Time for owls

  

Some of you might remember that I sometimes see owls in pieces of sea urchin test.  Here's one perched on a branch of coralline algae.  :)  From 8 June 2024.  Do you see an owl, too?

P.S.  For more "urchin owls," see the post called "Duetting" on 11 March 2013.

Micro Macro

  

During a beach walk yesterday (17 August 2024), Eric and I came across quite a few Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) juveniles, including this very young individual (above) with a very small holdfast and one single blade. 

Most of these juvenile kelps were a little bit larger, but still early in their development.  Here's an example:

 

 

Below, two images show a closer view of the holdfast and the developing blades.  You can see the blades starting to split and the floats just starting to develop (as small swellings at the base of the blades):

 

 

 

 

 

I appreciated coming across these Giant Kelp juveniles and learning more about how they develop.

P.S.  I'm including one more photo just for fun.  The floats are little larger in this individual, and I hadn't noticed at the time, but you can see my reflection in the floats.  A self-portrait in kelp!

 

 

 

P.P.S.  Regarding the title of this post — In casual conversation, we sometimes shorten the scientific name of Giant Kelp, Macrocystis, to "Macro."  And because I am highlighting small individuals in this post, I thought it would be fun to play on those two names = Micro (small) Macro (Macrocystis).

Kelp toes

  

Tiny little kelp toes -- close-up of a Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) holdfast attached to a rock.  Washed ashore in Bodega Bay on 27 July 2024.

A local network?

  

Net-of-Cords Kelp (Dictyoneurum californicum) 

Note the interesting reticulated or network-like patterning.  The blade was in the process of splitting into two through the center.

Dictyoneurum has a distinctive holdfast -- strap-shaped, with haptera (branching root-like structures) on both sides.

 

 

[This kelp had washed ashore, so I placed it on a rock to take a photo, but this kelp lives much lower in the intertidal zone.]

Summer gold

  

Close-up of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) in Bodega Harbor on 29 June 2024.

A chiton with flair

  

Eric snapped this great photo of a Veiled Chiton (Placiphorella velata) during field work this afternoon (8 March 2024).  Impressive how well this species looks like the surrounding habitat — rock, coralline algae, and red seaweeds.  This individual even has a little bit of branching coralline algae growing on its shell plates!  

Here's another image from a little farther back:

 

 

For more information about this intriguing predatory chiton, you can review the post called "A veiled threat" from 21 August 2012.  And there's a beautiful underwater photo in the post called "Camouflaged like coralline" on 11 August 2021.

A bigger anchor

 

 

I was leading a walk about seaweeds today and we encountered a few of these Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) holdfasts attached to small rocks.  The rocks likely served as anchors when the kelp was small, but once they grew larger these rocks just weren't heavy enough to keep the kelp in place.

 

 

 

Fun to see the little kelp "feet," but maybe next time the microscopic stage of the kelp will find a larger rock.  You know the famous quote, "You're gonna need a bigger boat anchor."  ;)

Before the split

  

Always fun to see juvenile Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana).  This one was photographed a few days ago on 12 August 2023.  The blades haven't quite split apart yet, but you can see where that will happen.

Nestled among the branchlets

 

 

We looked down to see this interesting seaweed on the beach today — Cumagloia andersonii.  It usually doesn't have little white specks on it, so we took a closer look.  Below you can see a hint of what's attached to it:

 

 

These are juvenile pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.).  That means it's likely the seaweed has been drifting offshore for a while (long enough for planktonic barnacles to find it, settle, and start to grow).  Although we often see Lepas attached to drift kelp, I couldn't recall seeing Lepas on Cumagloia before, so took a few documentary photos.  

 

Here's an even closer photo where you can see the barnacles nestled among the branchlets of the seaweed:

 

 

P.S.  Ocean temperatures off Bodega Head have been quite warm this week — up to ~16°C or >60°F.  It'll be interesting to keep an eye on these temperatures during the next couple of months.

Golden grooves

 

 

Close-up of Sea Palm (Postelsia palmaeformis) blades, 10 June 2023.

 

In the zones

  

This morning (24 April 2023) we were finishing some surveys at a site with lots of wave splash.  In this case that means the intertidal zonation is clearly demarcated and the zones extend very high on the rocks.  

