Hello everyone,
My name is Amelia and I’m a senior here at L&C. I’m a biology/computer science double major
so my posts will focus more on the science side of school. We’re a few weeks into the semester now and
I’ve already been on my first field trip.
I’m taking Marine Biology this semester and last weekend we went to Willapa
Bay up in Washington. The bay has huge mud
flats when the tide is out. We got there
a decent bit after low tide and it was still over a kilometer from the main
shore to the ocean. Our project was to
see if amphipods (little shrimp like creatures) were more common closer to the
ocean than they were close to shore. It
didn’t really go as planned. The reason
we thought there’d be more amphipods close to the water is so that they don’t
dry out as easily, but it was raining the whole project and every area we
sampled was under an inch or more of water.
We still did the project though and went home with 27 little baggies of
sand which we are now sorting through in lab to count the amphipods.
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| The mud flats |
Despite the weather, I had a lot of fun last weekend. I come from a small town and it was nice to
go back to one after spending the last two months in Portland. We met some very friendly dogs, picked a few
blackberries, and grilled up a salmon. Despite
a few leaky tents, everyone was kept warm by a lovely campfire and a good time
was had by all.
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| A female amphipod and eggs |
Do you have any questions about L&C? Feel free to email me at
ameliaberle@lclark.edu