Week 10 - Research Projects and Presentations

Monday, June 4th
After a long week of data collection and scientific work out in the intertidal and in laboratory, the marine biology students began analyzing their data, writing their research papers, and working on their presentations. On Monday, we met with Rebecca to talk about statistical analysis and our progress.

Tuesday, June 5th - Thursday, June 7th
This week, students lived in the Guin library as they worked tirelessly on their papers and presentations. Kris and Caroline maintained a positive attitude as they compared species abundance and diversity between the eel grasses Zostera marina and Zostera japonica. 

Sydney and Milan looked at the relationship between abnormally warm years and the size and abundance of chaetognath worms here on the Oregon coast. 

Alexa finishing up her and Erica's presentation on zooplankton diversity. They basically became nocturnal during their nighttime data collection last week, so seeing them work during the day was impressive and inspiring.

Friday, June 8th

Today's the day! Marine biology students made the final touches to their presentations and prepared for their final task of the course. Friends, family, and local scientists gathered in the Hatfield Marine Science Center auditorium to watch the BI 450 students present their independent research. From studying how female pheromones affect aggressive behaviors of male Dungeness crabs to observing bleaching effects of coralline algae, our class had an array of creative ideas and students worked diligently on their projects for over two weeks.

Nikki and Andy presenting their research on the distribution
patterns of Hemigrapsus spp.

Simone presenting her research on the feeding preferences

of Hermissenda crassicornis. 

This term at Hatfield was filled with memories and valuable experiences. The BI 450 students not only had a ton of fun, but also learned a lot about marine biology and what it's like to be real scientists. While trekking through the mud and getting up at 4:00 AM for intertidal work proved to be challenging at times, it was all worth the fun we had and everything our wonderful instructors taught us. Sally introduced us to the course and showed us how awesome marine biology is. With Su, we learned all about fishes and got our hands dirty with seine netting and beam trawling. Sarah showed us that algae are actually really cool and diverse. Finally, Bruce proved that at his age, you can conquer the rocky intertidal and be in way better shape than an entire group of twenty-somethings. 

The BI 450 students worked hard all term and proved to be incredibly passionate ocean-lovers and future scientists. We will never forget all that we've learned and accomplished through this course, and we thank all of our professors and TA's for helping us prepare for the real world as marine biologists. We'll miss you, Hatfield!

Week 9 - Group Research Projects Week 1

Monday, May 28

Memorial Day! No classes, but a few research groups started their research projects over the Memorial Day weekend.

Tuesday, May 29 through Friday, June 1

After a relaxing three-day weekend for most of the BI 450 students, group research projects commenced on a round-the-clock basis. Throughout the rest of the week, groups worked independently on various research projects. The projects were a little shaky at the start but the problems were ironed out as the week progressed. Most of the research projects involved research in the rocky intertidal region, the BI 450 laboratory, or in Yaquina Bay. Yaquina Bay, Oregon is a small drowned river estuary that contains various river channels, a slough, and tidelands. The main channel of the estuary is annually dredged starting between the jetties and continues toward the river mouth to a particular distance. Yaquina Bay experiences seasonal upwelling and downwelling events throughout the year.

Here is what all BI 450 students did throughout the week:

Andy and Nikki went out to various field sites looking for zonation patterns of Hemigrapsus nudus and Hemigrapsus oregonensis in the rocky intertidal region. In addition, they were comparing the two Hemigrapsus species to each other to observe if they compete with one another.

Nikki  in the rocky intertidal using a transect and quadrat
to look for zonation patterns of Hemigrapsus spp.

Hemigrapsus nudus perched on top of Mytilus californianus

Billie and Elizabeth conducted three temperature treatments on four species of coralline algae to determine how warming oceans affect turf algae in relation to ocean acidification.

Bleached Corallina vancouveriensis

Billie and Elizabeth's temperature treatments in the BI 450 lab

Alexa and Erica had many sleepless nights deploying and retrieving zooplankton light traps off of a dock in front of the Hatfield Marine Science Center. They were looking for a correlation between zooplankton diversity, tidal state, and the lunar cycle.

Erica holding up a zooplankton light trap on the dock in
front of the Hatfield Marine Science Center

Crab megalope larvae under a dissecting microscope

Andrew and Beth used Potassium Hydroxide to liquefy Nucella ostrina and Mytilus californianus in order to quantify the microplastics found within each species.

Beth and Andrew's experiment samples

Simone set up a feeding study to determine what Hermissenda crassicornis prefer to eat. While Alex ran a feeding study on Carcinus maenas to determine prey preference between whelks and Mytilus trossulus.

Alex's feeding experiment on Carcinus maenas in the BI 450 lab

Throughout the week, Kris and Caroline got up at the crack of dawn to conduct community surveys on fish species found in both the invasive eelgrass Zostera japonica and the native eelgrass Zostera marina.

Sydney and Milan looked at chaetognatha abundance at various locations along the West Coast using old NOAA trawl samples. While Bri and Lisa tested the aggression level of various crab species in response to the presence or absence of female pheromones.

Bri holding a male Cancer magister in Yaquina Bay, Oregon

Bucket full of Cancer magister and Cancer productus

By the end of the crazy and tiring week with many sleep deprived students, we had reached the mid-way point of the research projects and nearly all experiments were concluded.