. Then we took many soil samples. Most of the soil
was a light orange-red or brownish color, but at the bottom (second layer of the
soil) it was gray- black. We had some water samples that had a thin film on the
surface and a bad smell. When it was on your clothing and skin it was very
sticky and smelled unpleasant due to the wetness and moisture of the air but was
mostly unavoidable. When we ventured for plant samples, we found milkweed and
many others that have not been identified at this time. We even got some crab
shells and some groups had fiddler crabs. One group had four fiddler crabs
at one point.
Past trips are documented
here.
Photo Album (click for larger view)
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Minnows (mostly Mummichogs) and seaweed |
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Recording Data in waterproof notebook |
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Deploying the plankton net |
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