Monday, November 29, 2010
That's What He Said!
I was stumbling across the internet, and came across this. It was so awesome I had to share it with everyone!
Science & Thanksgiving
Well, I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving break. I know I did! And even though it was a short trip home to see family, the Science World managed to find its way into my vacation. On the day we arrived home, my mom insisted that we come with her to her Toastmasters meeting (which was boring as all getout). But! One of the club members happens to be a local scientist working on the local body of water, which is a topic I've been interested in following for a long time. And now that I find myself in a similar field, he tells me that they are always hiring researchers, so if I ever have to move home, I will have a job :-) But then, the Thanksgiving Day morning, my hubby and I go to run a 5k race, and who do I run into but my high school biology teacher!!! We talk in the bathroom for forever, and I tell her about meeting this guy and she says, "it would be great if he'd come speak to my AP Environmental Science class!" Connection made!!! So now, I have to get my mom to remember to ask the scientist guy for his email, so I can give it to my bio teacher, so I can finish the connection! Love it! Who knew I'd find such awesome aquatic science right in my own backyard!
And on a to-do list update, my MS advisor emailed me an updated draft of my thesis manuscript ON THANKSGIVING DAY!!!! I was going to make the revisions myself, honest! I really did not expect him to do anything with it until I'd sent him an updated version. Guess this is the nudge to get on it! I didn't particularly want to work on this until after comps, but cest la vive...
And on a to-do list update, my MS advisor emailed me an updated draft of my thesis manuscript ON THANKSGIVING DAY!!!! I was going to make the revisions myself, honest! I really did not expect him to do anything with it until I'd sent him an updated version. Guess this is the nudge to get on it! I didn't particularly want to work on this until after comps, but cest la vive...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Current To-Do List
Well, I hope people got some use out of my first attempt at live-blogging. The next attempt will be at the NEAS meeting in April (where the hell is "Woods Hole"?). In the meantime, here are upcoming lab activities!
December:
It makes me nervous to have this much planned out. I've got the giant fear of comps hanging over my head. If I don't pass comps, I'm going to be very unmotivated to do much of anything. It doesn't seem like it should be too hard, to get an 85% on an exam, but for some reason, this seems like an insurmountable task. Comps at FU aren't done like comps at other universities. In this dept, it's a comprehensive written exam. There are 3 core classes you have to take, and then the professors from those classes write several cumulative questions from their course. The dept secretary then randomly picks 4 from each class out of a hat, for a total of 12 questions. You then answer 2 of the 4 for each class. And from those 6 essays, you must score at least an 85% in order to remain in the program; no second chances! This makes me nervous. When an exam is weighted so heavily, I'll stress and study for a long time and then right before the exam, I'll get really frustrated and just say "fuck it", and then bomb. It happened this semester, and I'm afraid it'll happen again.
Ugh, sorry, this turned into kvetching again...One of these days this will morph from a bitching blog to a research blog. I'm working on it!
December:
- Analyze algal fatty acids from the summer 2010 project.
- Research on hold for comps :-(
- Start counting algae (I have 140 slides to count!) from the summer 2010 project
- Start writing up other results from the summer 2010 project (gonna try to eek a publication out of this, at least a poster...)
- Start writing up the MS for publication (again)
- Begin planning for my multi-stream dissertation project!
- Pick streams
- Contact farmers
- Proof sites
- Gather materials
- Cry over not receiving funding (j/k! I hope...)
It makes me nervous to have this much planned out. I've got the giant fear of comps hanging over my head. If I don't pass comps, I'm going to be very unmotivated to do much of anything. It doesn't seem like it should be too hard, to get an 85% on an exam, but for some reason, this seems like an insurmountable task. Comps at FU aren't done like comps at other universities. In this dept, it's a comprehensive written exam. There are 3 core classes you have to take, and then the professors from those classes write several cumulative questions from their course. The dept secretary then randomly picks 4 from each class out of a hat, for a total of 12 questions. You then answer 2 of the 4 for each class. And from those 6 essays, you must score at least an 85% in order to remain in the program; no second chances! This makes me nervous. When an exam is weighted so heavily, I'll stress and study for a long time and then right before the exam, I'll get really frustrated and just say "fuck it", and then bomb. It happened this semester, and I'm afraid it'll happen again.
Ugh, sorry, this turned into kvetching again...One of these days this will morph from a bitching blog to a research blog. I'm working on it!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Conservation Conversations: The Live Blog!
Dr. George Amato; AMNH - DNA Barcoding initiative for conservation
What is the role of DNA barcoding in conservation efforts? A specific example of employing this tool to protect biodiversity.
