Spring is in Full Swing!!!

It was so beautiful out today!!! We could walk around with a fleece rather than our cumbersome winter coats! We still have the wind coming off the 4 degree Celsius ocean to contend with at this time of year, so no matter how warm the land gets the breeze is always much cooler. Everyone was out and about....Diego and I even took an hour walk around the city this afternoon to get away from our computer and get some much needed rays on our pale faces!

I also, got to visit some of my fav. flower spots along the way. The daffodils are on the verge of opening and being ripe for picking (they are on public property...an adult school to be exact and I only take 4 or 5...). The pussy willows are out full force! I picked these up at the market on the weekend. Halifax has an amazing farmers market year round!!There is also a HUGE magnolia tree close to my place and you can see where the buds are cracking open to reveal the delicious smelling white flowers within. I give it another 1.5 - 2 weeks before it is in full visual and olfactory glory! Every year I encounter the owner of said tree and she is happy to have someone enjoy it so much! I try to walk by there every day when it is in bloom! Yes, I am a self admitted flower stalker...

Speaking of flowers...more of my orchids have opened up!
This one opened its first flower 1.5 weeks ago. I love how you can see the spots that the flower will have on its petals on the surface of the buds! These flowers are quite small, the size of a twoonie (our 2 dollar coin for those non Canadians).
This one opened up about a week ago. It has large flowers, about the size of my palm and has these delicate tails that you can see in profile on the side view flower. I have two more orchids left to produce flower shoots, I am not sure if they will bloom this year...but if they do you will be sure to know!!! Another great thing about spring are the orchid shows!!! I love orchids, they are so varied and produce gorgeous and very long lasting flowers! Remember this one well it still has one flower left and it has been 2.5 months since it started blooming!!

We also went to Pete's Frootique to pick up the few things we couldn't get at the market on the weekend. For those of you who aren't familiar with this store...Pete's is a locally owned store that specializes in exotic fruits and veggies but also carries a lot of locally made beauty products and other fare...way better than the HUGE corporate grocery stores and has most everything you would ever need and it pretty competitive with prices (except for the cheeses...)...but I digress... It was here that Diego surprised me with...you guessed it...Flowers!
Irises to be exact. We passed a garden a few days before and I got all excited that it had a local variety of iris that was blooming!! So when he saw these beauties he knew I would squeal with delight! Although, they are not the local variety they are beautiful!!! He is such a sweety!

That's all for now...back to the grindstone!

Don't forget to enjoy spring wherever you are!
Happy Spring to all! :)

The Eelgrass Story. Part I a: What is Eelgrass?

As promised (although quite belated) here is the first installment of The Eelgrass Story.

What is Eelgrass?

Eelgrass is a type of seagrass and seagrasses are aquatic angiosperms (flowering plants). They are called seagrasses because most of the plants resemble large grasses found on land but are confined to marine environments. In North America, eelgrass refers to the species Zostera marina.

Seagrasses in general have an extensive below ground network that comprises of roots and rhizomes and grass like leaves above the sediment.
The rhizome is the main below ground stem off of which roots and new shoots can grow. The roots anchor the plant in the sediment and they also absorb nutrients from the water in the sediment, similar to the roots of land plants. Growth of new shoots from the rhizome is called rhizomatous growth and is how the plant reproduces asexually (ie: without the need for fertilization). This type of asexual reproduction is the main mode of expansion of a bed. An entire bed can sometimes be composed of just one or two individuals!

Above the sediment, seagrasses can have leaves of various shapes and sizes, from flat to filaments to round leaves from lengths of a few centimeters to over a meter! Eelgrass leaves are flat and narrow and really do resemble grass.

Copyright © 2006 Mary Jo Adams; From Washington State University (http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/ezidweb/seagrasses/Zostera.htm)

The blades can be long or short, this depends on the amount of light reaching them. So in shallow waters their leaves are short but in deeper or more turbid (ie: lots of particles or murky) water their leaves can be over a meter long! The leaves need to be close to the surface of the water to gather enough light for photosynthesis.

This is a bed in Prince Edward Island where the length of the leaves was on average 20 cm long and was found in water about 0.75 m deep at high tide.

