Taking saltwater samples - not having much luck
Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:06 am
I've found it quite easy to find life in the various freshwater samples I've taken. 2 weeks ago I took saltwater samples while visiting a beach community, and came hope mostly empty handed. All three samples were essentially devoid of life when I returned home, but one of them developed quite a bit of ciliate life in the 2 weeks since as things decayed. I was quite surprised, I had expected quite a bit of life and diversity in the marine samples.
When I took the samples, I made sure to take something green that hadn't seemed to dry out along with plenty of water. One sample was of sand and water right at the beach about 10 meters out, further than where th tide would have pulled out past. So what am I doing wrong? Is there a trick to getting a good marine sample? I have a friend who will be at the sea this weekend, it would be nice to have him collect a good sample for me.
For reference, here is one of the locations I sampled. I took green algae, brown algae and water. I found almost no life initially, but it has exploded with euplotes and cohnilembus since (I've given some flakes of oatmeal and kept it under my plant light for the past 12 days). This was at low tide -- the water was crashing and sloshing onto the algae so it was always soaked.
When I took the samples, I made sure to take something green that hadn't seemed to dry out along with plenty of water. One sample was of sand and water right at the beach about 10 meters out, further than where th tide would have pulled out past. So what am I doing wrong? Is there a trick to getting a good marine sample? I have a friend who will be at the sea this weekend, it would be nice to have him collect a good sample for me.
For reference, here is one of the locations I sampled. I took green algae, brown algae and water. I found almost no life initially, but it has exploded with euplotes and cohnilembus since (I've given some flakes of oatmeal and kept it under my plant light for the past 12 days). This was at low tide -- the water was crashing and sloshing onto the algae so it was always soaked.