Crystal Beach
Crystal Beach was a nice, 82
degrees (F) with a nice breeze and minimal clouds (20-30% cloud coverage
nearby). The beach was located beside a neighborhood
and the Gulf of Mexico, giving a secluded beach environment. The sand was very mucky, and the water temperature
was 84 degrees (F). The humidity was
72. At first glance, the most prominent plant
growing near the water are mangroves beside the estuaries. When we arrived at 2:15, it was at high-tide.
Our
purpose for being at Crystal Beach was to observe the wildlife and how the
change in substrates lead to different types of minerals, plants, and animals
the farther you go out from the beach. This would be done by measuring 30
meters from a specific point, and every 3 meters a transact would be placed to
observe the different organisms living within.
This is called a diversity index, and different groups did different
locations along the beach (some extended out towards the dock, while our group
examined north to South along the edge.
Before
the diversity index, the group took a walk along the extended pier. This gave us an opportunity to see some of
the different wildlife along and near the pier.
We saw horseshoe crabs mating (these horseshoe crabs had
quite the personalities!), a blue herron, saltgrasses, a giant string ray, and
oysters and barnacles resting below the bridge.
My
group had the lowest percentage calculated of abundance of creatures (I believe
that was the measurement) at .6291, while the other groups had numbers above
.7. Animals that were seen was (1)
gastropod, 4 fiddler crabs, 3 mollusks, 19 mini crabs, 3 snails, and salt
grasses.
No comments:
Post a Comment