As predicted today was rainy. In Oregon the rain is kind of more of a misty dreariness. It ebbs and flows like the tide but is usually just enough to keep paper wet. Hardly anyone uses umbrellas and raincoats only come out on the worst days. We had an intern from the local community college join us for the day. She was there on a basketball scholarship but discovered the marine biology base nearby and started spending her time here. We spent our time focused on developing an experimental design. We finalized the number of study sites. With two marine sites and two freshwater sites we then have to consider number of replicates (4 for the marine and 3 for the fresh), and our different kinds of treatments (fine and coarse mesh bags, and kelp and alder leaf types). We also have to collect the same number after two weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks. Our final number? 172 leaf packs.
We spent the rest of the day figuring how to number all the packs then we began weighing quantities of leaves (~4 grams per pack) to fill each of our packs. This is the tedious part where it is really easy to make a mistake. We also slipped away to attend a dissertation defense for a local PhD student. We didn’t go into the field today. Some days are like that. You stay in the lab on a rainy day and learn to make labels.
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