Oh wow, this REU program has been a blast! I can not believe we are already finishing up week 6. This week I had the opportunity to help out one of the South Slough REU's collect their crab traps at 3 sites along the estuary. I was so excited to get into some dirty field work, it was my first time wearing waders. They remind me of a baggy wetsuit that keeps you dry. After we collected the crab traps at each site I would walk around the water or mud just for fun. Jordan always talks about how annoying the crabs can be and I finally got to experience it myself. They grab onto the crab traps so tightly, making it difficult to pry them out. Over the weekend, Maite, MaKenzie, Jordan, and I went to Portland! I drove through the city last summer during a road trip, but this summer I was able to experience the city. We first stopped to eat at Dave's Hot Chicken which was so delicious! I will be visiting their other location in Tarzana when I get back to SoCal. We spent a lot of time thrift shopping, but I did not end up buying anything. Portland prices are higher than I expected! The rose garden was such a nice and peaceful place to visit. Basking in the sun with the roses felt so nice, the sun does not feel the same in Charleston. Of course we had to make a stop at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) while we were in town. They had a nice dinosaur exhibit, they also outlined the types of marine creatures that were living in each period (see slideshow). Next time I visit Portland, I would like to try more restaurants. There was such a wide variety of cuisines and cultures being represented as we walked around the city. Upon returning to Charleston, Maite and I met up with Aaron at Bastendorff beach to surf and boogie board. This was my first time surfing since last summer, I was so stoked to get in the water. The waves were weak so Maite and I had a hard time getting any good waves, but we still made the most of it. I hope to get back out there next week! Later in the week, most of the REUs met at Bastendorff and had a nice bonfire. This was one of the first times since the first week that I have been able to actually see the sun set; it is always so beautiful. Back in the lab, I have been continuing to sieve through urchin poop and further filter that poop down onto filter paper. This week, Reyn set me up with a dissection scope with his microscope camera attachment so I can begin to analyze the number of microplastics on each piece of filter paper. The task may be simple, but it makes me feel very sciency. I really like wearing a lab coat, I feel so professional in it. I do not know when I will be wearing one after the summer is over, so I am getting a lot of lab coat time in while I am here. When I am not wearing the coat, I have been working on my poster. I have never made one before, so I am nervous and excited to see what I will come up with. I've been spending time picking colors and the layout, I think this will be the longest and most difficult part of the process. I am excited to see the progress I will make next week in both my lab work and my poster. Come back next week for another update of my time here at OIMB!
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Welcome back to the next tale of Annika's REU Adventure! This week started off with finally pulling out the ROV and learning how to use it. After lunch, Nick, Maite, Rhoda, Jordan, and I went to the OIMB dock and launched the drone into the water. We found out that it is not very easy for the organisms below the water to see in this area, including us. It was difficult to tell if you were moving the drone up or down the water column, but it was still a blast driving it around with everyone. I am excited to take it out again next week. Over the weekend, I finally got the chance to visit and fully experience Eugene. Some of the other REU's and I stayed at Alondra's house for two nights. We had a nice slumber party in her living room, all situated with some blow-up mattresses. Eugene is filled with good food, a cute downtown, and some beautiful landscapes. I really enjoyed going to the Rock Slide at Lake Creek Falls. The sun and the water were the perfect temperature, it was the first hot summer day I have had all year. It was fun to have the rivers current push you down the mossy slab of rock and into a deep and refreshing pool. The drive to and from Eugene is magnificent. We drove past many large rivers, huge trees, and very dense forests. Coming from Southern California, this is not something I typically see everyday so I really appreciate being in this landscape. When we came back from our little trip, Maite and I volunteered at the CMLC and completed our first full feed. We chopped up frozen fish and squid and distributed it to all of the critters in the tanks. After we fed the CMLC residents, we had the opportunity to help move some fish out of one of the large tanks and scrape the algae off of the glass. These fish were smart and feisty, it was hard to catch them until we drained the tank. This was my first time handling live fish larger than a goldfish, and I am glad to say that I did not drop any of them. I know you are wondering about all of the fun project updates too! This week I did some more digesting of my samples, filtering of the poop samples onto filter paper, and panning for gold (urchin microplastic poop). All of these tasks take up large chunks of time to complete... so I have been spending most of my days patiently waiting for data collection time. Next week I hope to start finding and