Well, here I am sitting at my desk for the final time as I write this post. I successfully put together my scientific poster with a tremendous amount of help from my mentor, a grad student, and my lab mate. I have to say I’m ecstatic with the way it turned out and can’t wait to see everyone else’s posters this afternoon. I’ve learned a lot about my relationship with science over the last 9 weeks. This program has left me feeling much more confident with experimental design and has also taught me the importance of concise writing (though I know I still have a long way to go). For those of you that have been following my experimental design process, I think it is only fair to give you all a summary of my findings! My initial experiment consisting of two treatments (sunlight and dark) resulted in animals from the sunlight treatment having an indisputable increase in pigmentation. Though animals from the sunlight treatment did demonstrate a higher mortality, those who survived showed a higher tolerance to UV exposure when participating in covering time trials. Simply put, I found out that sunlight causes sand dollars to increase in pigmentation which may help them against future UV exposure. Though I’m thrilled about my results, the feeling in the air this past week has been a bit solemn. Everyone is packing up to leave tomorrow and I’m staying here at OIMB to finish up my undergrad career. As a last weekend hurrah, the group went swimming out at Hall Lake (which I highly recommend to anyone visiting in the future). I am now realizing that I was so consumed with soaking in the moment that I forgot to take pictures for my blog. However, I did remember to take pictures on my last field excursion with my lab mate (Andrew) and grad student (Nicole) on Wednesday! I admit, it will be a bit strange wandering around the campus without my fellow cohort. However, the fun thing about staying here (besides the academic courses) will be getting the chance to meet next year’s REU students!
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This week, I have spent most of my time racing sand dollars! As you may recall, I have been looking at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation. At this point in my project, it is clear that sunlight does cause pigmentation to darken. Now I am measuring covering times to determine whether that darker pigmentation helps protect these animals against UV radiation. For this experiment, all surviving sand dollars (diameter>15mm) along with 12 field-collected animals were exposed to two rounds of UV light. The first UV treatment (UV1) was used to mirror the effects of natural sunlight (l=340 nm), while UV2 (l=300 nm) was used to push the sand dollars a bit further to increase the likelihood of a response. Though the outcome wasn’t exactly as I had hypothesized (see last week’s blog post for hypothesis), it still demonstrated the idea that darker pigmentation benefits the animal when exposed to harsh light conditions. The graph below summarizes the UV exposure trials. As you can see, animals from the sunlight treatment experienced minimal changes in burying time from UV exposure, while the dark treatment and field-collected animals showed an overall increase in covering time after each UV treatment. Like the field animals, dark treatment animals showed the greatest effects after UV 2. In addition to my UV exposure trials, I have also been working on my poster for the end of the REU program. This poster essentially summarizes my project and will be on display at a symposium along with all the other REU participants on Friday. I think the trickiest thing about the poster is taking two and a half month’s worth on information and condensing it to fit on one 40x35 inch paper. Luckily, the poster session allows us to stand alongside our poster and engage with anyone who is interested.
Stay tuned for more on my final poster masterpiece (and the last blog post) next week! This week I took my final photos of the sand dollars in my tanning study (experiment looking at the effect of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation). Now that I have finished processing my photos (which provide the RGB values and diameter of each animal) I have started to make graphs to decide which kind of plot best represents the story of color change I have witnessed this summer. To further assess the changes in my animals, I will also be extracting pigment (with acidified ethanol) and using a spectrophotometer to measure the reflectance as a function of light wavelength. I will produce graphs demonstrating reflectance values of each solution. Because I have not yet started this procedure, a better explanation of my methods will be coming next week! I have also started to determine whether or not the accumulated pigment helps these animals survive in more extreme sunlight conditions. For this portion of my study, I will be exposing sand dollars to two different treatments of UV light. Covering times (fig.1) of each animal will be measured before and after each round of exposure to UV. My trial runs this past week show that average covering time of each animal increases with each UV treatment. I hypothesize that the upcoming results with my test animals will show a similarly increasing time pattern after exposure to UV light but that burying times of more darkly pigmented animals will be shorter than burying times of lightly pigmented animals. I believe that the darker pigment will offer a type of protection to this harmful light. My spectrophotometer measurements will show whether pigments provide protection against UV light. Of course, no blog post is finished without mentioning one of the fun things I did over the week! On Sunday, I spent some quality time with my lab mates and visited the south fork of the Coos River (fig.2). Though it is only about a 45 minute drive inland, the weather was just warm enough to deep my feet into the clear water (with caution of course due to the crawdads inhabiting the water).
Hi again! We are hitting the back third of the program here at OIMB, and boy is time going by fast. Monday of week 6 consisted of setting up a rough draft of my poster in preparation for the symposium at the end of the program. I have also spent a large portion of the week processing photos. As you may recall from previous blog posts, I am looking at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation, therefore image processing software has proven itself essential.
