May day! May day! (literally!) Today is May 1st and this afternoon I successfully defended my Masters research on Pismo clams in California! While COVID-19 required that the defense be virtual and not the format I was expecting, we had a tremendous turn out from collaborators, volunteers, friends, and family. Thank you all for your support and help throughout the last 2.5 years! My next steps are taking me to Virginia! I accepted a PhD position with the Molluscan Ecology Lab at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. I'm so excited to dive into research on another bivalve - the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Stay tuned for new developments!
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Pismo clams are found from Monterey Bay, California through Baja California, Mexico. Our project focuses on the California portion of the area where Pismo clams are found. Last summer we managed to cover a good chunk of California beaches, but were missing the most northerly area. The long, 3 day weekend was a perfect opportunity to take a group of students north to survey for Pismo clams! However, at the last minute State Parks called me and said the campground we had intended to stay at would be closed. There were big wind storms, rain, and generally unpleasant weather. Instead of camping, we opted for a hotel (which ended up being closer to the beaches we wanted to survey anyway!) Even though clams are anecdotally in low abundance here and the weather/surf made surveys challenging, we found them! All of the clams were well below legal size for recreational harvest (in Monterey county clams must be greater than 5 inches across to harvest!). Our scientific collecting permit allows us to take a small number of clams from beaches in California. We collected a small number of the clams we found for genetic samples. As of now, we have genetic samples from beaches in Monterey Bay to the San Diego area. Though not part of my thesis research, I hope the samples we are collecting will tell us more about habitat connectivity. We don't know much about baby, larval clams: how long they stay floating in the water, how far they can travel in ocean currents, how related clams on different beaches are. These samples will help us answer those questions! On Sunday, the survey wasn't until later in the afternoon. We took a break from the rain and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I LOVE this aquarium and am thankful we could spend a couple hours here between surveys. :) Overall, this was a successful, fun survey weekend!
Emily K., Senior in Biology, started a pilot mark-recapture study for Pismo clams on Pismo Beach!
Mark-recapture studies are a tool to estimate population size. In the simplest form, you “mark” a number of individuals and release them back into the environment. You later return to “recapture” individuals. Based on how many individuals are marked vs. not marked, you can estimate how large your population size is, understand individual growth rates (i.e. how much does a clam actually grow in a year?), and get an idea of mortality rates. For her senior project, Emily tested several tagging options to mark Pismo clams and be able to identify individuals. Ultimately, she found a metal tag paired with a numbered tag was easy to detect through the sand. On December 8th, we set up a pilot study! A total of 50 clams were marked using Emily’s methods. In the coming months, we will attempt to find these clams again. If all goes well, this will be the start of a longer mark-recapture study. This is an exciting step towards understanding how far Pismo clams move across the beach and how quickly they grow on Pismo Beach! The first year of my Masters project has flown by! This month marks a full year of Pismo clam surveys on Pismo Beach, CA. We have accomplished so much in the last year and I am eternally grateful to our community of volunteers. I literally could not have done it without you. :)
Year at a glance:
We are hoping to continue surveys for another year, add at least 15 additional sites throughout California, and keep engaging with our local community! Hope to see you on the beach soon! -Alex |
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June 2022
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