“My name is Ruth and I am the seaweed apprentice.”
I still love saying that even though it’s over 2 months into the job! Most of my
friends laugh when they hear that job title …. I can’t understand why?
I started in April and met my fellow natural talent apprentices at the invertebrate
course in Stirling 10 days later. It was great to meet up with the others who are
part of the apprenticeship scheme. It was good to get to know some people in
Scotland too, as I have left most of my friends and family in the south and west of
England.
I’m seconded to Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) offices and
based in Aberdeen. I have never worked in an office like it, the building is
amazing. It’s right on the harbour opposite the new Harbour masters office and is a very environmentally conscious building. It is an open plan space/office and we share it with Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Scottish Natural
Heritage (SNH). It has lots of windows of all different sizes and shapes,
(which open and close automatically to regulate the temperature) you get great
little views of the sea, beach and boats/ships that come in and out of the
harbour. It’s like being outside, there are lots of clever innovations with
temperature and CO2 levels, lots of natural light and the use of ‘grey water’ for
the toilets. Marine ecology shares a lab on the ground floor with ecology
(the terrestrial lot!!) which again is a fantastic space with great views. It’s fab,
when you look up from your microscopic to catch the bottlenose dolphins,
common seals and seabirds in the harbour.
I’m working within the marine ecology team and am taking part in the surveys
they do of rocky shores for the EU Water Framework Directive. They use
seaweeds as a bio-indicator of water quality. Some seaweeds bloom in certain
conditions when there are extra nutrients available and sometimes just looking at the types and diversity of the seaweed on the shore can give an indication of water quality.
My mentor is Dr Clare Scanlan who is very knowledgeable about seaweeds
having studied them for many years. I have had lots of help in seaweed
identification from her and Sarah Mason (soon to be a Dr). I have to say that
although I knew a few (I identified 7 for my BSc project) I had no idea how
complex and numerous they were going to be. Especially when just as you think
you’ve got a green/brown one, it turns out to be a red one!
Time has whizzed by and I’ve just completed my first survey, it was at Loch Fyne. What a stunning area that is , no wonder all the tourists visit it and love it. We stayed in a great hotel just by the loch. It became our laboratory too as we set up microscopes in a bedroom.
The first day we were up before breakfast was served, and drove to a forest which we had to walk (although it felt more like a trek) through to get to the rocky shore. It was a lovely day, really clear and you think ‘great to be up with the deer and the wildlife’. But OMG!!! The wildlife which swarms around you and bites you hard, yes I am talking about the MIDGES. I got tons of bites all around my neck and ears and they really hurt.
Any way back to the seaweed, we spent time collecting samples and then back (after some well earned breakfast, square sausage, what’s that all about??) to id stuff with the books and microscopes.
On the second day I identified 28 seaweeds- not bad eh? The weather held out for us too, so what a dream to be surveying the rocky shore in the sunshine.
So that’s the start of the summer survey season, I have a survey every other week now until the end of September. Add that to the BioBlitz’s and other events with BTCV means that I’m going to have a pretty hectic summer.
I’ll let you know how it’s all going next time. Hopefully will include some pictures(once I figure out the uploading system!)
Cheers
Ruth