For example, on the left, the brownish coloration is made up of seaweeds (primarily Pyropia and Pelvetiopsis), the dark blue areas are California Mussels (Mytilus californianus), and below that is a band of surfgrass (Phyllospadix scouleri) and coralline algae (some of it is bleached, likely by warm or desiccating conditions, so it's paler than usual).

In this view there was also a nice flock of Surfbirds (Calidris virgata) foraging in the zone above the mussels.

Isopod and friends

  

We've been busy doing surveys in the field during the low tides recently, but here's an isopod photo from back in February -- a Blunt-tailed Isopod (Idotea urotoma) photographed in the low intertidal zone.  

Among other things in the photo, you can see pale pink crustose coralline algae, a small iridescent snail, Lirularia sp., and a darker pink and red bryozoan (Integripelta bilabiata, formerly Eurystomella).

Kelp in snow?

  

Bull Kelp in foam...looking a bit like snow!

Photographed from Bodega Head on 18 October 2022.

Floats and blades

  

I'm getting ready to talk with some students about local kelps, so here's a photo of Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) from June 2022.

Magic cape

  

I love seeing this sea hare, especially up close, when you can see the bright blue-green spots (and tiny orange dots, too, if you look carefully).  Meet Hedgpeth's Sea Hare (Elysia hedgpethi)!  [I posted about this species a few years ago — see "Not a flatworm!" on 26 June 2013.]

Last week, my first view of this individual was very different.  Under water, they are transformed into the beautiful sea hare in the first photo. But out of water, they look like a flattened green/black blob on the rock:

 

 

I was curious about finding the sea hare on the rock wall.  In the past I've found them near their food, e.g., a green seaweed called Bryopsis corticulans.  So I started scanning and soon located a clump of Bryopsis:

 

 

 

I kept searching and eventually found even more Bryopsis (below).  And this time there were a couple of patches that looked suspicious.  Can you spot the sea hares in the photo below?

 

 

 

Yes!  There's a large individual on the lower left side, and a smaller individual on the lower right side.  They look so much like the Bryopsis! But you can see that they're a little smoother and shinier.  Here's a closer view of the larger individual:

 

 

Their wonderful green lateral flaps with scattered spots always makes me think of a magic cape!

 

 

 

Photographed in Monterey County on 13 August 2022.

Nibbling

  

I was helping Emma and Fern scout some potential research sites this afternoon (9 July 2022) and we started to notice some Western Tussock Moth caterpillars (Orgyia vetusta) in the high intertidal zone.  Eventually we discovered that the caterpillars were coming from the top of the bluff where they had been feeding on lupines.  At one point Fern looked down to see the scene shown above — a Lined Shore Crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) feeding on one of the caterpillars!  I haven't seen this before, so it seemed worth documenting.

Earlier in the day I had noticed a few of these caterpillars, but in this case what caught my eye is that the caterpillars were eating seaweed!  Here's a Western Tussock Moth caterpillar nibbling on Ulva intestinalis:

 

 

P.S.  With thanks to Fern and Emma for sharing their observations today!

At the surface

  

A nice patch of Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) close to shore, 16 June 2022

Alaria and friends

  

Winged Kelp (Alaria marginata) and friends, 17 May 2022

Home, home on the seaweed

  

Recently Eric noticed these small crustaceans clustered on a seaweed washed up on the beach.

Here's what it looked like when first discovered:

 

 

This is the seaweed Sea Sacs (Halosaccion glandiforme), which consists of water-filled sacs (with a small volume of gas) normally attached to intertidal rocks.  When they're pulled off the rocks by waves, they'll float at the surface of the ocean.  If you look closely in the photo above, you can see the small clusters of crustaceans.  Under the microscope, more details are visible:

 

 

 

 

These are barnacle cyprids, the final swimming stage, of Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacles (Lepas sp.).  These cyprids will attach to floating structures like driftwood or a feather or this seaweed and then undergo metamorphosis into juvenile barnacles.  The appendages they use for swimming in the cyprid stage will morph into feeding appendages (called cirri) in the juvenile/adult barnacle.  Here's a diagram with arrows pointing to the appendages as they change during metamorphosis from their function in swimming to feeding:

 

 

 

What's cool is that the cyprids are partially transparent, so you can see those dark, feathery appendages in the close-up photos:

 

 

 

Fun!

 

Just getting started

  

 Juvenile Winged Kelp (Alaria marginata), photographed on 2 Jannuary 2022.