Marine Phyla Lab

There are nine types of marine Phyla. These are Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Mollusca, Nematoda, Arthapoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata. Our class went to the Waipulani Tide Pools in South Maui to collect data. Our objective was to find the phyla that there was most of, and also which ones were most diverse. After splitting into groups, we spread out accross the tide pools to conduct our research.

Which marine phyla are present at the tide pools of south Maui, and which phyla are most represented in diversity and quantity? I think that there will be Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Chorodata, Mollusca, and Porifera present at the South Maui tide pools. I think there will be more Chorodata and Echinodermata (quantity wise), and that the Arthropoda will be the most diverse. Our group’s data found mostly Mollusca, and a little Arthropoda. The overall class data shows that Mollusca is still the most abundant, with Arthropoda, Porifera, and Echinodermata following. There isn’t much diversity in our data, but according to our data sheet, Arthropoda was most diverse (which I hypothesized.)



I thought this was a fairly fun lab to do. I think our team would have been more effective if we had worked more as a team of five rather than the three that collected the research that was actually within limits of our area. With the research we did find, I think we did well putting it together. I thought it was interesting how little diversity there was in the species we were finding, but overall as a class we found four different marine phyla.

Group Data:
Mollusca: 97%
Arthropoda: 3%

Class Data:
Mollusca: 94%
Arthropoda: 5%
Porifera: 1%
Echinodermata: 0%