Hi everyone! Thank you for joining me in my final week of this summer journey with barnacles.
Last weekend was truly our last weekend. We celebrated with the South Slough interns with a crab boil party. The invasive European green crabs were collected by Colleen and Sebastian during their 10 weeks of research. Chloe and I tried crab and shrimp for the first time! We all had fun getting to know the South Slough interns better. Victoria, Chloe, Sherlyn and I had some delicious boysenberry frybread (or as we call them back home - elephant ears), free clam chowder, free shrimp, and free ice cream at the Charleston Seafood Festival. We had our last girl’s night, complete with face masks, snacks, and Lindsay Lohan! On Thursday I started PCR, Polymerase Chain Reaction, for barcoding the DNA of cyprids. PCR allows identification of the DNA or RNA of organisms. On Friday I began the gel electrophoresis - the movement of charged particles in a fluid or gel under the influence of an electric field. Richard will pick up where I left off. It feels very relieving to finally have my poster complete! So much hard work went into our posters, and they all turned out wonderful. It felt good to have others in the scientific community appreciate our contributions and encourage our future endeavors. Wednesday afternoon Sherlyn, Chloe, Victoria, Gina, Colleen, Sebastian, J'mie, and I took a daytrip to Hall Lake. We swam in the beautiful blue waters and sunned on the giant sand dunes. Then we stopped for some pizza! Friday evening, we said our last goodbyes over a barbeque at Richard’s house. We had mac n cheese, and lots of fish. I am going to miss the friends I’ve made, so much. We will keep in touch! I got a recipe for a coconut Thai curry soup from Lisa for an amazing soup she made at the cafeteria. Victoria and I loved it, it was the best dish we’ve had at OIMB. We will attempt to recreate it at home and send a photo! I would like to thank Richard Emlet, Maya Watts, and Craig Young for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you, Richard, for guiding me through my first research experience, and teaching me the ins and outs of barnacles. Thank you, Nicole Nakata, for the endless help and support through this program. I appreciate you all! Your barnacle lover, Annika
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Hi everyone, welcome to week 8 - the finishing touches!
Last weekend was the Invertebrate Ball! I dressed as a snail last minute, with antennae (pipe cleaners attached to barrettes), and a shell (a backpack stuffed with a pillow). There were many amazing costumes with a lot of hard work put into them! After the ball, we went to Seven Devils to watch a local band perform. On Saturday we presented at the Charleston Marine Life Center. We had about 30 visitors who came with many interesting questions! It was an excellent hands-on opportunity to improve my public speaking skills and engage with the public. This week I have been working on my poster. I was unable to get Balanus nubilus and Pollicipes polymerus to settle, however I photographed Pollicipes polymerus juveniles that settled onto an adult’s neck. Richard was kind enough to allow me to use an image he took of a settled Balanus nubilus, so I am not missing any images! I have 6 species, with two photos each - one photo of its cyprid stage, and one photo of its juvenile stage. On Tuesday we attended a leadership training session, and a session on imposter syndrome. I found the imposter syndrome session very helpful, as it seems a taboo to discuss. We learned about the different types of imposter syndrome, and techniques to fight the negative thoughts associated with each type. Imposter syndrome is defined as “doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud”. I found out that all of the REU’s experienced imposter syndrome during the first couple of weeks here, which was comforting to know how common it is. We all thought I was alone in that experience, but little did we know we were in the same boat! I think the session would have been very helpful during week one or two. Wednesday we shared lunch with Ed Hughes from Oregon Fish and Wildlife. He discussed the career path he took, and shared his love for salmon. On Wednesday afternoon we had a seminar with Dr. Melva Treviño Peña from the University of Rhode Island Department of Marine Affairs. She discussed her experience engaging with diverse coastal communities, and the importance of listening to the communities and allowing them to engage in the research. On Thursday afternoon she discussed how to create our paths in academia, and the benefits of taking the traditional or non-traditional path. Wednesday evening was our poster critique session! It was great to see everyone’s