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SML Intertidal Pool
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The intertidal pool is a marine coastal habitat situated on the western shore of Appledore Island, Maine (42°59’19.7’’N;070°36’57.0’’W). From 1847 to 1914, Appledore Island received many visitors who came to spend their summer at the Appledore House hotel. The hotel faced the intertidal pool which was used for swimming. Today students at the Shoals Marine Laboratory continue to swim there and have nicknamed it “the swimming pool”. The intertidal pool is a deeply set cove characterized by a small beach of coarse sand flanked by a rocky ledge on its Southern side, and by loose boulders and rocks on its Northern side. The rocky shores host a number of nesting Great Black Back gulls (Larus marinus) and some Herring gulls (Larus argentatus). There are two conspicuous intertidal zones, the black zone or spray zone and a middle zone dominated by species of Fucus and by Ascophyllum nodosum. The subtidal bottom is made mostly of coarse sediment with some loose rocks. The cove is protected from the offshore currents by a rock barrier which is submerged at high tide and uncovered at low tide. Its western situation on the island protects it from the “Nor’easter” storms that commonly affect the coastal areas of the Northeastern United States. Consequently the intertidal pool body of water is an area of mostly tranquil waters. This photograph was taken in late May when the water temperature was 20.3◦C, the pH was 8.1, and the salinity was 29.2 psu. This collection was prepared by Françoise Morison and Natalie Pozzi during the Field Microbial Ecology Course at Shoals Marine Laboratory in 2007.
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