The IRES Lough Hyne program participants arrived at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Sunday afternoon.
Caity Clark, Cynthia Trowbridge, Katie Thomas, Yolimar Rivera Vázquez, and Laurel Hiebert at Simpson Reef, Charleston, OR
We’ve had a great time getting to know each other and learning about everyone's diverse backgrounds during our intensive pre-trip workshop.
Egg cases of the dogwinkle snail at OIMB Boathouse beach
This week we’ve been learning about algal biology and practicing identifying algae and invertebrates. We spent a morning tidepooling at the OIMB beach and an afternoon identifying invertebrates and seaweeds on the Charleston docks, including the introduced brown seaweed Sargassum that has invaded Lough Hyne in the past decade.
Sargassum muticum from Asia
We have also been learning about the history of research in Lough Hyne and reading foundational ecology papers for the area. We are looking forward to our departure for Ireland early Thursday morning!