Data, Data, Data

As the title suggests, this is most of what's been going on this week so far. Tomorrow I'm going to pop off island to grab groceries, but in the meantime, starting tomorrow morning we're setting up one of my trailermates' projects. Which means cages in the marsh. Whooooo. At least I like working as a group. Is fun.

On another note, I may actually be setting up 3 projects this summer. Yes, you read that right. This one will focus on the same stuff (crab non-consumptive effects on snails) but in the context of die-off. Not sure what it'll be exactly, but it may be another thing going on tomorrow. In the meantime, since I wandered to one today, let me show you what a die-off looks like.

 

A die off, essentially, is a puddle of mud. With the saddest, most pitiful looking grass in it you'll ever see. They grow somewhat rapidly especially in dry regions, or in drought years, and the snail densities can be truly frightening inside of them.

 

I pulled 2 dozen snails off of the plant in the bottom picture (yes, there's a plant there) in a single sweep of the hand. I'm lucky to find plants with 5 snails on them elsewhere. 

Die-offs are a subject of heavy concern in the marsh, and a very prominent feature. The mussel mounds seem to mitigate the die-offs, a process we're looking into as a lab. I'd kind of like to investigate how the crabs influence die-off, given that mussel mounds tend to be packed with mud crabs. Not sure if the usually negative, climbing inducing effect of the crabs on the snails is mitigated by some other service of the mussels, or if the crabs divert the snails around the mounds altogether.

But I'd kind of like to find out.