WEEK TEN!!!!

This is our final week here at Hatfield Marine Science Center, and we have all been working very hard on our final projects. We have all spent many hours working on statistics with our TA Reuben and none of us could have done it without him. We have also relied on our teachers to guide us through the process of writing a scientific paper. For the few seniors here, today marks the last day of our undergraduate career, and I could not think of a better way to end it. We will all remember the time spent here this term. These ten weeks has flown by and we have all learned so much and made great new friends. 

Here is a little about what we taught each other today:

Ellen Dow studied the symbiosis relationships between anemones and dinoflagellates. She had a great experimental set up and spent a lot of time under a microscope.

Arianna Snow, Kristen Beem and Alex Carsh looked at the growth rate of a local kelp Saccharina sessilis. The altered lighting conditions and made comparisons between field and laboratory experiments.

Aubree Minten, Anna Vercruyssen and Katie Blacketor studied the feeding habits of "baby" sea stars. They later found out that one of their studio species just had a very small adult stage and only looked like babies. This revelation was made by one of our instructors Bruce Menge.

Jake Brown and Paul Stiger looked at food preference of the local kelp crab. Their results were very interesting showing they feed on a variety of algae and invertebrates.

Erin Jaco and Sarah Heidmann went into the field to study the settlement preference of the local (and very tasty) dungeness crab.

Virinda Boyle and Tori Klein(not pictured) probably had the most fun and got to study one of the resident giant pacific octopuses here at Hatfield. They taught him how to open a screw top jar and tested his memory.

Cassidy Huun did a field study looking at topography and sea star abundance. She got to enjoy some lovely weather we had during her data collection times at Strawberry Hill.

Eli Waddell, Emily Anderson and Josh Borland took their hermit crabs shell shopping. They found that crabs have a preferred shell but do get annoyed when repeatedly removed from their shells.

Emily Hunt (author 1) and Sheila VanHofwegen looked into the local myth about urchin stampedes. While we didn't see any stampedes, we did find that urchins can tell when a predator is near and will flee from it.

Taylor Derlacki, Megan Beazley(author 2) and Meghan Atkinson studied trait mediated interaction of a local food web. Their study included the invasive European Green Crab and its relationship to snails and algae.

The full gang together for the last time!!!

So long Hatfield Marine Science Center and Marine Biology 450. This has been an incredible experience for all of us!!!

Emily Hunt and Megan Beazley