What is interesting?

Guest

Dear Susan,
Hi, I know a little bit about food chains.Did you know that seagulls will eat baby turtles? I am really interested in what you are doing and in animals in general.

What do you think has been the most interesting part from the foodchain that you have learned on this trip? Have you been surprised by anything you have found?

Thanks,
Taylor

Joined: 20 Apr 2004 Posts: 7

Hi Taylor!
We have about 15 scientific projects occuring on the ship but the one I
am working on involves food webs. We can figure out who is eating who
by using a chemical method called stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes.
On the ship we collect organisms from all levels of the arctic food web.
We collect primary producers by filtering out phytoplankton from
seawater. Next, we use a zooplankton net to gather the animals that eat
the phytoplankton. The arctic zooplankton are represented by several
kinds of copepods, amphipods, and arrow worms. When the zooplankton die
they fall to the bottom and feed the animals that live on top of the
seafloor and also those that live in the mud. We are pulling a small
dredge to sample the animals that live on the seafloor and a van Veen
grab to take mud samples. The mud samples are washed down through a
seive so we can find the animals.

Arctic foodchains are very short compared to those found in warmer
waters such as the Gulf of Mexico. For example, ice algae grow on the
underside of the ice. In the spring a couple species of amphipods move
under with the ice algae and have a feast. Then the arctic cod fish
shows up and eats the amphipods. The ringed seal loves arctic cod and
polar bears are ring seal gourmets. There are four steps between the
tiny primary producer (ice algae) and the giant polar bear. I find that
pretty amazing.