This week was filled with programming, building, tears and victory. We began programming the computer to communicate with the probes, so that it can tell the solenoids when to turn on to bring the pH up and when to bring the pH down. We have rewired, recalibrated, moved tubes, and altered things so many times in an attempt to get them to work. Last Friday we finally got everything to the perfect pH. Now I can finally begin my experiment and collect data like a mad woman for the next week.
For my project I will be submerging 72 crabs in a pH of 7.8, which represents the average pH of the water that they are living in the estuaries after they settle. Then the other 72 crabs will be submerged in a pH of 7.4, to represent the predicted future average pH by 2100. Starting after the 3 days of submergence, I will begin testing the crabs to see if their ability to find food will be affected by the lower pH. This week we also started water chemistry on the samples in Julie’s crab lab. Meaning we titrate the total alkalinity and measure pH on the spectrophotometer, to ensure we are hitting our target carbonate chemistry (incuding pH) for our samples. We got some practice in with this so we can do this for our experiment as well. On a lighter note this past weekend we went to Hall Lake, and it was so much fun! We had a group of about 20 UO students and REUs, and there were these huge dunes that you could slide down into the lake. At the top of dune after the long and painful trek up, was just miles of dunes, mountains and trees. I cannot express how good it felt to be back in the water, and the water was the perfect temperature and so clear. Last Friday there was a surfing workshop for women, and I managed to stand up. It was so much fun just being able to be back at the ocean and have a beach day. Reminded me of home and got a little homesick. I can’t believe that we’re six weeks into the program and have to finish this project and have to leave all of the great friends I’ve made. #SADHANNAH
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AuthorHannah is an undergraduate student at UCLA studying Marine Biology and minoring in theater. She's just a gal who wants to be an adventurer both in the outdoors and her research. Check out her blog! Archives
August 2019
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