On Wednesday, I took my fourth set of pictures for measuring sand dollar color. I was especially eager to get this set of photos processed due to the mishap that happened last week. (In an attempt to remove sand from the surface of my animals to get them picture ready, I mistakenly power washed some of the pigment clean off.) Therefore, I was eager to get them under the lens this week and see how they responded to that rough cleaning. Though I have not yet completed the average blur on the pictures from this week, I feel it is fair to say that the larger sand dollars escaped relatively unscathed (apart from one animal), while the smaller sand dollars suffered 9 casualties with more dead ones in the light treatment. Despite the untimely demise of some of the sand dollars (it's survival data!), I feel that my experiment is going pretty well! There seems to be a significant color change in many of the larger sand dollars in the light treatment, which is what I predicted (and exactly as I’d hoped). In addition to the color change, I hypothesize that the pigmentation developed by the animals in the light treatment will come at a cost, which in this case would be growth. Therefore, I used different software (ImageJ) to measure the diameter of the sand dollars in the photos. This is accomplished by taking a known length in the photo (the grey scale) and using that to measure sand dollars in the image. After analysis of diameter vs. coloration, I expect to observe a smaller change in size for the animals in the light treatment compared to the dark treatment. In short, I believe that the effort put forth by the animal to produce a deeper pigmentation to protect against the effects of sunlight will result in a slower growth. In addition to my weekly data collection and analysis, the REU cohort took a trip to the Charleston Marine Life Center. Here, we partook in a seminar which discussed how to communicate to a broader audience (i.e. people outside of the scientific community). The goal of this workshop was to get us prepared for our outreach event which will take place virtually next weekend, July 31 from 1:00-2:30 pm (Link). After the workshop, we were free to wander around and explore the CMLC, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area. The CMLC will re-open to the public on August 11. I am eager to volunteer there next quarter and get an exclusive behind the scenes look at all the critters! Week 5 of the program has come and gone at warp speed. On Tuesday morning, I helped my lab mate, Andrew collect some animals for his project and I found my first chiton (see his page for a deeper dive into the chiton world)! We also found a cool little hut made of driftwood next to the hidden path back up to the parking lot. In addition to my accidental adventures, I have been spending the majority of my evenings reading Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter on the beach after dinner. For those of you who may not have had the chance to look at my earlier posts, my summer project looks at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation. I predict sand dollars kept in sunlight will develop a darker pigmentation, while those in kept in the dark will maintain their initial coloration. One measure that I will use to track their color (due to development of pigmentation) is an average of the color of their aboral surface in RGB values. I determine this in Photoshop by opening an image of my sand dollar, drawing a circle around each, then I apply the filter “average blur” which turns each sand dollar into its average color. After applying the filter, I am able to record the red, green, and blue values (RGB values) for each animal. I currently have 3 weeks of data recorded. Unfortunately, a mishap occurred when preparing my animals for picture day this week. In an effort to clean sand off my sand dollars to ensure a more accurate average color blur, I essentially power washed the pigment right off some of the animals. In an effort to maintain consistency throughout the experiment, this cleaning was applied across treatments. Though I am upset over this mistake, I have reminded myself that sometimes there are growing pains when learning. I recognize this may affect patterns in my data, however I have elected to continue my experiment and after a few days it seems they have recovered some pigment. Next post, I will be diving deeper into another pigmentation evaluation technique. This will include the use of a spectrophotometer to measure reflectance values. I will also start to subject test sand dollars to intensive UV treatments and measure average covering times (the time it takes for an animal to cover itself with sand). Tune back in next week!
The mask mandate was lifted here in Oregon this past week, just in time for some 4th of July activities! To kick off the holiday weekend, the REU cohort enjoyed a family meal downtown before heading off to a beach bonfire and fireworks. Unfortunately, I have no beach pictures to share this week due to the impressive ability of sand to be able to get into every nook and cranny imaginable. I am really starting to feel at home here at OIMB, and lucky for me I get to stay and finish out my undergraduate career on the campus. To jog your memory, this summer I am looking at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation. My experiment will subject sand dollars to two conditions (sunlight and no sunlight), then evaluate the resulting color and whether there are costs and benefits to pigmentation. This experiment is taking place in a sea table outside in direct sunlight. After their weekly photoshoot, I move animals to new containers with sand that has been sitting in the sunlight and growing benthic diatoms. This week, the sand dollars had their second round of photos. In order to take the photos, I move the animals from the replicate container to a clear container with 70 ml of water. It was during this step that I learned the fate of two of my animals; one had died, and one had escaped. Nevertheless, I completed my second round of pictures without further complications. In the next week, I plan to refine my photoshop skills by determining the repeatability of my measures of color for each sand dollar. To measure color of a sand dollar, I make an average blur of its image in Photoshop which then tells me their respective RGB (red-blue-green) values. I will be taking multiple photos of the same sand dollars to determine how variable my measures of average RGB are. After this I will compare animals’ color across weeks. I will also use these images to measure growth. The final detail I hope to assay at the end of my experiment is covering time, the time it takes for sand dollars to cover themselves with sand. I will compare the covering time for animals from each treatment and I predict animals in the dark treatment will have a faster covering time than the light treatment.
