Another week of data mining and researching gone by. I finished up with the Reproduction and Development of Marine Invertebrates of the Northern Pacific Coast book. I also did some preliminary research on my question about the future pH differential between surface and deeper waters of the ocean. It’s looking like the differential won’t be too great by the year 2100, but I would like to find some definitive numbers. Hopefully I’ll get enough information this week so I can provide a more specific answer.

On Friday, I had a meeting with my mentor and we discussed the spreadsheet I had been working on. It can be concluded from the information captured that many of the bivalve species do spawn at some point during the summer which could make their offspring more vulnerable to the corrosive water from upwelling. We also discussed some other resources I could use to get more data on species that weren’t mentioned in the book I had been working on. I was given two new books: Oregon Estuarine Invertebrates and Intertidal Invertebrates of California. I imagine this week will be spent gleaning these books for new information. I will be receiving some PDFs on bivalve spawning , so I’ll look those over too. My mentor also mentioned that I should start preparing an outline for my presentation at the end of the summer symposium. It struck me how quickly this date was actually approaching. I will probably work on that this week as well and confer with him on how I should organize things.

This weekend was very enjoyable. Saturday, my roommate Betty and I attempted to go the beach because it was nice and sunny out. Little did we know that the beach would be super windy and after trying to lie out in the sun with sand being blown all around, we abandoned that plan. We ended up exploring the shops at Nye Beach and I found a really awesome octopus bag! For lunch, we ate at Paninis and I got a delicious portabella sandwich.

Some Sea Grant friends and I went to Alsea Falls yesterday. The falls were beautiful and I actually brought my camera with me this time so I was able to snap a few pictures. Lauren knew some spots where we could go swimming (I was determined to go swimming in some sort of body of water since I haven’t been able to do so yet). We scoped out some places and decided to settle down on a sport on the river at Clemens Park. The water was freezing but I still dunked my head under! After that, we headed over to Lauren’s house where we got a nice tour of her parents’ garden. The garden was absolutely wonderful and I got to taste some mint, raspberries and broccoli. Lauren’s parents invited us to stay for dinner which was very nice of them. There was some yummy food served and then we headed on our way back to Newport. All in all, I’d have to say it was a pretty great day.

Alsea Falls!