THE END

And with that, my group of grand geeks (not really), I would like to put a close to this blog. We have brainstormed ideas, researched, gone into the field, harvested specimens, tested them, observed, drawn conclusions, and shared reflections. I doubt we could've done a more thorough job on this project.

It was been a pleasure working with you.

Hi everyone!

To add to what Erik has already posted (looks great!), the amount of time that it took for the bull kelp bulb to burn in relation to the other kelps demonstrates its resistance to heat, far beyond temperatures it would encounter in its natural environment. (It would be interesting to find the rate at which the blades burn . . .) This could indicate that its cells have very strong, yet flexible walls, compared to the other species of seaweed examined.

Of the three types of pigment that were discussed, bull kelp contains fucoxanthin, which typically absorbs light at wavelengths of 450-540 nm, toward the high-energy end of the visible spectrum. (http://www.sea-thin.com/assets/documents/Japanese%20Fucoxanthin%20Clinical%20Study.pdf) This pigment also gives the kelp its brown tinge. The fact that the pigment is able to absorb light optimally at higher energy wavelengths suggests that it might be able to thrive at deeper levels than red seaweed species, since they can absorb the wavelengths that would be more likely to penetrate to deeper levels of the ocean. This would enable it to survive and grow during the earlier phases of its life, before reaching heights of up to 35m. (http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/bio2002/nereocystisl.htm) The high elasticity (anouther indication of the strength of the cell walls) would enable it to survive in regions with strong tidal currents, such as in the waters around this area.

This pigment/protein is also being researched for its fat-burning properties (meaning that there is lots of hype about it, and also that it is hard to find actual research on it on Google), though it has yet to be tested on humans, meaning that its effects are not yet actually known (http://www.sea-thin.com/assets/documents/Japanese%20Fucoxanthin%20Clinical%20Study.pdf).

So that's more from the biochem perspective!

Alex

Hello my friends!

So, I do believe that the experiment we did this last Saturday was a resounding success. The trip to the beach to gather our specimens and the actual experiment itself all went quite well!

First, I'd like to thank all three of you for making this project one of the best I could have hoped for. Although it may seem melodramatic, I would have to say that I couldn't have asked for more competant scientists.

I'd like to start off by apologizing -- I seem to have misplaced my transfer cord for my camera, and therefore I will be unable to upload any of the pictures I took of our project on Saturday. If I find it before tomorrow, I will be sure to post the pictures.

Now, in terms of the experiment itself, I feel as though I am obligated, as a chemist and biologist, to explain why the bullkelp and seaweed turned green after it burned (Mr. Marine has already touched on it), and why the bullkelp and seaweeds have such fastly different elasticities (in terms of the chemistry, as opposed to the physics, like Horacio spoke about).

So let me first discuss the burning experiment. As has been previously outlined, we burned the kelp and, whenever an observation about a change could be made, the observation and the time (counted up from when the heating began) were recorded. The most noticible change was a change from the original color of the seaweed and bullkelp to a green color. To explain this change, Mr. Marine has already identified the different pigements present in this aquatic life -- that is, cholorphyll, fucoxanthin (absorbs in the blue-green to yellow-green spectrum), phycocyanin (absorbs in the orange-red spectrum), and phycoerythrin (absorbs in the blue-green/yellow spectrum). This is why each specimen was a different color. Now, I would conclude, from a scientific point of view, that the reason why the color green was found after burning was because chlorophyll was the only pigment left. However, this is where the chemistry comes in -- why would this be so? The answer lies in the nature of the pigments -- fucoxanthin, phycocyanin, and phycoerythrin are all accessory pigments. What this means is that they are found in smaller quantities in these organisms, but still change the color of it (hence red algae, brown algae, etc). Because they are not as important, nor found in as great a quantity, as chlorophyll in these animals, it makes sense that when heated, these pigments are burned away the quickest. It is because they are accessory pigments that aid chlorophyll that chlorophyll was the only pigment left after burning. Of course, the chlorophyll eventually burns too, which is why a black substance (i.e. carbon) formed on the area most exposed to the bunsen burner.