Alright ladies and gentlemen, that concludes my recap of week 4. Tune in for my next blog post to hopefully see the start my analysis of the data! Hello all, and welcome back to my page! This last week kicked off with a group camping trip on Friday night, which included an early wake up call to hike out to an incredible tide pooling spot. After a 7 am trek through the brush, we arrived at Qochyax Island (a gorgeous location for a -2.5 ft tide). It was a bit foggier than anticipated, but we still managed to see lots of creatures such as harbor seals, purple sea urchins, and various sea star species. Once the tide started to creep back up, we headed back to break down camp and go our own respective ways for the weekend. In the lab, things are really starting to pick up speed. For all you folks who may have not had the chance to peak at my first blog post, my research this summer will be taking a look at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation. I will be investigating behavior changes in response to this potential example of phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity is the capability for an animal to physically adapt to their environment, increasing survival. For my experiment, I expect to witness a pigment change that better adapts the animal to the potential harm of the sun’s rays. Simply put, my experiment will not only evaluate pigment change but also attempt to corollate the cost and benefits that come with a greater pigment abundance. This past week really focused on the experimental design set up. Honestly, I found this process a bit more challenging than expected. Afterall, there is no blueprint for these experiments. As a result, designs are constantly being updated. Once the first real photos of the experiment are taken, the design can no longer be altered since we must achieve consistency. For example, in this past week two of my sand dollars in the light treatment appeared to have been sunburnt or sick, therefore they were replaced. Once I take my formal pictures for the start of the experiment, I will no longer be able to replace the sand dollars involved. A glimpse into the design process: Saturday evening was spent getting a crash course in camera capabilities by from my mentor. I quickly realized that I had not had any camera handling experience other than a point-and-shoot iPhone, so naturally I found this hunk of a camera extremely intimidating. After an evening of camera fidgeting, I became somewhat comfortable handling the camera and was able to produce a few decent practice shots of some of my animals. On Wednesday, my first round of formal pictures were taken. The photography set up is as follows: Some key items included in my photography set up are a grey scale (to establish a standard color comparison), vellum paper (to provide a uniform field of light), four 120 V 75-watt daylight bulbs, and a Nikon lens (with many adjustments!). Once in focus, the appropriate camera settings are applied every time throughout the duration of the experiment to ensure consistency. Each photo will capture one entire replicate. Each replicate holds five sand dollars (three 1 cm and two 2 cm, respectively). There are six replicates in each treatment, and a total of two treatments (one light and one dark). Once a week, the animals will be photographed, and provided with fresh sand and a clean sea table. In the final weeks of the REU, the resulting photographs will be analyzed with imaging software to compare changes in color of the light and dark treatments.
Well, that pretty much sums up my third week here at OIMB! The groundwork for my experiment has been done, now it’s time to watch my little guys grow. Pictures of my critters coming next week! Ready, Set, Science!Hello out there! My name is Alondra and I am working in Professor Emlet’s lab this summer. I was originally supposed to be out at OIMB in the summer of 2020, but we all know what happened there. Fortunately, the program is up and running this year (with some modifications of course) and I am able to participate with the rest of my determined cohort. Before diving straight into my first couple weeks here at OIMB, I shall tell you all a bit about how I ended up here. I think the defining experience regarding my passion for marine biology was around age 13 when I was lucky enough to spend a week at the Catalina Island Marine Institute. From that point on I felt the need to be in the field in any way, shape, or form near the ocean. Five years later I found myself with the same passion towards marine biology and began to seek out any field work I could get involved in. As a result, my background is a bit all over the place. Past experiences include marshland restoration, Sea Star Wasting Disease data collection, Klamath River water quality analysis, and marine mammal rehabilitation (with Sea Lions and Elephant Seals). This summer, I will be adding on to my research experience by taking a look at the effects of sunlight on sand dollar pigmentation. I hypothesize that animals in direct sunlight will develop a darker pigmentation, while those held in the dark will remain lightly pigmented. Furthermore, I hypothesize that that color change is adaptive and helps protect against damage by sunlight. I am especially excited for this summer because this will be my first time constructing an experiment start to finish with my own data collection, rather than providing extra hands on someone else’s experiment (wish me luck!). There is no question that the research going on this summer is going to be some quality stuff! In addition to my own experiment, there are 10 other projects going on (as you can see in the blog drop down menu). I have the privilege of sharing a lab with Andrew and Nick who are great to bounce ideas off of. Having these two in my group also gives me to chance to learn about other projects as they develop and allows me to go into the field to help search for chiton and collect plankton. To be entirely honest, I’m not sure what sort of personality compatibility test Maya and Richard did with all the applicants because this REU fits together seamlessly. Here’s to a summer I’ll never forget, cheers!
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Alondra Germán-CastañedaAnother California transplant who is now calling Oregon her home. I have spent the last year living in Eugene while attending University of Oregon on main campus. This internship will kick off my 3 terms at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and conclude my undergraduate career! |
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