Seine Sampling of Organism Diversity in the Ossabaw Slough Area: Night Vs. Day

In this study, the researchers viewed the biodiversity of the high tides (day and night). The data was collected through four runs of seining (collecting organism in the “slough” of Ossabaw Island in Georgia with the use of a net) and then through the classification of the captured individual species. The researchers believed that there would be more biodiversity found during the day than at night, due to photosynthetic organisms. The results obtained showed very little significant difference, but due to the limited number of seining this was to be expected. Introduction: Photoperiod has been shown to have an effect on the biomass production of marine microplantlets and algae. [1-2] Therefore, it follows logically that during longer photoperiods there may also be an increase of activity by primary consumers feeding on this biomass, secondary consumers feeding on them, and so on. Following this, it was hypothesized that levels of animal activity in the slough area would fluctuate in accordance to photoperiod. Because of the extremely small window of time available for research, true comparisons of activity at varying photoperiods was not possible. Because of this, we chose to complete a preliminary study by examining activity as a function of biodiversity at both light and dark periods. Submitted for Review: June 26, 2006 Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed with the use of a sein and two collection buckets. The high tides were charted with the use of a provided tidal chart, and identification of organisms was done through the use of several field guides. [3-5] During the two day high tides and two night high tides, two researchers would drag the sein across the bottom of the “slough” and would walk for a marked distance before turning and dragging the net to shore. The approximate distance was twenty meters. Once reaching the shore, the sein was lifted and the organisms captured were counted and recorded in field journals. A sample of each type of organism was collected and returned to camp for correct identification. This procedure was replicated ten times during each tide. Submitted for Review: June 26, 2006 Results The results of the four seine samplings are summarized in Table 1. It can be seen that the majority of specimens were collected during the day seining trips. Upon doing a Pooled t test on the means of the fish caught, to see if there was a significant difference in the amount of fish caught in the day versus the night at high tide, our results show no significant difference. This is based upon the t test having a value of 3.3385, which is less than the 95% criterion value of 4.3207. These results were calculated as follows: Submitted for Review: June 26, 2006 3027 . 4 3385 . 3 2 1 2 1 25 . 2005 5 . 28 178 25 . 2005 2 5 . 312 3698 5 . 312 2698 2 5 . 28 178