The Intertidal Gods

The Intertidal Gods must have felt bad for me last Winter because they've really been taking it easy on me so far this Winter. I've been out in Woods Hole setting up my experiment the past three days. The first day, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 was 55ºF, sunny, and felt like a Spring day.

This was a MAJOR improvement from the same day one year ago:

January 24, 2011, the coldest day of that year.














My first field day this Winter I took photos of the natural rock and plates to identify recruits, or barnacles that settled last winter and survived for one year:

I will survive! Recruits from last year's settlement season. I'm interested in whether they select certain habitats as larvae and whether those choices also help them survive.











The next day, Wednesday, I cleaned off those same sites so that I can monitor barnacle settlement this Winter. I'm interested in whether larvae choose the same sites from year to year. It's also important to monitor settlement more than one year to understand how natural conditions such as inter-annual changes in temperature versus changes due to climate change influence settlement.

Yesterday, Thursday, I took my first photos (read: data) of the 2012 settlement season and larvae had already settled!

Those little yellow beans are cyprids, the settlement stage of barnacles.













At the same time, I'll be monitoring environmental variables such as temperature and light at each of my sites to see whether they influence barnacle settlement choice. So, yesterday I installed base stations which I will attach data loggers to:

The black blob is epoxy with a plastic cleat in the middle, to which I'll attach a data logger. The epoxy was really messy and my first two weren't so pretty, but they got smaller and more streamlined by the time I got to the last one.










Wondering how I've been fueling up for these cold days out in the field? Well, it has been a little challenging. I forgot how hungry being outside in freezing temperatures can make you.

On Tuesday I ate eggs, bacon, and blueberries for breakfast. I wasn't really hungry for lunch, so I just grabbed a cappuccino with half and half at Coffee Obsession in Woods Hole to fuel my field work. I brought some nuts, which I ate on my way back home. Then that night I topped some mixed greens with the chicken and caramelized shallots that I had made the night before.

On Wednesday, I again had bacon, eggs, and blackberries for breakfast. Right before I went out in the field I drank an avocado, tomato, and kale smoothie from the primal blueprint cookbook (another Christmas gift from my mom). Then I ate some Applegate Farms peppered roast beef slices and bought a 70% dark chocolate bar at Coffee O as a snack on the way home.

That night my undergraduate student, Melanie, and her boyfriend Adrien came over for dinner. She was born in Chile and I spent my last two days in Chile visiting her hometown, Quillota, and her family. I invited her over for Cazuela de Pollo (chicken soup), which is a little different from American chicken soup because it has squash instead of potatoes in it, and some Chilean wine, over which I told her about my adventures with her very hilarious family (one of which involved chasing down a bus that had driven away with my luggage!). For dessert we topped blueberries and raspberries with freshly whipped cream.

Yesterday was a little bit challenging because I woke up tired and didn't bring enough food for the field. For breakfast, I cooked up some eggs in ham baskets from the Paleo Comfort foods cookbook. For lunch, I had some leftover chicken soup and a piece of dark chocolate before heading out into the field. I noticed that I started getting hungry after 3 hours in the cold, so I stopped by a small market and bought some kale with linguica soup. It had beans, which I ate, but there weren't really any other options. On the way home, I had some more dark chocolate. And when I got home, I topped some mixed greens with olive oil and avocado and polished off the last piece of chicken and caramelized shallots. Next time I'll have to bring more food!

All in all, this field season is way better than last field season due to my diet. Last year I remember being irritable, tired, having difficulty concentrating, and would have to stop in the middle to eat a snack. But I especially remember being super tired on the drive back and forth from Woods Hole. It got so bad sometimes that I had to pull over and take a nap. This year, on the other hand, I would work the entire low tide without even thinking about food or needing a break. And the best part, even though I hadn't gotten that much sleep the nights before, was that I didn't need to stop and take naps AT ALL on the way back and forth from Woods Hole. This diet has definitely been good for my science!

Another fun thing about this field season? My waders are falling off of me from the weight I've lost!

 Trying on my waders last year, when they fit perfectly.

Out in the field last year, tired, irritable, and filling out my waders.












There's a saying in the Primal community that the diet helps you LGN (look good naked). Well, it also helps you LGIW (look good in waders) ;)