This was my study site in Musquodoboit Harbour (MH), Nova Scotia. This site had the longest leaves always over a meter long, but the water depth was only 1.5 m....her you can see the tops of the leaves on the surface of the water as the tide is receding. This was very hard to paddle/swim through. So why were the blades so long here with the water so shallow....
This is one of the reasons...this is underwater in MH in June, there is so much sediment, phytoplankton (floating unicellular plants, hence the greenish colour) and tannins in the water that not a lot of light actually gets through to the bottom. Tanins are tanic acid which comes from decaying plant matter and gives freshwater its brown colour. The brown freshwater can form a lense on top of the seawater (because it is less salty it floats) or get mixed in with waves and wind. There is a limit though to how long the leaves can get, and if the water is turbid and deep they will likely not occur there because they don't get enough light.

***Mini experiment*** Mix salt with water in the bottom of a glass (2 tbsp for 1/2 a cup), then put some food colouring in some freshwater of the same temperature in another glass, then slowly pour it in on top of the salty water...you should see a clear separation...leave it for a while and see if there is any mixing. Then mix it up with a spoon. This is how it works in the oceans where rivers meet the sea! The freshwater will continue to float on top of the seawater unless something mixes it up, like waves, wind, boats, tides, etc. ***

At this site in Taylor's Head Provincial Park in Nova Scotia, the water is more like 2.5 m deep at high tide, but the leaves are only 30 cm long on average....but look at the beautiful blue colour of the water (ie: not a lot of phytoplankton, etc.) and the clarity. The instrument you see in the photo was place there to measure the amount of light and quality (ie: what colours or wavelengths) that reach the seagrass....these were placed at all my sites and are Diego's babies (he made them!).
As an aside, at this site we had a "plague" of jellyfish (big and small). At one point, I looked up from my work and counted 25 that I could see in front of me...they were everywhere...my dive buddy and co-worked Jess and I got repeatedly stung on the only exposed skin we had...our lips!
Here are 4 large ones tangled on a line we had in the water. Their bell (the round part) was about 25 cm in diameter...so these were pretty big and had very long trails of stinging tentacles! Here their tentacles are entangles in the line (I set them free) but some of the stingers stayed behind and stung our boat person Kate as she hauled up the line...this was a hilarious (and somewhat painful) day!

Now, back to eelgrass...Since they are flowering plants, they do produce small flowers to reproduce sexually! Some species of seagrass have both sexes on the same plant (monoecious), while other have seperate male and female plants (dioecious). In the case of eelgrass, from what I understand (correct me if I am wrong) they are on the same flower. The flowers look like small white/yellow chevrons (or v-shapes) on the leaves (see image below).

Image by: Josef Ackerman; From the webpage of the Botanical Society of America (http://www.botany.org/plantimages/ImageData.asp?IDN=abot84-8&IS=700)

Similar to flowering plants that let the wind carry their pollen, seagrasses let the water transport theirs and the shape of the flowers encourages pollen settlement by altering the water flow

around it. Each flower produces one seed.

Copyright © 2006 Jan Holmes; From Washington State University (http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/ezidweb/seagrasses/zostera2.htm)

Sexual reproduction is the mechanisms by which the plants can expand their range and potentially colonize new areas within estuaries and beyond. The seeds can travel tens to hundreds of kilometers. It is also an insurance against disease and other disturbances that can cause catastrophic loss of a bed. Many of the seeds fall within the bed and form what is called a seed bank. So, if large scale loss happens and conditions remain suitable (this is the most important part) then the seeds can recolonize and area. In the 1930's "wasting disease" reduced eelgrass populations along the Atlantic coast of North America and in Europe by 90%. This disease ended the traditional harvest of eelgrass for insulation in houses as well as for use in matresses and pillows. It took the beds until the 1960's to recover in many areas but in others they never recovered because the conditions in that area changed preventing recolonization. Wasting disease is cause by a slime-mould like organisms called Labyrinthula zosterae. It continues to affect eelgrass in North America and Europe but no events have been as catastrophic as in the 1930's.

