Our WP1 May campaign is in full swing collecting our final round of data for the KELPEX project. After a few days of excellent diving conditions a storm rolled in and trapped us inside. We somehow ended up doing this: Yes, that is 2 professors and a post doc measuring how fast urchin poo sinks. Although this is justified - sea urchins are voracious grazers that shred and consume a major portion of detrital kelp and should strongly impact its export and breakdown - at some point you have to stand back and consider how you spend a Saturday. Sure, some scientists are currently researching how to get to Mars. But WE are curious why kelp forests are full of urchin poo.
Funny story. Remember that earlier post about the high tech field equipment required to conduct research in these deep fjord habitats? Ha. Right. So as this project heads into its last year key links we are still missing are: 1) how long it takes kelp to degrade in our deep habitat and 2) what animals are interested to this food influx? We are looking for a kelp signal in stable isotopes of organisms from these habitats. But, one mad plan to solve this was to deploy kelp into the 400 m deep basin on a surface float and see what happens. Of course this idea came from the WP1 subtidal divers... Hey! Sometimes you can do amazing science with a rope and a float. Our beloved KELPEX postdoc (and i