beautiful posters. We received great feedback, and set to work on our revisions. It felt good having a physical representation of my summer’s research. After our critique session, we revised our posters and turned in our final products on Friday. Over the weekend Maya and Richard will give us our final feedback, and we will have until Tuesday to continue revisions. On Wednesday Nicole will print them, and next Friday we will present them! This weekend is our last, and there are some good low tides. We hope to go tidepooling for the last time. Thanks for joining me along my summer adventure with barnacles! Until next week! Annika Welcome to week seven! On Tuesday, Craig Young and Svetlana Maslakova gave us advice on applying to grad school, letters of recommendation, and deciding which lab we want to work in. We talked with past REU’s of the EMBOC program, and asked them our raw and unfiltered questions about the grad school experience. It was nice getting to hear the opinions and experiences from both current grad students, and PhD researchers. Tuesday night Victoria, Colleen, Sherlyn, Gina, and I celebrated with Chloe on her birthday! We shared a fun, relaxing night complete with yummy drinks, delicious chocolate mousse, and strawberry shortcake. It’s been lovely getting to know my fellow REU friends, and share this exciting new experience! Wednesday we attended a seminar with Dr. Ana Spalding from OSU. She discussed her experience working with marine policy, MPA management research, and international lifestyle migrations in humans. I learned about the clash between protecting the environment and protecting people’s livelihoods, and how to protect both without disrupting the other. I was able to get 10 Amphibalanus improvisus to settle! I have sufficient photos of Balanus glandula and Chthamalus dali. I have some good photos of Balanus crenatus and Amphibalanus improvisus, but I want more images of their villi. I currently have not been successful in settling Balanus nubilus or Pollicipes polymerus. I will now try C.A Lewis’s method in having a live Pollicipes polymerus adult present with the settlement plate, in a last resort to get the cyprids to settle. I’ve been preparing for Saturday’s CLMC session all week! Sherlyn, Gina, and I will be collaborating, as all three of us are working with barnacles - they are working with the embryological development of barnacles - specifically with mitosis I and meiosis II divisions. I will be bringing live barnacle cyprids and a compound microscope, for visitors to take a look. I’ll have a 3D model of a cyprid to help visitors to better visualize the tiny organism. I created some “barnacle pokemon cards” to help the kids better understand larval stages, as they “level up”. Sherlyn and Gina will have a tub of live adult barnacles for visitors to touch and examine, and they will demonstrate live barnacle dissections! I have a lot of exciting plans to look forward to this weekend! Friday night is the invertebrate ball, it will be pretty interesting to see what creative costumes everyone has come up with. My family is visiting on Saturday to check out our CMLC sessions. There is a food truck festival in Charleston this weekend, and we’re going to check it out - I can’t wait! Only two more posts to come! You can look forward to hearing more about my CMLC session and the invertebrate ball in my week eight post. My week nine post will include my poster session, and my final results of my research project. Super exciting! Annika Hi everyone! Welcome back, to week six! Last weekend Victoria, Chloe, Sherlyn, Sebastian, and I took a day trip to the Bandon Petting Zoo! I spent about an hour petting capybaras through their fence. I also got to pet a Siberian brown bear cub! There were many donkeys, deer, goats, rams, alpacas, and chickens wandering around the zoo. I loved spending time petting all of the lovely creatures! I noticed a deer struggling to get some grass from under the fence, so I gathered a few handfuls for him to enjoy. Soon, fifteen deer and five goats surrounded me, loudly demanding more grass! I hurried as fast as I could, scrambling to reach for more clumps of grass, but it wasn't quick enough - they began gnawing at my clothing! It was adorable. On Tuesday we attended a training session at the CMLC - Charleston Marine Life Center - on how to present scientific research to the public. We discussed how to avoid using scientific jargon and how to effectively communicate with various age groups and visitors from different backgrounds. Our goal is to share our research projects with the public in an accessible and interesting way. We learned techniques we can use to help engage visitors and encourage them to participate. I have been planning how I