Next, moving on to the elasticity, the chemistry behind it is actually rather simple. The bullkelp because brittle when it is dried, but is strong and flexible when wet. This is clearly demonstrated in our experiment, and in the results that Horacio has talked about. The reason for this is that when the bullkelp is hydrated, it aids in the fluidity of the cells in the bullkelp; the cells become strong and healthy once more (unless the bullkelp dies; then the cells decompose and the entire thing will not return to its former state), and are then able to withstand more force. However, when they are dry and brittle the cells shrivel and are weak, and are therefore unable to withstand as much force. It is quite similar to human behavior -- when humans are dehydrated, they cannot withstand as much force as they normally could.

So, my fellow scientists, I once again apologize for being unable to submit the pictures (albeit I did talk to Mr. Marine about it, and he suggested I use my SD card instead -- however, when I opened up my camera, I realized I had an xD card instead...well, I'm no technological whiz kid or anything, but I knew that a) they had different names and b) the latter card did not fit into my computer), and again I'd like to thank you for a great Group 4 project.

I will end with a quote by our own Logan Richard: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND! (as our research shall take us!)

Elasticity

Hello dear scientists,

I am posting the results that we got for the second experiment that we carried out, calculating the elasticity constant of different kelps and seeing how much force was required to break it. I have the raw data and I have processed it but I cannot upload a word document. I have sent you an e-mail with it. Here I am writing the results. First I am going to explain how I processed the data: we hanged the bull kelps (three of them with different diameters) and we hanged weights. The force applied was calculated with Newton's second law: by multiplying the mass by g=10 m/s^2 (rounded Earth's gravitational field strength). We measured the distance that the bull kelps were stretched. From there I drew the graph force against displacement and I calculated the elastic constant (by Hooke's Law: F=k·x). Then knowing the elastic constant and the displacement at which the bull kelps were broken I calculated the force that was applied (in order to break it we stretched the bull kelps with our hands, this is an important point to taki into consideration as an evaluation of the experiment, since there is likely to be an error in the displacement that we measured). Here are the results:

For the first bull kelp (diameter at the base: 4 mm; diameter of the bulb: 19 mm):
The elastic constant was 27.8 N/m and it broke when a force of 9 N was applied.

For the second bulb kelp (diameter at the base: 7 mm; diameter of the bulb: 47 mm):
The elastic constant was 42.6 N/m and it broke when a force of 13.2 N was applied.

For the third bull kelp (diameter at the base: 17 mm; diamter of the bulb: 55 mm):
The elastic constant was 921 N/m and it broke when a force of 197 N was applied.

I think that we should look at the diameter of the base to realize that the greater the diameter the greater the force that was required to break it. I do not think though that we could draw a relation between the diameter and the elastic constant with only three trials.
With the information that was given by Alex (the rate of growth of the Nereocystis is very rapid-sometimes as fast as 17 cm per day- being able to grow up to 36 m long) we can conclude that if the bull kelps grow so quickly and therefore the diameter increases and the strength also increases, the force that is needed to break it is very large (we have seen that for a bull kelp with diameter 17 mm at the base it was needed a force of 197 N; we have to consider that the bull kelp was about 50 cm long, so when it grows more, the force will be much greater). I have also found that the storms and waves can drag them (which means pull them out the soil but not break them, althought we could think that it is needed a great force to do it since the elastic constant of the bull kelps, as we have also seen, can be quite large).

Well, this is the physics of the bull kelps dear fellow scientists,

Horacio

Bull kelp

Sea lettuce

Rockweed

Turkish towel

Microcladia borealis

Pictures

Hello fellow scientists,

As Mr. Marine said, the project that we did on Saturday was carried out very well, we had to bike, we got wet in the beach, but we got the bull kelps and did our experiments (thank you to Mr. Marine for the summary of the day).

I think what we found with the first experiment whose results were posted by Mr. Marine very revealing. First of all, I think we have found a lot about the pigments of the seaweeds. Moreover the bull kelp took more time to burn so I think we could hypothesize that that is an example of the strength of the bull kelp.

The image above contains the different seaweeds that we were examining, the three above are brown seaweeds and the two underneath are red seaweeds (turkish towel and microcladia borealis). I will put more detailed pictures in other entries.

