Field Trips

The San Juan Archipelago has great diversity of habitat and consequently high biodiversity of phytoplankton and seaweeds.

• Intertidal Field Trips: Whenever the tide is low, the diversity of marine plant habitats in the San Juan Islands invites a closer look at the very diverse marine macrophytes and sometimes you can't miss the conspicuous megafauna (orcas and eagles) that frequent the same area).
  
  
• Subtidal Field Trips: Dredging from the RV Nugget whether in the open waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca or the shelter of Mosquito Pass near Roche Harbor commonly reveals a component of the flora rarely or never seen in the intertidal.
  

• Outer Coast: 3-day field trip to Botanical Beach, site of a pioneering marine station on the spectacular exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia and now part of a British Columbia Provincial Park.
  
  
• Phytoplankton: A diversity of marine, brackish and freshwater habitats support a high diversity of phytoplankton species accessible from shore or floating dock, small boats or the Nugget. Collecting may involve collecting net plankton, filtering for still smaller phytoplankton and enrichment cultures.
  
  
• Typical group field activities include habitat observations and recording community composition by transect analysis. Small group or individual study projects may include photosynthesis, growth, productivity, plant-herbivore interactions and distribution analysis.

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