Galveston Ship Channel Recruitment Report

Recruitment of Organisms in the Galveston Ship Channel

Abstract
A study was done in the Galveston Ship Channel to see the recruitment of sessile or fouling organisms to a substrate. A total of six organisms were found. They were Barnacles, Serpulid Worms, Bryozoan, Limpets, Tunicates, and Amphipods. Recruitment structures were created by the students and were put into the Galveston Ship Channel and left for five weeks to allow adequate time for organisms to adhere to it. A full mesh cage was put onto the ends of the structure at the surface and 1 meter below the surface as well as a partial cage and no cage to get a better understanding of what they prefer. The hypothesis for this study is that the structure at 1 meter depth and with a full …show more content…
These structures were made with PVC pipe and hard mesh. The PVC pipe was cut so it would be one meter tall and have a total of six arms branching off that are half a meter in length. Three arms on top and three arms on bottom. Holes were drilled into the ends of all of the arms to allow a plate to be attached. From those three arms a plate with squares was zip tied securely to each pipe so the organisms could attach themselves to it. The squares on the plate made it possible to count them at a later date. Once that is completed the rest of the structure could be built. One arm on top and one arm on bottom was left open. Then a partial cage was built on the top and bottom arms to give the organism’s partial coverage. This was made with hard mesh squares zip tied together then zip tied to the pipe. For the partial coverage only half a cage was built. For the final two arms a full cage was built which was enclosed on all sides. It was made the same was using zip ties and mesh secured to the pipe. It was important that the cages on top were in the same place as the cages on bottom. Once all the hanging ends of the zip ties were cut and everything was double checked to make sure it was secured the structures were taken into the Galveston Ship Channel. A rope was tied to the top of the PVC pipe and lowered just below the surface of the water to account for tide changes. The other end of the rope was tied to the railing multiple times to secure it. This was repeated for each lab time and the structures were left to soak for five weeks. A total of nine structures were dropped into the channel. Once the allocated time was up the structures were removed from the water and the mesh cute from the pipes. The plates were then carefully taken inside and the organisms were counted by the students. Each student