I'm still looking for my ideal long-term garbage research location up here in Oregon. This weekend I visited Dorena Lake, which unexpectedly turned out to be a trash mecca, but is located 50 minutes too far from my house for weekly research on my currently limited gas budget.
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| Dorena Lake |
In addition to the usual suspects: plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups, wrappers, and cans, I came across a myriad collection of broken glass. In my two and a half years of collecting trash I have never seen so much glass; however, something else I found had me more confused.
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| Bryozoan Colony? |
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| Bryozoan Colony with Statoblasts? |
It seems the dam holding back the water in Dorena Lake had recently been opened to release some of it because the shore was incredibly muddy and littered with dozens of jellyfish-like blobs. After some googling, I believe these blobs are Bryozoans, which according to the
Missouri Department of Conservation are "microscopic aquatic invertebrates that live in colonies." Fascinatingly, as gross as they look, these filter feeders actually help keep the water clean. I was wondering if the little black spots in the last image are fish eggs, but - according to the
Encyclopedia of Life - the individual organisms in the colony reproduce via "seedlike statoblasts", thus I am assuming the black specs are offspring.
Excellent report, Angela! We all enjoy hearing from you and catching up on your great Oregon adventures! Question--are you guys experiencing any type of drought near you? Why were the dam gates opened?
ReplyDeleteYes, we absolutely are. There is a creek walking distance from my house (ideal research location), but because until Saturday it hadn't properly rained since May it has been dry. So, Saturday (the day before I visited the lake) it rained all day and part of the night. My guess: the dam was opened to release some of the extra water the lake collected in order to relieve the drought downstream.
DeleteMy mom lived in Dorena when she was a kid and found these blobs on the lake shore! She’s always telling me the story of when she scooped up a glob to bring in to her science teacher in hopes of finding out what it might be. Even the science teacher didn’t know what it was...so my mom has referred to the mysterious globs as Alien poop ever since. XD
ReplyDeleteMadison, Thanks for your comment. However, Angela's post was back in 2015--she has graduated an moved on...
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