DNA-BC as an emerging global standard. Idea initially taken from the barcodes found on many different products, could you do something similar with a DNA fragment? People thought that some projects would never happen if they were only interesting to one institution, and this helps to make random topics interesting to large numbers of people. The original meeting at the Danbury center proposed focusing on the COI and Cyt b region of the mitochondrial genome. These segments are highly conserved, with not a lot of variation between individuals within a species, <2% difference within species, but >5-6% difference between species. These regions are only used for ANIMAL life, plants use different gene regions. A tool for identifying regulated species, pests, diseases, etc. Also a research tool for improving species level taxonomy, and "triage" for flagging potential new species. Results eventually find their way into a reference library, needed to be adopted by a whole community of scientists, part of the Tree of Life project. Reactions when first introduced. range from "this is just what we need" to "taxa should be defined by multiple characters, not just barcodes" But people find it increasingly useful in their research. Process is very standardized, high thru-put approach. Total cost per sample (once you've got all the equipment, or access to it) is about $7 per sample. Can this technology be miniaturized and portable for in field immediate results? Can you scan an organisms' barcode?? Not that far-fetch, all technology is available today! CBOL has worked very hard to internationalize the effort and standards for these methods. BoLD hosted by U. Guelph, and the 1 millionth barcode has just been entered! More meta-data is associated with a barcode than the data that is entered into GenBank.
Proposal to the Sloan corporation an Initiative for Conservation. Would develop and expand the database and vouchers for endangered species and those affected by commercial trade. Enhance the capacity of the muesum's institute for comparative genomics. Obtain voucher specimens and move them into the barcoding pipeline. Applied these ideas to the barcoding of bushmeat, proof of concept that methods could be used on preserved, smoked, old samples in a market. It mainly worked, except for the dwarf crocodile, had a lot of sequence variation. Discovered that there were 3 different species of dwarf crocodile from 3 distinct geographic regions in Central Africa. And the barcodes worked, once the species had been properly IDed and described. Barcoding has now been used to ID very processed goods such as leather and food supplements. Used to ID all the different ways "tuna" is mislabeled at sushi places around NYC, lots accidentally selling blue-fin and other banned fish, and saying its something else.
What is the role of DNA barcoding in conservation efforts? A specific example of employing this tool to protect biodiversity.
DNA-BC as an emerging global standard. Idea initially taken from the barcodes found on many different products, could you do something similar with a DNA fragment? People thought that some projects would never happen if they were only interesting to one institution, and this helps to make random topics interesting to large numbers of people. The original meeting at the Danbury center proposed focusing on the COI and Cyt b region of the mitochondrial genome. These segments are highly conserved, with not a lot of variation between individuals within a species, <2% difference within species, but >5-6% difference between species. These regions are only used for ANIMAL life, plants use different gene regions. A tool for identifying regulated species, pests, diseases, etc. Also a research tool for improving species level taxonomy, and "triage" for flagging potential new species. Results eventually find their way into a reference library, needed to be adopted by a whole community of scientists, part of the Tree of Life project. Reactions when first introduced. range from "this is just what we need" to "taxa should be defined by multiple characters, not just barcodes" But people find it increasingly useful in their research. Process is very standardized, high thru-put approach. Total cost per sample (once you've got all the equipment, or access to it) is about $7 per sample. Can this technology be miniaturized and portable for in field immediate results? Can you scan an organisms' barcode?? Not that far-fetch, all technology is available today! CBOL has worked very hard to internationalize the effort and standards for these methods. BoLD hosted by U. Guelph, and the 1 millionth barcode has just been entered! More meta-data is associated with a barcode than the data that is entered into GenBank.
Proposal to the Sloan corporation an Initiative for Conservation. Would develop and expand the database and vouchers for endangered species and those affected by commercial trade. Enhance the capacity of the muesum's institute for comparative genomics. Obtain voucher specimens and move them into the barcoding pipeline. Applied these ideas to the barcoding of bushmeat, proof of concept that methods could be used on preserved, smoked, old samples in a market. It mainly worked, except for the dwarf crocodile, had a lot of sequence variation. Discovered that there were 3 different species of dwarf crocodile from 3 distinct geographic regions in Central Africa. And the barcodes worked, once the species had been properly IDed and described. Barcoding has now been used to ID very processed goods such as leather and food supplements. Used to ID all the different ways "tuna" is mislabeled at sushi places around NYC, lots accidentally selling blue-fin and other banned fish, and saying its something else.
Conservation Conversations: The Live Blog!
