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Shedding the bleached areas	Thesis:
	M parksii sheds bleached parts

Arrow above points to a periwinkle

Evidence:

Apparent disappearance of bleached areas (images below)

· Correlates with series of large high tides (springs)

· Grazing appears insignificant

· Turf like colonies explained

	Series of video images etc taken where at time it was evident to me that the thalli with bleaching were taller than the surrounding unbleached thalli The easiest explanation is thalli shed the affected area I suggest that similar done when reproductive elements shed leaving a compromised cortical layer

	Turf like appearance fooled me
	Earlier in year I had mistaken this group of colonies as M. parksii. At that time some areas (marked with 1 left) were reproductive and I guessed they were males. Wrong genus but right sex as in August the female colonies are obviously Mastocarpus What fooled me was the turf like appearance.

Summary	Mastocrpus and M parksii shed affected thalli
	Have similar cortical structure with reproductive cells interspersed with vegetative ones – so when reproductive units released it has evolved that rest of thallus shed rather than ‘repair’ now bleached areas

Created by LG on 4/6/2004

Last updated on Monday, September 13, 2004