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 Home | Image Galleries | Emergency Response
Mearns Rock Time Series
A photo time series of Mearns Rock, a large boulder located in the intertidal zone at Snug Harbor on Knight Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska.
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Mearns Rock 2005
What You See
In 2005, the boulder has a medium and scattered covering of Fucus plants. Barnacle density remains high on the right side of the boulder. Again this year, no mussels are visible. On the left side are a number of greenish brown filamentous algae, some drooping down and covering the medium-sized Fucus plants. On the beach face, along the yellow transect line, the density of Fucus has decreased considerably compared to 2004. In the background, the eelgrass bed (Zostera marina) appears to be less dense than in 2004.
What’s Happening?
Conditions in 2005 are very similar to 2004 and perhaps 2000. But no dramatic change is evident. Once again it appears that the young Fucus plants that started growing before or during 2004 have continued to grow but also have gotten thinned out, especially on the beach face, while the green filamentous algae has increased. There appears to be no evidence of recruitment of new Fucus plants in 2005.
(07.01.05, Snug Harbor, Knight Island, Alaska)
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| Related Pages on Our Site |
- Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Overview of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Includes links to many related resources, including photo galleries.
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- Graphing Changes in Marine Life Abundance Try your hand at some marine biology! Follow these steps, designed for middle and high school students, to make a study of the marine life occupying a section, or quadrat, of Mearns Rock.
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- Mearns Rock Time Series How does marine life recover from a major, one-time stress, such as an oil spill? As you will learn here, the answer is not simple.
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- Northwest Bay Study Site Photos of one of our study sites, a rocky beach on an islet in Northwest Bay, shortly after high-pressure, hot-water washing in 1989, and again in 1998.
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- Response to the Exxon Valdez Spill Within hours after the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, a team of NOAA OR&R scientists arrived on-scene.
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