will set up my booth and preparing for it. Next Saturday we will each be presenting our projects to the public at the CMLC! I think it should be fun. My family will be attending, as well as kids from a local high school and middle school. I currently have have 28 Chthamalus dali settled juveniles, 20 Balanus glandula, and 4 Balanus crenatus, and no Pollicipes polymerus, Balanus nubilus or Amphibalanus improvisus settlers on my sea table plates. I am documenting their development through daily photographing. I will share some images below for your viewing pleasure! This week I made the decision to retire my sea plates. I have had sea plates out in the boat basin since late June, in an attempt to collect more settled barnacles. While I have collected many, I’ve found them to be less valuable in terms of my research project. Everyday I:
The plates must be checked daily to ensure the age of the settler, or it is of no use. Taking trips back and forth to the boat basin daily takes time away from my other work. I do not know for sure the species of the settlers in the boat basin, but I do know the species of my sea table plates. Knowing the species is important for my research, as I am creating an identification guide. I’d like to focus my time on known settlers instead. Part of research is trial and error. Trying new methods, making mistakes, and trying new methods again based on results. Unfortunately, my gooseneck barnacle skin slides have not induced any settlement in Pollicipes polymerus. I collected more Pollicipes polymerus adults (gooseneck barnacles) to create a settlement extract. I dissected their necks using a razor blade, blended them in a food processor, centrifuged, boiled, and froze the solution. C.A. Lewis found that Pollicipes polymerus did not settle on biofilm plates with adult extract, but only settled when an alive adult Pollicipes polymerus had been present (C.A. Lewis, 1975). If my adult extract does not induce settlement, I will use her method in having a live adult present. This week I got a really great photo of Chthamalus dali, with its tergum and scutum visible! The tergum and scutum are two of a barnacle’s five calculus plates, and can be used to identify barnacle species. This weekend I will browse the CMLC museum for the first time, which should be fun! I’m also going to be working on my poster and preparing for my CMLC session next Saturday. Time is starting to fly by! See you next week - only three weeks left! Thanks for reading, Annika Hi everyone, welcome to week 8 - the finishing touches!
Last weekend was the Invertebrate Ball! I dressed as a snail last minute, with antennae (pipe cleaners attached to barrettes), and my backpack stuffed with a pillow as a "shell". There were many amazing costumes with a lot of hard work put into them! After the ball, we went to Seven Devils to watch a local band perform. On Saturday we presented at the Charleston Marine Life Center. We had about 30 visitors who came with many interesting questions! It was an excellent hands-on opportunity to improve my public speaking skills and engage with the public. This week I have been working on my poster. Out of the six species, I was unable to get Balanus nubilus and Pollicipes polymerus to settle, however I photographed Pollicipes polymerus juveniles that settled onto an adult’s neck. Richard was kind enough to allow me to use an image he took of a settled Balanus nubilus, so I am not missing any images! I have 6 species, with two photos each - one photo of its cyprid stage, and one photo of its juvenile stage. On Tuesday we attended a leadership training session, and a session on imposter syndrome. I found the imposter syndrome session very helpful, as it seems a taboo to discuss. We learned about the different types of imposter syndrome, and techniques to fight the negative thoughts associated with each type. Imposter syndrome is defined as “doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud”. I found out that all of the REU’s experienced imposter syndrome during the first couple of weeks here, which was comforting to know how common it is. We all thought I was alone in that experience, but little did we know we were in the same boat! I think the session would have been very helpful during week one or two. Wednesday we shared lunch with Ed Hughes from Oregon Fish and Wildlife. He talked to us about his career pathway, fish, and more fish! He explained how OIMB and OFW work together, and is experiences with interns from OIMB. His passion for salmon was inspiring. On Wednesday afternoon we had a seminar with Dr. Melva Treviño Peña from the University of Rhode Island Department of Marine Affairs. She discussed her experience engaging with diverse coastal communities, and the