Image of the symptoms of wasting disease. From: OceanLink (http://oceanlink.island.net/Conservation/eelgrass/research.html)

We even saw evidence of the wasting disease at many of our study sites (see photo below and the one above with the short leaves). But this was on outer leaves (ie: the older ones that are going to be shed) indicating that it was not getting ready to take over and destroy the beds.
Like most diseases, they often stay at a background level in populations (and in this case the water too) and only affect the older weaker leaves unless another stressor affects the plants ability to fight the disease then it takes over.

Stay Tuned for The Eelgrass Story Part I b: Where is it found? For more fun and interesting facts about these very versatile plants! :)

My Life Lately....and the ultimate slacker!

I am stuck at home with a nasty head cold and thought this would be a good time to catch you up on what has been going on in my life lately. I know I have been the biggest slacker in the world...teasing you all with promises of weekly science-y posts and I have yet to post one... for that I apologize...I hope you can all forgive me! :)

Let's just say it has been a fun filled and very productive (home and work) few weeks!
I wanted to share with you another of orchids in bloom. I love that two of the petals surround its sensitive reproductive organs.

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago so now it is in full bloom with 4 large flowers! I also bought myself some gorgeous tulips a week ago...

...and late last week Diego came home with a dozen daffodils!

I have been surrounded by beautiful colours and scents which has kept me cheery even in the snowy and rainy days we've had since I last posted.

Diego and I are in the midst of re-decorating our bedroom. He promised that we would paint ( I can't wait to get rid of the faded and shabby light blue colour!!!!) and build a few shelves for my jewelry box and plants and we have come up with a creative idea for a headboard! We have an antique one that doesn't suit our tastes but also bangs around a lot...not so great when you have neighbours downstairs if you know what I mean!! :)

So, we started the re-deco tasks by re-organizing our closet (it desperately needed it!!!) and building a beautiful shelf for some vines.

The hope is that we will string fishing line across the ceiling for the vines to grow on and have a living ceiling! We decided to put the shelf up right away to see if we like it before making holes in a freshly painted wall...so painting will be our next task...maybe I can convince him that this weekend is a good one! It will be nice and warm so we can open the windows! I will keep you posted on our progress!

Happy Wednesday!!

What Have I been Doing the Last 10 Days??

The answer to that question is: WORKING!

I took a small break to celebrate a friends B-Day and for a beer (or two...*gasp*...*wink*) on St. Paddy's day but have otherwise been focusing on getting my data to the point where I can make pretty graphs and do some statistics on it. To do this I use Matlab, computer software that can handle computationally intensive user written programs...when you have thousands of data points you need something to help you get a handle on it!

Just so those of you who are thinking about going in to marine biology (or biology in general) know and to clarify a common misconception about the field....it is NOT an escape from math, computer programming, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, plumbing, basic carpentry, innovative thinking (ie: MacGyver skills...now I am showing my age!), critical thinking, etc...these are all skills I use monthly and most of them daily... lets just say it was a rude awakening but I wouldn't trade it for anything...where else do you get so much variety?? :)

Now back to my daily grind...This is essentially what my desktop looks like when I am working with Matlab...I have 2 screens, on one screen (the smaller on on the left) I have Matlab running two programs that I wrote on a super computer called a cluster (because it is a cluster of ~ 25 hard drives that you can access through a network) in the Math and Stats building here at Dalhousie Univeristy, while on the other screen I have another program running in Matlab on my computer. Let's just say, this is not my favorite part of my research but I do get all excited when I get to the graphs and I see some really cool patterns!!! Today, I am kinda waiting around for the programs to finish running before I can proceed so I thought I would catch up with y'all!

So now that I have told you what I have been doing for the last 10 days... I am going to tell you why I am doing it! Or...what it is I am studying to have thousands of data points!!

Essentially, it all has to do with this plant:

This is eelgrass (Zostera marina). It is a type of seagrass and seagrasses are the only flowering plants to live fully submerged in the oceans. Actually, I am studying not only the eelgrass but all of the other plants and animals that are associated with it (ie: community structure), the services this ecosystem provides and how these change on different spatial and temporal scales and across a gradient of eutrophication in Atlantic Canada.

