We arrived around 1:30…I’m not sure what time zone that counts for. It can get very confusing to cross time zone during the daylight savings switch. Especially since daylight savings begins at 2 am. So we arrived at 1:30 am…unpacked, and then went to bed at 1:30 am. The morning was bright and sunny. It was a beautiful warm day on the coast. The campus is as it always is, damps, moldy and yet solid. It feels like nothing ever changes at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. It doesn’t feel like a place where science pushes the boundaries of knowledge. It feels like a place where old men go to forget life.
First order was to collect food supplies. As I had planned ahead I waited in our dorm while everyone else went out to get food. I discovered a half built puzzle which occupied my attentions. We collected red alder leaves in the afternoon. We are collecting fall shed leaves, the brown ones that have started to return their nutrients to the soil. These brown leaves we rinsed to remove the sand and grass and laid out on a table to dry out. Having our leaves prepared we went to the near bay and sent Doug in to get kelp. He stumbled on a rock and filled his chest waders with water. Nothing quite like the 10 C water of the Oregon Coast.
We finally turned our attentions to the coast itself to select our study sites. Our plan is to deploy our alder leaves into the rocky intertidal zone and observe the rate of decomposition. We need to find some sheltered coves where we can place the leaves where they won’t be disturbed by people or too much by waves. And, we have to be able to get to them. We picked our way through some coves and headlands, observing the incoming tides and a raccoon feasting on the exposed coastline. The sun sets early and we return to base, our minds filled with the possible choices and with the implications of them. Tomorrow we take the next steps.
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