User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The collection of data in Module 3 went very well. A difficulty that I encountered was finding tide pools at the high tide region since most of them at McNeil Bay are at sea level. There were many more at the low tide region but I was only able to randomly select 5 from down below and had them spaced apart by at least 1 meter (2 steps). The water in the tide pools further down was quiet murky so it was hard to see what was inside all of the pools. Since I was measuring cover for the algae, I collected that data first and then looked for the individual species that could have been hiding underneath. The data that I collected was not overly surprising because I did see more biotic species (fish) in the pools closer to the ocean. I did however notice more seaweed cover at lower levels which I thought I would find more of higher up. I will collect the data in the same way for my final collection because I did not encounter any serious difficulties. I could improve the data collection by being more precise with the the sampling technique using transects along a measuring tape. This will improve the accuracy of pools that are in different elevation gradients.