I know you are saying to yourself...What does this all mean?...and...Why is it important??

I will address these questions in a series of posts since the eelgrass story is not a simple one...

The Eelgrass story
Part 1: What is eelgrass and where is it found?
Part 2: Ecosystem services defined
Part 3: The services of eelgrass ecosystems
Part 4: Human Impacts on eelgrass ecosystems
Part 4.5: The scourge of eelgrass: Eutrophication demystified
Part 5: The status of eelgrass in Canada

I want to give you background on the plant and where it is found, details on what ecosystem services are and which ones eelgrass provide, the causes and consequences of nutrient enrichment (ie: eutrophication), how these systems and services are impacted by humans and why they are important to not only to the animals and plants living there but also their importance in the bigger picture...their importance to us. It is in this context that I will explain my research.

I hope to post on this at least once a week, with all kinds of nice photos of my field work!!! I am hoping to have the first installment ready in the next couple of days...fingers crossed that Matlab doesn't explode and keep me from posting!!!

Gotta run, one program is done!!!
Happy Wednesday!

Giveaways!

I am back from a week of hard work but before I get to a post about what the heck I do as a marine biologist I wanted to get in on a couple of giveaways!

Homemade give away!
I read this on Barb's blog (as well as a couple others) and thought I would get in on the action! So here are the rules.

The first 5 people who respond to this post will get something hand made by me: it will be my choice, but will, hopefully, be something you can use or enjoy for its aesthetic merits.

I won't guarantee that you will love it ~ but I sure hope you do!
I also promise to mail my handmade gift to you before the end of the year (December 31, 2009) or sooner.

To participate, you must "Pay It Forward" by posting your own hand made giveaway on your blog. Then put together something to be sent out as 5 surprises of your own.

These surprises can be anything ~ a piece of art, a photo, a poem ~ whatever you choose.

Now I'll just wait for the comments to come rolling in! If you're one of the first five to comment, please e-mail me your mailing address (mailto:aschmidt@dal.ca, and my gift to you will go in the mail sometime in the next 9 months!

A Sexy Give-away

Joanna at Product Body is having a giveaway of her very popular Crush on You scrub, a bar of handmade cold press soap and an extra little surprise!

If you want to enter in this one go over to her blog and tell her I sent you!

Enjoy!!

Allison needs

I saw this on Sebrina's blog and decided to play along. What you do is type your name into google with the word needs after it (Allison needs) and then write down the first 10 things it says.

1. Allison needs...to get laid (so crude but as long as Diego is involved ;) )
2. Allison needs...a loving home (Don't we all??)
3. Allison needs...more good farmers to raise corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, peanuts, cattle, hogs and sheep. (well...)
4. Allison needs...to stop taking shootout attempts. (I guess I should retire my pair of revolvers ;) )
5. Allison needs...to know everything she can about your organization to best communicate your project or programs for funding or awareness building. (not exactly)
6. Allison needs...a nickname (I've got one of those...Alli)
7. Allison needs...office space (I have that too...)
8. Allison needs...your help (I definitely love having your help to build my recipes and all around as friends!)
9. Allison needs...little help from the beauty shop (why Thank you)
10. Allison needs... to start being investigated by the DA (probably related to the shootout in # 4)

Fun but not as insightful as Sebrina's. I hope you decide to play along!

Delicious Take II

So...I just noticed that I forgot the delicious part of my previous post!!!

Yesterday was Dia de la Bandera (flag day) in Mexico. It really isn't a big deal and they don't really celebrate it but I thought I would surprise Diego with his favorite Mexican Dish Papadzules (said Pah-Pah-tsoolays). But first...the flag!

I really like the Mexican flag it has a really cool story. According to legend, the gods advised the Aztecs that the place where they should establish their city was in the place where they saw an eagle, perched on a prickly pear cactus eating a serpent. They saw this on a small island in the centre of a marshy lake that is now the zocalo (said soh-kah-loh) or the main plaza in Mexico City. So essentially Mexico City is built on a lake. They actually grew the city around the island by building rafts, they grew food, had houses and all got around in boats in canals. Xochimilco
(said soh-chi-milk-oh) is a part of Mexico City where the canals still exist and they grow decorative plants. It is the only part of the ancient Lake Xochimilco left.

