Nicole's+Journal+Page

=NICOLE TANIGUCHI'S JOURNAL PAGE=

Free Journal:
Ka’iwi Scenic Beach Park is nestled right next to Sandy’s Beach, after taking a short ten minutes hike through a somewhat secret getaway. Ka’iwi Beach Park is mainly rigid, dark brown tide pools that cover the shore, with larger pools near the ocean and smaller ones closer to shore. Some of rocks farther out and deeper in the ocean were dark brown towards the top, and gradually turned green from the algae and seaweed that grew, which turned into a pink color, where the waves often hit, making the rock raw. Rough waves pound into the rocks to make it raw and it fills the pools with ocean water for the many creatures that live there. The sand that lies on the bottom of the tiny pools is grainy and where and how some species hide. The cool water makes it comfortable for the living creatures, even though it is sunny.

Even with such a large area, there are quite a few different species, but barely any compared to the amount of space and habitat Ka’iwi is about to hold. But it makes space for evolving species and new species that will find their way to Ka’iwi. The pools are mainly filled with hermit crabs and sea snails. Both, black and grayish, brownish mudskippers swim around the tide pools. Most of the underwater pools are covered in either green or orangey moss-like algae or seaweed. Purple sea urchins are attached to the pink rocks that are farther out into the ocean. But the one thing that was found a lot out of the water were red and white crab shells that just laid on the dry tide pools.

Ka’iwi Scenic Beach Park is a good place to “study” over the remainder of this semester because it is home to a wide range of species, from hermit crabs, to even orange algae. There is also a wide range of abiotic factors in different parts of this eco-place, like the ever-changing tide and sunlight that affect the living creatures. Like most beaches and tide pools, the range of species is affected by the time of day, which affects the tide. Ka’iwi Beach also includes the ocean outside of the tipe pools that our group will explore on another visit. Since, in Ka’iwi Beach, there is a variety of species, we are able to explore, observe, and infer about many organisms that live in the tide pools of Ka’iwi.

Assigned Journal:
Many species live in the tide pools of Ka’iwi Beach. The most common organisms were hermit crabs and sea snails that live in the shallow and cool water of the tide pools. Hermit crabs use second hand shells from many sea snails, which also have a soft, vulnerable body. Most of the hermit crabs at Ka’iwi Beach Park were about the size of a penny with black, spiraling shells to protect them selves. Inside, their bodies consisted of orange feelers, black and white lined legs and blue eyes. The hermit crabs are skilled at tucking themselves in their shell when a predator is coming, like a human or even a wave.

Another creature that lives in the tide pools of Ka’iwi Beach are mudskippers. In the smaller, and shallower pools, closer to land, small, about one-inch mudskippers swim. But the larger, thicker mudskippers, who are about 1.5 to 2 inches swim and live in the deeper, larger pools. A possible reason for this is that they are just not fully grown, or that they grow to fit the size of their habitat, which are either small or large pools. All mudskippers have a dark color, black, brown or gray or even a mixture of them all to protect themselves from predators. With this colored skin, the mudskippers are able to camouflage themselves with their surroundings of the dark, rigid rocks and sand.

The most unusual species found at the tide pools was the orange algae. The algae grows off of underwater pools, both large and small, in size. Sunlight didn’t affect the growth at all, because there was a plentiful amount in the open, where it is able to get a lot of sunlight and also, where it was shady, surrounded by taller rocks that protected it from the sun. Other, species, like mudskipper can benefit from this growth to hide themselves from any predators.

Lastly, the purple urchin that is found on the pink rock, where waves continuously beat it until the brown rock turns pink. The urchins have a hard shell-like outside to protect them from abiotic factors like the waves and biotic factors like predators. With this hard and ark shell, it makes eating them very difficult. The pink section on the rocks of Ka'iwi and have algae growing on them, which is why the urchins are attracted to those habitats. Urchins mainly eat algae and seaweed; therefore it is reasonable that they live on those pink rocks, where their food is only a few inches away.