Blogs, articles and a video to help with seashore studies.
Winkles and Seaweeds
In my article about doing a transect on the rocky shore I have included some links to a few of my other articles and blogs that could be helpful (zonation, tides, winkles and seaweeds). I deliberately avoided mentioning barnacles there because their identification can be difficult and counting them is tedious to say the least! Barnacles are, however, still my own special interest – see ‘Barnacle Heart’ – and I will probably write an article or two about them and their zonation on the shore (my only article about barnacles so far has been about cirripedes in general – a sort of quick survey of the types.) Wesley Rouse has written a very nice article about how you should plan a research project which uses the distribution of barnacles on the shore as its example.
Other Shore Animals
One of the problems with working on rocky shores is the fact that there are so many different animals there. For transect work you need to limit the number of species you try to count, and you should make sure you are confident about their identification before you begin. Winkles and seaweeds are good to start with, but if you have a bit more time then maybe include the barnacle species and the dogwhelk (which eats barnacles and is important in determining their lower limit on the shore). I found this really nice YouTube Video - dating from the 1950’s – which shows most of the animals and plants you are likely to encounter, and although the accent might amuse you the information is excellent.
Request Articles
If you would like me to write an article about any particular shore creature or study technique then either join in the discussion or email me.