Anyhow... on to the food!!! This recipe is actually quite easy (if you buy the paste and tortillas...well even from scratch it's not that bad...I have made more intensive that's for sure!!!).

These are essentially warm corn tortillas stuffed with hard-boiled eggs and topped with a pumpkin seed sauce and a tomato based sauce. This is very typical of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Ingredients (makes 16 papadzules):

4 cups of chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 lb of papadzule paste (here I used the organic pumpkin seed butter from the superstore - make sure the butter only contains dry roasted pumpkin seeds...and maybe some oil but nothing more or it will change the flavour - you can also make it from scratch - recipe to follow)
16 corn tortillas (I made mine from scratch but they also sell some at the superstore that you can use - from scratch recipe to follow)
8 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Pinch of salt
2 cups of tomato sauce (I will follow with this recipe - you cannot sub in with regular tomato sauce)

Bring chicken broth to a boil and season with bouillon cubes (you could sub in with veg broth, it will change the flavour a little but definitely worth a try!). Put the papadzule paste in the blender then add 1/2 of the chicken broth and blend. You want it to be a somewhat thick sauce. It will thicken as it cools, I used about 3 cups of broth and saved the rest. Do NOT heat the mixture on the stove again afterwards...the paste will begin to clump (I learned that hard way...and back to the blender it went!).

Warm up the tortillas in a pan, not the microwave or the oven. You want them to be warm and soft. Once they are warm dip them into the papadzule sauce covering the entire tortilla. Lay half of the tortilla on the plate and fill with sliced egg. You can either try to roll it like they do in Mexico or do as I did which is easier for the inexperienced like me and just fold it in half. Place 2-3 on a plate then cover with more sauce. Add a spoonful or 2 of the tomato sauce and top with a bit of egg and enjoy! They are delicious!!!

Papadzule sauce:
1 lb of thick, peeled pumpkin seeds
Salt to taste

Toast the seeds on a griddle without letting them brown. Grind by hand or with a blender, season with salt and gradually add water to form a thick paste.

Tomato sauce:
1 lb of tomatoes (I used on large can of organic whole tomatoes)
3/4 cup of onion
1 guajillo chili or large banana pepper
3 oz of oil
1 chicken bouillon cube
Salt to taste

Blend onion, tomatoes and pepper. Add oil, bouillon cube and salt and simmer uncovered on low heat stirring continually for around 30 mins or until the sauce thickens.

Tortillas:
2 cups of Maseca (this is the brand of flour you need to buy, it is a special corn flour and no typical Canadian corn flours do not work...you can only buy this in specialty stores like Pete's Frootique in Halifax, superstore has yet to sell it...although with more demand...) ;)

Put the 2 cups of maseca in to a bowl. Add water until the dough is like cookie dough. The break off egg sized balls. Place on a flat surface line with wax paper. Take your heaviest book and line the cover with wax paper. Place the book on top of the ball and apply even pressure until it is flat and round. You don't want it thicker than 1 cm. Alternatively you can use a tortilla press...but most people don't have one of those handy here in Canada. Peel off the top layer of wax paper, then place the tortilla paper side up into your hand and gently peel off the paper. You should ahve a nice round tortilla in your hand. Place it on a hot griddle (hot like for panckaes so the water makes a bead when you drip it on) and cook them for about 15 seconds. Touch it gently with your fingers, when it is ready to flip it will move around on the griddle like it is floating on air. Cook the other side for maybe 30 second then flip it again. Check for any raw parts as you are doing this. Once it is cooked, it should be soft and not brown anywhere but a nice very pale yellow, almost white colour still, it may or may not fill up with air. It took me a while to perfect the technique and seeing someone do it really helps. If there is interest, let me know and I will make a video. This is definitely the most complicated part of the whole recipe! The store bought ones are easier but once you have tasted the real fresh ones you can never go back...so it is up to you... ;)

That's it for tonight!
A little bit of history and international cuisine all in one!!!