Date

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Note: This is a combined November/December meeting!

Speaker

Location

Parking:
On site and free.

Time

Cost

Title

Santa Barbara's Tidepool Treasures

Topics

At low tide, Santa Barbara's rocky shorelines reveal wondrous creatures living in four distinct horizontal bands - often unnoticed by beachgoers. Each band experiences a different amount of dryness with the daily tidal cycle and has its own predictable assortment of common marine animals. Tiny and drab periwinkle snails, fingernail limpets and buckshot barnacles dominate the Splash Zone, above five feet. From five feet down to two and a half feet above sea level, mussels crowd out other species except a few gooseneck and balanus barnacles in the area call the High Tide Zone. The band from two and a half feet down to sea level, called the Mid Tide Zone, is covered, almost exclusively, by aggregating anemones. The last intertidal band, called the Low Tide Zone is below sea level and exposed to the air only a few times per month at the 'minus' tides. Sea stars hide here, often under the brilliant green surf grass. You can count on each of these species to be easily found within its horizontal band. The tales describing their adaptations to dryness, feeding and reproduction begin to explain the reason each species lives where it does and why.

Spectacular life forms lurk in the water right below the Low Tide Zone. These 'treasures' are most easily seen at minus tides and include crabs, octopods, sea urchins, sea hares, and the vividly colored sea slugs called nudibranchs. Even after 30 years, Genny still finds surprises with each tidepool excursion. Please join us in this exciting and beautiful journey to the California tidepools.

About the Speaker

Genny has taught Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography classes at Santa Barbara City College for over 30 years. She was honored as Annual Faculty Lecturer of the Year in 2001-2002. She attended UCSB and received her B.A. degree in Zoology. Most of her zoological studies were marine oriented, and she developed a special love for intertidal marine animals. Her favorite animals were marine slugs, known as nudibranchs. She continued her studies at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Monterey Bay, receiving her Master's degree in Marine Ecology. Her research was on two species of marine slugs - Corambe pacifica and Doridella steinbergae. Her work is still considered one of the most comprehensive studies of these two species.