One of the main activities I carried out during my internship was processing A.nodosum samples from the previous field campaigns and the ones I participated in.

Basically, the seaweed samples need to be washed with water in order to remove all the associated fauna. Therefore, the process was done above a 500micra sieve. Afterwards, the remaining organisms were stored and fixed with IMS for later sorting and identification.

The red algae Vertebrata lanosa (L) T.A.Christensen is one of the main epiphyte species of A.nodosum. While processing A.nodosum, I had to carefully separate all the V.lanosa present in the sample to be processed later on following the same protocol mentioned above for the seaweed samples.

Once all the associated material were retained into the sieve, the different organisms were sorted using a stereoscopic microscope and stored following three main groups (Annelida, Crustaceae and Moluscae) for later identification. For instance, this activity allowed me to make some drawings of the most common organisms in the samples and so pay more attention to details.

My first experience in the field and when I saw the A.nodosum community for real was in Kinvara with Dr.Fariñas-Franco and Mafalda Isidro, a fellow IMBRSEa student conducting her Master Thesis at GMIT. We checked on the PAR-sensors placed in each of the three quadrats.

The same protocol mentioned before was followed in the Kinvara site by DR.Fariñas-franco and I. Interestingly, we found out that compared to the post-harvesting survey, the abundance of V.lanosa was higher.

The field campaign in Roundstone was one of the activities that I enjoyed the most! It was a good practice of team effort and organisation.