Last week I worked a lot in R in order to create graphs for my research poster. After a lot of coding videos, google searches, and confusion I finally created my graphs that I will be using in my research poster and I can’t be prouder of myself! This week I finished my rough draft of my research poster, spent a couple of hours in the lab learning how to sterile filter the artificial seawater that I created weeks ago and helped organize some old samples. Coming up is our last week! I can’t believe the internship is coming to an end already.
Caribbean vs Pacific Symbiodiniaceae Cell Counts comparing live and dead cells counted using the hemocytometerSymbiodiniaceae Cell Counts Comparing live and dead cells across Caribbean Facultative Corallivores, Pacific Facultative Corallivores, and Pacific Obligate Corallivores.
Hello all! This week we have continued to conduct counts of Symbiodiniaceae cells to determine the number of dead and alive cells in a sample using the hemocytometer. I did get a couple of samples that were absolutely beautiful! They were so easy to count and the live symbionts were easily spotted as they were perfectly golden in color (pictured below).
View through the Hemocytometer, the golden rounds cells are the live Symbiodineaceae cells. The grid on the slide helps us to keep track of the cells we have counted. We have been counting between 20 – 500 living Symbiodiniaceae cells in our samples!Freezer boxes storing the filtered and unfiltered samples of fish poop!
The samples that we are doing cell counts on are fish poop samples collected from various fishes that were dissected in the Caribbean. We have around 56 samples in total. A big part of the process has been to filter the samples and we finally finished all of our filtrations this week! This has been a big win. We will be finishing our counts soon as well so I will get to start analyzing the data for my research poster.
This week I did more cell counts using the hemocytometer. This is a picture of the slide that is used if you look closely at the center of the two blue stained sections you can kind of see a grid. We use the grid to help with counts so we don’t double count any cells.
Picture taken from online, not my data.
I also started to learn how to use R this week which is a programming software often used by scientists to analyze data, create graphs of data, and more. I plan on using R to to create graphs for my research poster so there is a lot to learn!
For more information about R you can watch the video above!
So what do you know about Zooxanthellae? Did you know that they live in a symbiotic relationship with corals? They are these really cool microscopic organisms that help corals to survive and thrive! When corals are dead or bleached the Zooxanthellae die or leave the coral causing corals to lose their color!
When corals bleach the Zooxanthellae will either die off or leave the coral, causing the corals to lose their color and look almost white (hence why it is called bleaching).
This week I got to learn how to prepare fish feces samples in order to do counts on the number of zooxanthellae found in their poop! The machine pictured is called a hemocytometer.
A fish feces sample as seen under the Hemocytometer that has been dyed using Trypan Blue. The sample is placed on an apparatus that has grids that we use to keep track of the boxes we have counted.
Trypan Blue is a stain used to help scientists distinguish living and dead cells more easily in a sample.
I also started to prepare artificial seawater for filtration that will be used in several other lab projects.
It was a good week learning, growing, and getting to learn more about my lab team. I also got to meet with my PI and come up with some really exciting classroom lesson ideas! I look forward to collaborating and researching more next week!
Getting to know my mentors and other lab personnel
Taking a tour of the lab
Exploring the Rice University Campus
Gaining crucial knowledge about Coral Reefs and Symbiodiniaceae by going through the information in Dr. Correa’s BIOL 373/573 Coral Reef Ecosystems Class
Sometimes I take a shortcut through one of the music buildings to get out of the heat when I am walking to/from my car. They are working on a really cool mural!
Did you know that corals are in a mutualistic relationship with organisms called Symbiodiniaceae that help provide corals their color, conduct photosynthesis, and even help to fight off diseases!
These organisms live within the layers of ‘skin’ on coral tentacles! Symbiodiniaceae are more commonly known as zooxanthellae.
” . . . predation by diverse coral-eating (corallivorous) fish species promotes the dispersal of Symbiodiniaceae”
I was able to use a website called CoralNet where I got to practice identifying coral species from a photograph taken at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary located in the Gulf Coast. The program will plot 100 random points and the user then identifies each point as a living coral species, unknown, or dead coral. The program will then calculate the amount of living to dead coral cover. Alex, one of Dr. Correa’s Ph.D candidates, showed me what they call the ‘Frog Wall’ here on Rice University’s campus. The land used to be wetlands that a lot of frogs called home so the builders included this in the buildings architecture to pay homage to those frogs!
I took a lot of notes and watched a lot of videos this week to gain some much needed background knowledge!
Overall it was a good first week and I am looking forward to getting to start working in the lab soon!
Our first week as interns was spent in orientation and trainings. We learned a lot about what we are expected to do during our time at Rice (or other respective campus) and how to navigate our way around the beautiful Rice University Campus!
We attended safety trainings to go over general safety and biological safety to ensure we are all safe in the labs we are working in over the summer.
Julie Cooper
Friday we toured the Surface Water Treatment Plant in Sugarland where welearned about how they collect, filter, and monitor water that is eventually used by the people of Sugarland.
This summer I will be working in Dr. Adrienne Correa’s lab at Rice University in order to identify the roles of viruses in stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). I will also be testing to see if the fishes that eat these corals have any role in the facilitation of spreading or stopping these diseases. My main goal this summer is to be a successful asset to Dr. Correa’s lab as I conduct my research and provide some new and helpful information about SCTLD’s. Additionally I hope to produce a meaningful research poster and lesson plan that I can use to successfully educate others about this research.
Transferable Skills from the Classroom to the Lab:
Organization
Leadership
Attention to detail
Enthusiastic
Lifetime learner
Patient
Curious
Responsible
As a third year teacher I amcurrently teaching high school level Biology and Environmental Systems. I have my bachelors degree inBiology and a minor in environmental science from Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). Additionally I have my masters degree in curriculum and instruction from TAMUCC. I fell in love with the ocean at a young age and was lucky enough to be able to see it all over the world including receiving my open water scuba certification in Tioman, Malaysia!
I am so excited to learn from Dr. Correa and do research on corals. This is definitely a dream come true!
Getting back into research might be a challenging task, but I am definitely up for that challenge.
