SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Marine scientists spent the past two weeks at San Diego County tide pools documenting the diversity of life found along the California coast, kicking off a statewide project in San Diego.
The project is a multi-year statewide initiative to document and catalog invertebrates and algae found in California’s intertidal zones — coastal areas where the ocean meets the land between the tides. Tide pools are isolated pockets of seawater that are found in intertidal zones.
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Researchers, students and volunteers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other organizations led the way in San Diego this summer as they documented the first intertidal sites of the California Intertidal Biodiversity DNA Barcode Library Project.
Teams in San Diego conducted fieldwork at 23 locations from Imperial Beach to Oceanside along the San Diego County coast, ending on July 4. Scripps said most of the work was done on land at sandy beaches, estuaries, rocky shores and even harbors and marinas, with some shallow-water scuba diving at certain locations like off Scripps Pier.
Researchers collected microscopic animals and algae samples from the tide pools and took photos of larger tide pool species like octopuses, lobsters, sea anemones and large crabs. The collected specimens will then be archived in California museums and collections before undergoing DNA barcoding.
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“Every sample will be tracked, catalogued and preserved — now and for the future,” said Dean Pentcheff, a leading scientist with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, noting that all team members are united in their respect for the organisms they study. “If you love an octopus, you should love an ascidian too, and we all do.”…