importance of listening to the communities and allowing them to engage in the research. On Thursday afternoon she discussed how to create our paths in academia, the benefits of taking the traditional or non-traditional path, and how to carry our identities with us into the scientific community. Wednesday evening was our poster critique session! We received a lot of helpful feedback to begin our poster revisions. It was exciting to see everyone's beautiful work! We've all worked hard and come a long ways. It's nice to have a physical representation of our summer's research. After our critique session, we revised our posters and turned in our final products on Friday. Over the weekend Maya and Richard will give us our final feedback, and we will have until Tuesday to complete our revisions. On Wednesday Nicole will print the posters, and next Friday we will present them at our poster session! This weekend there are some good low tides, we hope to go tide-pooling for the last time, I can't believe it's our last weekend here! The REU's want to spend some more quality time together this weekend, before we part ways. It's weird to think I might not see some of these people again, who I've spent everyday of my summer with for the past couple months. I definitely want to stay in touch with the friends I've made! Thanks for joining me along my summer adventure with barnacles! Until next week, Annika Hi everyone, let’s talk about week five! This week I’ve spent time with some new exciting organisms! My project is coming together nicely, I have a lot more documenting ahead of me - it is exciting! On Tuesday afternoon we gave presentations on our research projects. We were all very nervous, we practiced lots and got it over with! Everyone did great. It was fun to find out about everyone’s projects more in depth. It was inspiring to see my friend’s and my own inner courage shine through our quiet-selves. The OIMB seminar on Wednesday afternoon was on basking sharks - their behavior and population dynamics by Dr. Alexandra McInturf from OSU, who is also working with the Irish Basking Shark Group. I enjoyed learning more about basking sharks, here’s a few fun facts! Basking sharks are the world's second largest fish. Plankton make up their primary food source - they don't use their hundreds of teeth for feeding! They swim with open mouths, catching plankton. This week I skinned a barnacle, as a new way to get barnacles to settle! In the field juveniles are found on the adult skin of barnacles, leading biologists to believe that larvae settle on the adult skin. Specifically for the goose-neck barnacle, Pollicipes polymerus, I dissected the skin from the stalk and super glued it to a microscope slide. Then I placed it in a container of sea water with cyprids of Pollicipes polymerus, in hopes they will settle onto the adult skin. Richard and I collected a new species of cyprid - Amphibalanus improvisus, which I will be adding to my documentation list! So far I have Balanus nubilus, Balanus crenatus, Chathalamus dali, Balanus glandula, Pollicipes polymerus, and Amphibalanus improvisus. I will need a photo of the cyprid stage and settled juvenile stage of each species, as well as a genetic barcode. Richard already has barcodes of most species. Soon I will begin learning the process of barcoding larvae! Along with the new species of cyprid, I found hundreds of snail larvae! They were incredible, I took a few photos to show you. I also photographed an image of a crab larva - Zoea, to demonstrate how odd they look. On one of my first days in the lab I’d been sorting nauplii and cyprids out of plankton for a few hours, viewing the same species for an extended period of time, when suddenly I saw a crab larva for the first time - talk about a jump scare! I also found some isopods - relatives of potato bugs (also known as “roly polies”, or “pill bugs”). I used the book “A Guide to Marine Coastal Plankton and Marine Invertebrate Larvae - D. Smith” to try and identify what type of isopod it is, and I believe it’s a Munna. This week pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to see my inner courage. I look forward to my project progressing, as I collect more organisms and more data. My dad’s birthday is this Sunday, and my nephew Leif’s was on the 10th. I’ve been feeling a bit down about missing their birthdays, and my family’s annual fourth of July party - it was my first year not going. This Sunday Victoria, Chloe, Sherlyn, and I are going to the Bandon Petting Zoo! I can’t wait! Get ready for some cute animal photos next week :) See you next week! Annika Hi everyone! Welcome back, to week four! This Saturday we took off on our long awaited boat trip! I’d been looking forward to it since May when I received my