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I plan to study the tidal pools at McNeil Bay in Victoria BC. The organisms that live in these pools are both biotic and abiotic. Examples are barnacles, fish, brown and green algae. The abundance of these organisms varies depending on the zones of the pool from high tide to low tide. The three locations I chose to observe the changes in were low tide, intermediate tide and high tide. Below is some notes that I recorded on the locations:
- Low tide: Greater biodiversity, the organisms here do not need to be well adapted to drying out and extreme temperatures. Organisms such as anemones, brown seaweed crabs and fish live here.
- Intermediate tide: At this point there is a mixture of both species in the low and high tide but mostly it looks like there are a few invertebrates (chiton) but lots of seaweed.
- High tide: Organism here have to survive drying out, currents and wave action. A larger abundance of barnacles, seaweed with only a few invertebrates can be observed.
These patterns could be due to the very different environments that they live in varying with elevation. I hypothesize that low tide zones will have greater abundance than high tide for (species) due to the less harsh conditions for it to live in. I predict larger biotic organisms are only in low tidal zones. Based on my hypothesis one potential response variable would be the total number of each species in the tidal pools which is categorical. A continuous variable would be the percentage of cover of each pool with seaweed. One explanatory (predictor) variable would be the unique environment the tide pool provides for the species. This variable would be categorical since there are 3 distinct locations of the pools.
I am not very good at drawing so I only sketched a few things but mostly I have chosen to take pictures and document my field observations all electronically.
This is a really interesting observation! The high-intermediate-low tide gradient is great for examining spatial patterns and species distribution, and your response variable of species abundance is clearly stated and should be easy to quantify. Is percentage cover of seaweed considered a predictor variable? Your hypothesis is straightforward, that you will find greater biodiversity in low tidal zones than in the other two tide pools based on harsh conditions, but what are some of these conditions? Maybe consider anthropogenic influence such as human extraction, or other environmental factors such as competition, predation, herbivory and other disturbances (frequency of waves at low tide vs high tide). Overall, great topic and good luck with the rest of your project!
Anna