By: Lauren McCarthy, Science Communications intern
Bigelow’s REUs and interns wrapped up their summer-long research projects last week! Wednesday (8/3) afternoon was devoted to a poster session in the Commons area. It was great to see how the many hours of work in the lab paid off for Bigelow’s undergraduate researchers!
Summer interns not involved in the REU program have already presented orally during Monday’s ROR session, so the poster session was their final chance to discuss their project at Bigelow.
Sarah Caron (Wheaton College) aimed to determine the potential effects of an increase in sea surface temperature and acidity on swimming speeds of American lobster larvae. Sarah was involved in a collaborative project with fellow interns Devin Domeyer and Darcy Gonzalez that studied lobster larvae from the southern extent of the American lobster’s habitat range (Rhode Island coast area). As the lobster larvae progressed through their four states of planktonic development, they displayed no significant changes in swimming speed as temperature and carbon dioxide levels increased.
Devon Domeyer (Muhlenberg College) studied the chemical effects of ocean acidification and warming on respiration rates of the American lobster. Overall, respiration rates of lobster larvae were not significantly affected by increased water temperature and acidity across all stages of planktonic development. However, Devin found that there may be certain stages in larval development that are more sensitive to an increase in temperature.
Eric Huang (Johns Hopkins University) used machine learning techniques to identify motifs (recurring sequences of DNA or proteins in an organism’s genome) in iron-oxidizing bacteria. By using multiple computer programs (FIMO, MAST, and fuzztran) to collaboratively identify motifs, Eric hopes to remove errors in the search process. This program will also make it easier to identify motifs across genomes of different organisms.
John Layman (Bowdoin College) studied the impact of marine viruses on carbon and nitrogen cycling in planktonic food webs. As part of a collaborative study with fellow intern Briar Bragdon, John found that carbon and nitrogen transfer between phytoplankton and copepod species Acartia tonsa was enhanced in the presence of natural viruses. These results suggest that tropic transfer is not dependent on prey density.
Jin Mei McMahon’s (Colorado College) research aimed to establish how microbes are affected by changes in temperature, oxygen concentrations, and methane levels in Arctic lakes. Using mesocosm experiments containing Arctic lake sediment, Jin Mei found that microbe communities became larger under warmer conditions and oxygen depreciated more rapidly. Following the addition of methane to these mesocosms, the methanobacterium present both consumed and produced methane.
Stephanie Peart’s (Stockton University) research involved understanding the effects of microplastics on phytoplankton growth. Stephanie exposed three phytoplankton species to different concentrations of polystyrene, polyethylene, and acrylic ester. All three phytoplankton species (diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, coccolithophore Pleurochrysis carterae, and chromist Rhodomonas salina) displayed different growth rates when exposed to different types and concentrations of microplastics.