acceptance letter. Last September I went out into the ocean on a boat in Alaska, and never felt happier! I’ve missed the sea since then. I decided to take a dose of Dramamine - to make sure sea sickness didn’t get in the way of my fun. Unfortunately, I did not react very well to the Dramamine, and was pretty much unconscious the whole trip… I spent the rest of the day in my dorm alternating between sleeping and throwing up… definitely a lesson in taking the listed side effects seriously! I’m glad I have taken a few other boat trips previously, so I didn’t miss out too much on the experience. Thankfully the other REU’s collected many sea creatures along the trip, and brought them back to our aquarium! I’ve enjoyed visiting the creatures each morning. They are our little sea pets. We collected a baby squid during our voyage, but it wouldn’t have been able to survive, so Richard froze it to look at. We’ve had a few REU visitors throughout the week in the lab, asking to “see the frozen squid”. On Wednesday I made adult barnacle extract - to encourage settlement. The cyprids still had not settled onto the plates, and I needed them to in order begin to collecting data. Painting adult extract onto the plates has encouraged barnacle settlement in previous studies I have been reading. There is little data as to why this works, but it is believed to be caused by proteins present in the solution. I collected adult barnacles off of the marina, brought them back to the lab…. and ground them up into a yellow powdery-goo. Sorry barnacles, rest in pieces!! I ground this substance further with added sea water, until it became “barnacle juice”. I centrifuged the solution to separate the liquids from solids. I separated the liquids from solids, and fed the solid ground up barnacle remains to our sea creatures. I boiled the liquid barnacle extract for ten minutes to keep the enzymes from digesting the proteins. I painted two layers of the solution onto air-dried biofilm covered plates. I air dried the plates 30 minutes in between each of the two layers. My barnacle extract was a success! The very next morning I found a crenatus settler - the most challenging cyprid species to settle! For fun, I painted my sea plates with the Crenatus extract, to see if and what would choose to settle. Low and behold, apparently Balanus glandula are attracted to Crenatus extract! The plate is crawling with B. Glandula cyprids who have not metamorphosed yet, as well as settled juveniles! I made a batch of B. Glandula extract and C. Dali extract, and I will test how they compare in success! I’m glad I finally have some settlers to work with, and data to collect. I will continue monitoring my current settlers and documenting their development. I am collecting more cyprid species and trying to settle them, as well as testing out my barnacle extracts. I have plates out in the sea, and plates in a sea table at the lab. I'll see how settled cyprids compare with wild settled cyprids. On Wednesday I attended a seminar with Dr. James Carlton, from the Williams College-Mystic Seaport, the world’s expert on marine bioinvasions. He discussed the link between marine bioinvasions, plastic, tsunamis, storms, and coastal development. The Great Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011 gave him an opportunity to study the transoceanic rafting of marine organisms, as the event carried hundreds of Japanese marine species into North America, some of these species continue to arrive in 2021-2022! On Friday morning we took a trip to Qochyax Island - the tide was low enough! We climbed down a sea cliff, trecked across tidepools, and ventured into a sea cave! It was a LOT of fun!! Thanks for reading, see you next week! Annika Hi, welcome to week three! On the fourth of July the staff, students, and REU’s of OIMB shared a picnic in celebration, complete with hotdogs, cookies, fried chicken, pickles, and lots of oysters. After the picnic, Victoria, Chloe, Sherlyn and I took advantage of the sunny day, and took a hike to Bastendorff Beach. We cooled off in the icey Pacific waters, sunned on the warm sand, and collected some crabs - and sunburns! I attended a writing session with Kelly Sutherland, she discussed how to develop and utilize scientific communication skills, and gave us helpful tips on the process of writing scientific papers. I swapped proposal drafts with other students, and began my revisions. On Wednesday morning Victoria, Richard, and I took a boat trip to the North Spit to return the sand dollars and sea urchins that we had previously collected, and are no longer needed in Victoria’s research project. This week I attended a seminar featuring Dr. Susanne Brander, an ecotoxicologist from the OSU Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology. I