MAYDAY, MAYDAY. This is the Rockies. We are covered by data and algae and ... pods. Do you copy? MAYDAY!

The analysis time has come. How to analyse it? At the beginning, we go slowly, gradually. Like one of many snails we sampled. We take time to work in R studio, we discuss the ideas patiently. In the evening, we go slowly, gradually as well. But it’s more like sliding off the rocky shore towards the steep cliff. Welcome to the ‘panic zone’.

We have so much data, we are drowning in it. At the start of the project we wanted only to sample the rocky shores fauna and measure wave exposure levels on three islands. But in the process, we found ourselves collecting 2 different faunal samples per site (from belt transects and from quadrats), collecting algal samples, describing habitats on the islands and recording the weather conditions. We can do so much with it, but we have so little time. 2 days! 2 days to analyse the data, write the report, prepare the 14-minute long presentation, make a documentary movie and finish the blog (he-he). So please, don’t be angry that we did not post too much but at the end of this project I can see clearly that the number of blog posts is inversely proportional to the workload of the project (let’s hope that to its success as well).

However, we finally managed to divide the workload and submit the very-important report 2 minutes before the deadline. So here I come, in this last, fourth, blog post, to tell you about our results.

Overall, we counted and identified 3747 animals from the three islands. The organisms belonged to 43 different species, spanning 14 Orders and 6 Phyla. Most abundant were barnacles, then Littorina snails, followed by other snails, decapods and amphipods.

Barnacle feeding. Credits: Svenja Neumann.

Our -pods (Isopod, Amphipod). Credits: Marie Brigeot.

Statistically, we did not find a significant difference in diversity between our three islands, which may be also because wave exposure levels on islands turned out to be not very different. Only one islet, the most exposed one, showed bigger wave action than the two more sheltered islands. Therefore, there was no gradient of wave exposure across our 3 islets. However, despite of lack of statistical significance, the species distribution across the three islets was not homogenous. There were more species at the most sheltered islet, which included two times more Orders and Phyla than the exposed islet. Moreover, this islet was inhabited by species not found at the other two islets: Palaemon elegans (rockpool shrimp), Sagartia sp (sea anemone), and Stylochoplana maculata (eel flatworm).

But the most beautiful were starfish and nudibranchs! Left: Asterias rubens (credits: Jenevieve Pacurza Hara), right: Elysia viridis (credits: Karolina M. Czechowska)

That’s for species diversity. For functional diversity, we created functional groups to which we assigned the species found, based on their size, mobility and feeding strategies. Overall, we found animals categorised to 13 functional groups. Again, there was a slightly bigger diversity on the most sheltered islet, than on the two more exposed ones. However, most groups were represented only by one or two species on each island, except for macro and micro browsers and micro scavengers.

That’s for all for now. We gave you a taste of our results. We also found some interesting differences in algal diversity and habitat characteristics on the islets. But for more information, you can check out our report or documentary movie, which will appear very soon ☺.

Now, we need to get into our acting roles for the documentary movie. Very serious stuff. The Show must go on!

Filming time! Credits: Karolina M. Czechowska

The Rockies: OVER AND OUT.

By Karolina M. Czechowska