By Scott Gabara

Back in December 2013 I went on my last sampling bout for my thesis to Santa Catalina Island. My team included three amazing colleagues from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. We conducted surveys in sand and rhodolith beds which will be used to compare the communities. Rhodoliths are free-living calcareous algae that look like little pink tumbleweeds and propagate above sand.

They appear to provide diverse structure increasing abundance and diversity of flora and fauna, similar to how trees provide habitat for epiphytic plants, climbing vines, and animals like birds and mammals.

We conducted surveys to estimate the abundance of macroalgae growing on each substrate, macroinvertebrates, fishes, and took cores for later sorting under a microscope to estimate microinvertebres within each substrate. We celebrated by wearing santa hats which made the long sampling dives more fun. It was a great way to finish up my thesis.