learned what common microplastics are found here, in the Pacific Northwest, and how their size, shape, and particle type impact their ability to transfer into marine systems - and what happens if they do. I have begun practicing photographing cyprids using the compound microscope. I am raising nauplii larvae in the incubator, and feeding them the diatom Skeletonema costatum, until they molt into their cyprid form. I have cyprids in sea water filled containers with plates in the incubator, connected to a stirring rack. The plates have been sitting in a sea water filled table, collecting biofilm. The biofilm covered plate and stirring motion of the water will encourage the cyprids to settle onto the plates. I also have plates out in the sea water at the docks. I am monitoring the settled cyprids and photographing their development. I have attached some images below, so you can finally see what I am working with! Please keep in mind, these are the first images I have ever taken with the compound 'scope, and they are not great quality! I wanted to share them with you anyway, so you can get a sense of these organisms. Don't worry - better images will be coming soon! The nauplius was swimming during the photo, and is not in focus at all! I wanted to include it anyway, to allow you to visualize what a nauplius is. In the future I can use magnesium chloride to relax the organism to get a better photo. I will be learning to use adobe photoshop, how to maximize the pixels, and I will switch to a higher magnification lens. I had a lot of fun taking the photos and using the software to edit the coloration, contrast, and brightness of the photo. The goal is to get the appendages, pigment, antennae, compound eyes, and carapace all in focus. Clear images of these physical characteristics will provide a key for cyprid species identification - the species can be very challenging to tell apart! I spent a few hours working with the software until I got a clear cyprid photo with the right coloration and focus, but the time flew by! I took about 30 "rough draft" images - which ended up in the trash! I look forward to improving my skills and producing even better photos! Last weekend I had a refreshing recharge. I took a Friday night hike in the luscious green forest, it reminded me of back home. Saturday evening my REU pals and I had a girl's movie night, watching the classic, A Cinderella Story, on the library TV, which also reminded me of home. My older sisters loved that movie growing up, and we used to rewatch it all the time. Our long awaited boat trip is on Saturday the 9th! I will update you on my week IV post. (These blog posts are published onto the website on Friday at 5pm, but do not become public until Monday at 3pm. That is why my weekend updates are from the week prior, just in case you were wondering!)
Thanks for joining along on this summer’s adventure! Annika Hi everyone!
This week has been full of exciting trips, and amazing creatures. On Tuesday morning, Richard, Victoria and I took a fishing boat to a sandy beach on North Spit at low tide in search of sand dollars. We were only able to find young sand dollars, about one to three years old, about the size of a gingersnap cookie. We had a great time on our search, discovering other creatures along the way. There were many little snails, crabs, brown pelicans, and a vibrant purple sea star! I collected beautiful shells as well. We searched for areas in the sand where the diatoms had been disrupted by observing the patterns of the brown colored ridges in the sand. We then stuck our hands deep under the sand, massaging it, waiting to feel a hard sand dollar, and then pulling it out. As I was searching, wrist deep, I felt something hard, grabbed onto it - and felt a sharp PINCH! I’d accidentally unburied a crab! On Wednesday morning, the three of us took a trip to the rocky shore on the south side of Sunset Bay. We trudged through the slippery tidepools in our rubber boots with a little difficulty and a lot of fun. There were many purple sea urchins, crabs, snails, a ribbon worm, chitons, sea anemones, and beautiful purple and orange sea stars. Victoria and Richard ate small pieces of uni (sea urchin gonad) from a damaged purple sea urchin … but I abstained. Apparently they taste similar to an oyster - salty and sweet. I have been sorting through plankton under the microscope, identifying cyprids and nauplii (barnacle larvae), and sorting them by species. Nauplius VI are the last feeding stage of barnacle larvae before they develop into cyprid larvae. By collecting nauplii and raising them, I hope to increase the number of cyprids I have to work with. I am creating a photogenic key of cyprid and nauplii larval stages in