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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 2006
What You See
In 2006, the boulder has a moderate to heavy cover of young Fucus plants except in the central "saddle" area. The filamentous green algae is present only along the lower margin of the rock. The white area in the central "saddle" portion of the rock is due to a set of barnacles. Also note the very white heavy set of barnacles on the stones along the beach face. Eelgrass remains present in the water just beyond the rock.
What’s Happening?
Conditions in 2006 are quite changed from 2005. The medium sized Fucus seen in 2005, especially in the central "saddle" area of the rock, have disappeared and only a few very young Fucus plants are visible here. It appears there was a die off of the 2004-2005 Fucus plants but they were not replaced in exactly the same areas by the "new" 2006 plants. And new barnacles quickly colonized bare rock areas.
(07.01.06, 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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