Horacio

Seaweed Under Extreme Heat Experiment: Marine Science Conclusions

As I stated before, red seaweeds have 2 additional pigments (Phycoerythrin) and (Phycocyanin) besides the green pigment (Chlorophyl). Brown seaweeds have one additional pigment (fucoxanthan). Interestingly, the colors of both red and brown seaweeds turned green under extreme heat. Only the green seaweed, the one with the single green pigment (Chlorophyl) stayed green. Therefore, we can conclude that the other pigments cannot survive in too much heat. The distribution of red, brown, and green seaweeds seem to correspond with this data as the green seaweeds are much higher in the water column, usually from the surface to the lower intertidal zone. Because of this it is closer to the sun, which means the water of its habitat will be slightly warmer. The brown and red seaweeds exist at lower depths than the green seaweed based on the light they can absorb: Their pigments allow them to absorb blue light (Phycoerythrin), red light (Phycocyanin), and yellow light (Fucoxanthan). But I now conclude they also inhabit lower depths because of the temperatures in which they need to survive in.

Bull kelp has a range from the surface to 33 m deep. As it is a brown seaweed, it has the pigment Chlorophyl, which gives it a green appearance, and Fucoxanthan, which gives it a brown appearance. An observation we made was that the bladder at the tip of the stipe was a lighter color than the stipe, which got darker as you went down it. This may be explained by a difference in the location of pigments: there is probably less Fucoxanthan than Chlorophyl in the bladder as it is the part of the bull kelp closest to the sun. Similarily, the blades looks significantly more green than brown, because they are the parts of the Bull kelp that perform photosynthesis with the red light of the sun.

Seaweed Under Extreme Heat Experiment Results

Bull Kelp (Brown Seaweed)

part under heat: bladder

1:50 color change starts (brown to green)

3:00 color change complete

4:00 hissing of liquid

5:00 smoke starts coming out of top

5:20 secretes liquid (mucus)

color change: yellow-brown to bright green.

Rockweed (Fucus) (Brown Seaweed)

part under heat: bladders and blades

:03 color change

:30 bladders expand

:45 bladders pop audibly and visibly

after 1 minute, end state is similar to bull kelp.

color change: yellow-brown to bright green.

Microcladia borealis (Red Seaweed)

part under heat: blades

:20 starts paling, turning green

:50 ends start charring

1:00 secreted liquid that bubbles on bottom

1:40 color change in different parts : yellow, black, green

color change: red to green and yellow

Turkish Towel (Chondracanthus) (Red Seaweed)

part under heat: blades

:09 bottom starts curling away from heat

:11 starts turning green

:30 curling at top, shriveling all over

:40 green is almost all over

1:00 dehydrating, shrinking

1:20 completely green, with some pale white at top

2:00 collapses in on itself

2:30 salt forms on top

4:00 dark red-black forming near bottom

color change: magenta to green.

Sea Lettuce (Ulva) (Green Seaweed)

part under heat: blades

:20 seconds: bottoms of blades blacken, moves lower in beaker

1:20 blacker and compressing

1:50 starts smoking

color change: no change, only charring.

The Day of Group 4 Science

Alright Guys! Well done on a successful day of ocean-related science last saturday. I'm just going to outline what we did for the blog's sake. I think it's important to state that we invested a good 7 hours from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm with a 1 hour lunch break.

On saturday, Group Amerispainada biked to nearby Witty's Beach to collect different species of seaweeds. As well as bull kelp (our primary focus), we also wanted to collect red, brown, and green seaweeds. Some of it we collected off the sand as it was lowtide, and some of it we took off the rocks on the shoreline.

The species we took were:

Bull Kelp (Nereocystis) -brown seaweed

Rockweed (Fucus) -brown seaweed

Microcladia borealis -red seaweed

Turkish Towel (Chondracanthus) -red seaweed

Sea Lettuce (Ulva) -green seaweed

We found some new growth Bull Kelps along the shoreline, but to retrieve the samples we got that were multiple meters long, Alex and I stripped and took the plunge to retrieve them (a bit of commitment and self-motivation there eh?). On the first try, the kelp broke along the stipe, so to retrieve the second one, I dove under and pulled up the holdfast so as to obtain the entire organism.

When we came back, we placed a sample of each of the seaweeds listed above into beakers. Then, we placed them individually over a Bunsen Burner to see how different Divisions (Phyllums) of seaweed reacted to extreme heat and observed their physical changes. I will post the observations in a separate post.

A successful day of traveling, field work, hands-on (of full-body-on) work, and experimentation, my fellow scientists.

Hello my friends, my colleagues, my bretheren, mis amigos, my fellow scientists.

Tomorrow is the day we conduct our experiment. As a result, I thought it necessary to do a bit more research, and to make another update to our records. Also, a proposal for a chemical analysis would also be useful (if not necessary!) at this point.