counting pieces of microplastics, I am excited to do some work with the dissection scope! Welcome back to another wonderful synopsis of my week at OIMB! We are finishing up our fourth week here, it is crazy how time flies. The week started off with Reyn showing me, Maite, and Rhoda how to perform a fatty acid extraction from some algal samples. A few weeks ago I had Reyn explain the process and now I have seen it in action. Chemistry is like magic, but there are no secrets as to how it works. I have finally gotten (mostly) all of my thoughts together and have begun my project; the working title is "Urchins: Benthic Consumers Turned Microplastic Producers". I set up the 24 glass jars, got too excited and put urchins in all of the jars when I only needed 18, oopsie! After randomly assigning the jars to 3 different groups (old rope, 3 week old rope, and new rope), I went to Bastendorff beach and walked along the water to collect many bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) blades to purge my urchins. I also grabbed some extra for the Charleston Marine Life Center (CMLC) to utilize. After the urchins were acclimated to their new environment, I fed them lots of kelp to purge their stomachs of any previous contents for their new diet of polypropylene rope. After two days, I gave them a nice heaping of rope to eat. Thus far I have only observed one urchin actively chewing on their new rope. Aaron left for Alaska this week to do some Pycnopodia work, so he left me with the exciting task of learning how to operate the Trident underwater ROV. I operated one of these ROVs back in 2019 during my Field Methods course at SBCC. Our class enjoyed using the tool so much, we based our final project on theoretically using the Trident to examine kelp/urchin densities. Having the opportunity to work with it again is a blessing! During the weekend, we watched 3rd of July fireworks with some of the other interns at Jordan and Reagans house. We had a good view of them from their yard, but it was cloudy so we could only see the bottom half of each firework that went off. Once it got too cold, we all went inside to play Jenga and Taboo. This week, some of the interns and I came together and made a delicious salmon dinner two nights in a row. We got our groceries at Grocery Outlet and they had cheap salmon filets that we could not pass on. The fish was paired with roasted colorful carrots, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onion, and garlic. I got to make white rice for the first time in 4 weeks, it has been weird to not be cooking for myself every meal and eating in the dining hall. Maite made a delicious lemony marinade for the salmon and veggies. This was the most satisfying meal I have had since we made crab! I am excited to see what events the coming weeks have in store for us. This past week has been filled with new experiences like dissecting an urchin, my samples for my project getting incinerated, and cooking fresh crab. The day after collecting urchins from the North Jetty, I asked Reyn if they would dissect an urchin for me, Maite, and Rhoda to watch and learn about their anatomy. We were able to look closely at Aristotle's lantern (urchin mouth), the digestive system with the stomach contents (lots of algae!), and the gonads (you could eat them as uni). That same day Reyn and I took my samples from my pilot experiment to the drying oven to remove the seawater and leave the important samples. When Reyn checked the oven a few hours later, everything had turned into dust and only the glass vials remained standing. During Aaron and Maite's diving adventures this week, Aaron was so kind to grab two large Dungeness crabs (M. magister) for me from OIMB Beach. I took the crabs back to the lab and asked my fellow intern, Jordan, if I could cook the crabs at his house. We ended up making a delicious crab dinner with pasta and roasted asparagus along with some of the other REU's. During the weekend, I had some time to explore Downtown Coos Bay after our REU camping trip at Sunset Bay. While camping, the tides were low enough to allow us to hike through the overgrown foresty trails and scale down the cliffs to get to Qochyax Island. Here we explored caves and massive tide pools. Dr. Emlet found a 60 year old red urchin, how amazing! After returning from camping, two of my friends from Santa Barbara came to visit me on their way back from their road trip to Portland. We met up with Jordan and got Thai food for dinner (it was Jordans first time having Thai food!) and it was delicious. I really enjoyed seeing some familiar faces in this new place. I have made some progress regarding my project, my pilot experiment urchins have begun produced visible pieces of microplastics. The larger jars that Reyn and I ordered for the real deal came in this week and I was able to wash, label, and mark some measurements on them. Reyn is so crafty! They spent a few days bending and cutting glass to provide plastic-less airflow to each jar. Very soon I will have this up and running with a lot of urchin friends to look after. |
Annika SullivanHello blog visitors! My name is Annika Sullivan. I am from Agoura Hills, CA and have been studying at Santa Barbara City College for the last 3 years. This fall I will be attending UC Santa Barbara as an Aquatic Biology major. I have always dreamed of living in Oregon, and now I get to do so while conducting marine research at OIMB under Dr. Aaron Galloway and Dr. Reyn Yoshioka in the CTELab! Archives
August 2021
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