coastal Oregon. This will be the first updated key since the 1981 publication. I will photograph the stages of juvenile barnacle development and include observations that will aid in identification between the different species. We have been attending professional development workshops, weekly lunches with marine biologists, and seminars. Last week we had a workshop on ethics in research. This Tuesday, our workshop was focused on writing CVs, cover letters, and resumes in the scientific community. We learned about the different career pathways in biology, and the steps of applying. On Wednesday we had lunch with Katlyn Haven, a fish biologist from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. We asked questions about her academic pathway, and her career path. Later that afternoon we attended her seminar on the groundfish fishery in Oregon, and how they are sampled. She also discussed the process of stock assessments. I hadn’t known much about the topic prior, but have always been curious. It was very interesting to learn about the effort to collaborate with both the fishermen and fish populations to attain sustainability of fish while supporting economic stability in coastal communities. On Monday we have a fourth of July picnic. On Friday morning Nicole took us tidepooling, we had a blast! Next weekend is our boat trip, I can’t wait! I’ve been looking forward to it all summer. Thanks for reading, see you next Monday at 3pm! Annika Hi everyone!
I’m Annika. I’m a Biology major from Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. My Grandma’s family settled in North Western Oregon in the late 1800s along the Oregon trail, and we have called it home ever since. I have loved biology before I knew the term. In first grade my teacher asked our class what we'd like to be when we grow up, and I decided “a scientist who studies nature and animals.” I began my major as an archaeologist/anthropologist, but I found the job opportunities very limiting. I always knew biology was my calling, but I was afraid of not measuring up. After taking a biology course at LCC, the instructor Colin Phifer encouraged me in my pursuits and informed me about this REU internship. I am grateful to be here, and excited to be in this phase of my academic career. I enjoy learning about history, archaeology, geology, biology, and the human body. I have had a difficult time choosing a career path, as my interests are so broad. I’d love to be able to be an archaeologist, biologist, veterinarian, in the medical field, and more - but it’s not feasible to do it all. I enjoy roller skating and spending time with my two guinea pigs Pippa and Kit, and my two cats Navy James and Tabitha Jane. I have penpals in Russia, Indonesia, Germany, New Zealand, England, and the US. I have been studying the Russian language for almost a year, with guidance from my penpal Nadine. I am working in Richard Emlet’s lab this summer, along with his grad student Nicole Nakata, and my friend and fellow REU Victoria Cardenas. Originally I was going to study cyprid lipid storage, and its relation to buoyancy, in connection to providing aid in swimming. We decided to re-evaluate this research idea, as it was a bit too complex for my first research experience with barnacle larvae. Now I will be studying the different species of cyprids in Charleston, photographing them, and documenting their juveniles to make an identification key. There is some information on identification of cyprid species, but almost none for the juveniles. We have been collecting them each morning from plankton samples, sorting them by species using the microscope, and storing them in the incubator. This week I’ve set out plates for the barnacles to settle on and in the laboratory. I’ve put other plates in running seawater so they can develop a bacteria film to help encourage larvae to settle. Victoria and I learned how to use the compound microscope more in depth, and learned how each part works and how to tune it according to specific needs. I have been observing Victoria’s project along the way as well. She injected potassium chloride into sand dollars to get them to expel sperm and eggs so she could start larval cultures for her project. I look forward to learning more about barnacles this summer! Thanks for reading, see you next Monday at 3pm! Annika |
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Hi! I'm Annika, a biology student attending Lane Community College. I will be researching cyprid larvae in the Emlet lab this summer. I look forward to sharing my findings on Cyprids. I love roller skating, my eleven penpals across the globe, my two cats, two guinea pigs, and the enchanting PNW woods - my forever home.
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