Wednesday, January 06, 2010

CatchUp 1

Last week ambled out to Salt Creek to see whether there still seemed to be kelp beds off the shore, as there had been in summer, and on into September. This is pursuant to the question of the brown algae, and because I hadn't seen heaps of beached algae out at Rialto. Definite heaps up against the rocks at Tongue Point in Salt Creek County Park:

Bull kelp (Nereocystis) (Click for larger image.)

and also some apparently still holding on where they grow. Am having trouble visualizing the cycle. They are still there but are they alive? Still photosynthesizing in their chlorophyll C fashion, or nevermore? When the new ones begin to grow in the spring from the spore patches which the current generation dropped, will all the old ones already be gone?

This all will take much more investigation. The Race Rocks page about Nereocystis is terrific, and you can easily see Race Rocks across the Strait from Salt Creek, weather permitting. So can assume they are talking about our very same lifeforms.

There were lots of harlequin ducks, and an eagle.

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