So, firstly I'd like to extend a gracious thank you to Mr. Marine for his extremely informative post. As a general extension of his thinking, I'd propose (as we were discussing earlier today) that we should indeed focus not only on bull kelp, but on different kinds of seaweed in general. Perhaps, as according to his post, the different "coloured" seaweed in relation to the bullkelp (i.e. compare the bullkelp to two other kinds of seaweed and find the points of comparison/contrast).

The next obvious question is what our experiment should entail. Well, according to my research, bullkelp can grow to be anywhere from 30m-80m long -- from the kelp floating in the bay, I find it hard to believe that this is the case around Pedder Bay! Nevertheless, the kelp we have generally are attached to rocks at the bottom of the bay. The types of seaweed that Mr. Marine has told us about (and I hope that at least a few of the species are local to our bay) share the same characteristic, as both bull kelp and seaweed are an important part of the underwater forest. Therefore, I would propose an experiment that compares the amount of force required to separate a bullkelp from a surface it has attached to to that of seaweed. If this is not viable (i.e. we cannot study the aquatic animals when they are still attached to something), perhaps an investigation into how much force can be applied in equal but opposite directions on the marine animal before it is torn in half (as Mr. Marine said, this can vary greatly between species).

Then, the bullkelp is topped (as has been previously mentioned by both Mr. Marine and Alex) with a pneumatocyst (that is, a large bulbous sphere on one extreme of the bullkelp). Inside of this bulbous sphere is carbon monoxide gas. Evidently, it is used for buoyancy so that the blades can reach towards the surface of the water for photosynthesis. I would therefore propose a second experiment we can conduct as another point of comparison between why the bullkelp has such a large pneumatocyst whereas the seaweed does not, yet they both photosynthesize. Perhaps on a technical note, the amount of CO in the bullkelp, or on a more practical level, simply a research inquiry into why this might be from multiple perspectives?

As a final note to consider (and possibly a third research project or experiment), I thought it would be interesting to perhaps find a connection between the different chlorophylls the seaweed contain (as some contain red, blue or brown pigments, as Mr. Marine said) and the place in which the seaweed and bullkelp is found. Just something to think about.

So, this is the research that I've found thus far, and the experiments that would logically accompany them. I believe if we follow them tomorrow, we will be able to explore the relationship between the four sciences on a deeper scale.

Cheers, my friends!

17th April

Hello fellow scientists, it seems that the day of the celebration os science is come.
I think that we are in the right way in our investigation. Thank you Mr. Marine for your biological information, I think it is very useful as it gives the fundamental ideas of what the bull kelp is. As we said we will focus in the investigation of the bull kelps from our science ans we will put all together. For tomorrow I have an experiment that we can carry out and it is related to physics, since we were worried about the lack of physics in our investigation. As it has been pointed out, the bull kelp grows very quickly and it is very elastic. That is also very important since rafts of kelp help reduce beach erosion ans kelp forests soften the force of waves against the shoreline. This protection is very important in the Juan de Fuca strait where large kelp beds form bay-like areas along the shoreward side. I think therefore that the study of the elasticity and strength of the bull kelps should be investigated since this properties help us to understand the role that the bull kelps play in our ecosystem.

The material we need is: dinamometer (we may not need it), weights and the kelps.

The procedure would be as follows: we will hang the kelps and we will put weights at the end. By applying this force we will see what the elasticity of the bull kelps is and which force is needed to break it (the dinamometer can help us to measure the force, but since we are hanging the kelps, they will experience the force of gravity, so we only will need to know the mass that we hang from the kelp).

We can also study as Mr. Marine said the diferencies between kelps so we get a better picture of their properties.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's experiment and research and I am sure that our investigation will lead us to some satisfying conclusions about the bull kelps.

Horacio

Research from Witty's Lagoon, BC today

I went on a field trip to Witty's Lagoon with my marine science class and made some good discoveries about seaweeds and Bull Kelp.

First, it is important to understand that bull kelp is not a plant, meaning it does not belong in the kingdom Plantae. It is in the kingdom Protoctista, which is kind of just the miscellaneous kingdom.

here are the main differences between Plants and Seaweeds.

Plants:

roots- absorb water and nutrients

stem- brings water and nutrients from roots to other parts of the plant. It also keeps the plant upright

leaves-absorbs light to photosynthesize.

