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Kelp Forest Pictures

Kelp Information

Everything Kelp

Why is the Kelp There?

During our trip to Howland’s Landing, Catalina Island, we were able to learn many things about kelp forests and their environments. We found out quite a bit on all our activities, which included snorkeling twice at Howland’s Bay, kayaking at Howland’s Landing, and kayaking to and snorkeling at Emerald Bay. During snorkeling, we saw many creatures of the kelp forest. We researched conditions is the ocean water like turbidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, sandy or rocky, depth, salinity, and ph levels. At the location, there were also trails for hiking, and tennis, volleyball, and soccer for recreation. The 8th grade Catalina trip provided a nice outdoorsy environment and was a lot of fun.
Where does kelp grow in Catalina? What temperature? What conditions does kelp like to grow in? On Sand or rock? These questions pertain to what we are investigating. For our project, we are trying to show on MyWorld the certain conditions kelp needs to grow in and where it grows in around Catalina. We also want to answer the question of which surface it grows on, sand or rock. The data that we collected for our project was from kayaking. In our research we were able to find temperature of the water, salinity (33.7 ppt), ph levels (7.3), nitrates (.25) depth of water (15 ft at location taken at), and dissolved oxygen (9.0 mg/c). Through MyWorld we will be able to show the answers to the questions we plan to solve.

We encountered difficulties and uncertainties while researching this project. While using Myworld the computer was extremely slow and it was hard to make progress. My uncertainty was if my information was correct and if I was explaining through my project what I wanted to answer. If I went back to Catalina I would be able to recheck my information as well as take new information. The parameter of my project might change if the climate changes or in an El Nino year would be that climate would effect the growth of the kelp and the overall the environment which surrounds the kelp. El Nino would specifically make the kelp forest smaller, the ecosystem would be effected for the worst, and water temperature would rise to above 20 degrees Celsius. There would also be a lot fewer animals, especially invertebrates, which often die during El Niño years. The kelp project, even with difficulties, is fun to do.