Seaweeds:

holdfast- the seaweeds' method of anchoring itself to a solid structure.

stipe- supports the structure and keeps it upright. (not all seaweeds have stipes)

blades- absorbs light to photosynthesize

nutrients: interestingly, seaweeds can absorb nutrients through any part of their bodies, not just the holdfast.

Bull kelp has the longest stipe of any type of seaweed, and it is quite strong. It's holdfast, too, is incredibly strong, made of many finger-like projections that grip a rock or the bottom. The blades protrude from a bladder at the top that holds air, keeping the head near the surface so the blades can perform maximum photosynthesis.

Now, bull kelp is actually in a very specific category that is in other categories. Kelp is a seaweed, and seaweed is a macroscopic algae. Algae are photosynthetic organisms in the kingdom Protoctista. Kelp are big brown seaweeds.

There are 3 classifications of seaweed: red, brown, and green. This is based on their pigments. All 3 contain chlorophyll, which allow them to absorb red light to perform photosynthesis. Green seaweeds only have chlorophyll as a pigment.

Red seaweeds have two more pigments: phycoerythrin (red pigment), and phycocyanin (blue pigment). This allows them to absorb red and blue light.

Brown seaweeds have the pigment fucoxanthan, which allow them to absorb yellow light. Brown algae, in this case seaweeds, are scientifically known as phaeophyta.

Whereas red seaweeds are quite elastic and will stretch when pulled, brown seaweeds will simply break apart.

If we wanted to compare bull kelp to other types of kelp or other types of brown seaweed, here is a list of other species:

Rockweed (fucus)

Sea Cabbage (hedophyllum) -Kelp

Walking Stick Kelp

Bull Kelp (nerocystis)

Feather Boa Kelp (egregia)

Winged Kelp

Stringy Acid Hair

I hope this provided you guys with a little more information on bull kelp and seaweeds in general.

I found some interesting stuff about the classification of bull (or bullhead) kelp. It is a member of the chromalveolata kingdom, meaning that it is not classified as a plant. However, chromalveolata members have cell walls and chloroplasts, which makes them similar to plants (though these are two of the few similarities between members of the kingdom.) Other members of this kingdom typically include types of red algae, eukaryotic phytoplankton, and other types of kelp, among others. We could focus on researching how it differs from seaweeds classified in the plant kingdom, though this might be somewhat difficult because there doesn't seem to be too much on bull kelp, and what is there about its kingdom tends to be very technical.
The rate of growth of bull kelp, or Nereocystis, is very rapid-sometimes as fast as 17 cm per day-and the kelp itself can grow to be up to 36 m long! It also releases spores, unlike other kelp, and we could try to research this using the kelp sample that we find. (I'll do more research into that.)
Also interesting from the biochem side is that the bulb contains some CO gas . . . It would be cool to measure this if we have the right equipment.

-Alex

Let Us Meet

I propose we meet on Tuesday at lunch to discuss our procedure in relation to the bull-kelp experiment.

Hi,

Sounds like the bull kelp would be great as a project; we should meet at some point in the coming weekend/week to decide on a procedure for it, though. (And think about how we could possibly involve physics; maybe something dealing with the effects of tides on the kelp; I think elasticity was mentioned at some point . . . )
We could also look at the role of kelp forests as an important habitat around here, that would be interesting, though maybe difficult to do hands-on research on the day of the project. We could still do research on it and include it, though.
For now, we should decide on a time to meet, though.

-Alex

Procedure

Hello, fellow scientists,
We all know that this time is very busy, but it will be even more in the next weeks so we have to start thinking of the procedure of our investigation. I guess that the best way to do the research and carry out the experiments is dividing the work and posting our results on the blog so we all can gather the information and shape it coherently. I have been doing some research about the Nereocystis (the bull kelps) and I've found fascinating things. As Mr. Marine said we can approach the investigation from different perspectives. The research question, though, should be broad enough so we can involve the four sciences. We could focus on the benefits of the Nereocystis for the marine environment here: we would see the bull kelps as a source of energy and biomass and as a shelter and source of food for some fish. We would have to investigate the gases that there are in the bulbs (specially carbon monoxide), which is related to physics because that determines the buoyancy, and the forces of the bull kelp which drags other pieces of the substrate to the shore.
I was researching on racerocks.com and there is quite a few of information that we can use: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/bio2002/nereocystisl/2006deckelp/nereonshore.htm
I think in the next days we should propose a clear procedure and divide the work so we can start our research and gather the information putting the pieces together.

Cheers,

Horacio