Dr. Joshua Ginsberg; WSC - The impact of scale on conservation
Goals when opened: 1)To open a free zoo (still free on Wed), 2) to educate people at all levels of society, and 3) to protect and conserve wildlife.
Going to talk about scale, both in terms of time and space. Very much a fractal relationship, as you move up, you see similar relationships, but they have different meanings at different scales.
How long is perpetuity? Answer: 100 years. Why? Perpetuity was originally (1682) outlaws (tax reason), but charities are exempt. Perpetuity = life span +21yrs + 9mos = 100 years today.
It's about understanding the limits in which we can work, and useful when talk across disciplines. Preservation and conservation focuses in 100 year blocks. Forecasts past 20yrs is too unpredictable for management.
"Long Term" ecological research = 21 studies for 11-57 years. Swan "upping" on the Thames since 1378!
How long can we management for? or How quickly do threats advance?
What's the persistence of protected areas? Many countries have lost protected areas in recent history. Would like to plot the life expectancy of protected areas. Governmentally defined, many are in private holding, but this is tenuous. And our ability to change laws to protect areas is limited. Climate change has really thrown a monkey wrench into all this.
How does the scale at which we effect conservation effect it? <10,000m2 = zoo, 100ha urban parklands, 100km2 isolated preserves and up to landscapes, planning,
Captivity: Diversity is planned, diet is manipulated and controlled, predation eliminated, social groups and structure manipulated, reproduction & genetic management
Urban Parklands: Fragments of nature, managed intensively like zoos, diet mainly conrolled, some forage, management of disturbance and invasives, restoration of diversity, amplify natural features like topography and hydrology
Isolated Preserves - Regional Planning: Threats increase as the spatial scale increases (e.g. hunting at 10km2, deforestation at 10,000km2, pollution at 1mil km2). Targets also change with scale (individuals 10km2 --> communities 10,000km2 --> Global processes 1mil km2) at each scale, there are different things to measure, different variables that are meaningful and important. Each of these factors, threats, and focuses are nested within each other.E.g. in 1900 in US, wolves existed where people didn't, kind of still holds.
Are we managing nature or managing human impact? 2 different visions for the future, WCS embraces both, because both are necessary. Personally, prefer managing human impact because it preserves the wildness of the world. Predicted to plateau human pop at 9billion people in 2050, and stabilization at 2100...which is beyond 100yrs. So we have to protect through this plateau before things start to get better. Sometimes cheaper to manage people than wild animals.
E.g. African Wild Dogs and distemper/rabies vaccination program. Preserving and moving around can spread disease and make it hard to control in wild populations.
10% of land surface is protected, 1% of marine; target to protect 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine protected. Marine protection is going to be the challenge and where the game is! But you can't just protected the Sahara and call it a day, must focus on protecting the more diverse/important to protect places. By 2030, 70% of the human population will live in urban areas, and this presents a conservation opportunity! People usually move out of marginal agriculture areas, preserve those. However, the challenge will be the people who move into the prime agriculture areas. Reduction in subsidies to rural states will increase migration from rural to urban areas.
Global Tiger Initiative is a prime example of how govt and scale management works together.
Goals when opened: 1)To open a free zoo (still free on Wed), 2) to educate people at all levels of society, and 3) to protect and conserve wildlife.
Going to talk about scale, both in terms of time and space. Very much a fractal relationship, as you move up, you see similar relationships, but they have different meanings at different scales.
How long is perpetuity? Answer: 100 years. Why? Perpetuity was originally (1682) outlaws (tax reason), but charities are exempt. Perpetuity = life span +21yrs + 9mos = 100 years today.
It's about understanding the limits in which we can work, and useful when talk across disciplines. Preservation and conservation focuses in 100 year blocks. Forecasts past 20yrs is too unpredictable for management.
"Long Term" ecological research = 21 studies for 11-57 years. Swan "upping" on the Thames since 1378!
How long can we management for? or How quickly do threats advance?
What's the persistence of protected areas? Many countries have lost protected areas in recent history. Would like to plot the life expectancy of protected areas. Governmentally defined, many are in private holding, but this is tenuous. And our ability to change laws to protect areas is limited. Climate change has really thrown a monkey wrench into all this.
How does the scale at which we effect conservation effect it? <10,000m2 = zoo, 100ha urban parklands, 100km2 isolated preserves and up to landscapes, planning,
Captivity: Diversity is planned, diet is manipulated and controlled, predation eliminated, social groups and structure manipulated, reproduction & genetic management
Urban Parklands: Fragments of nature, managed intensively like zoos, diet mainly conrolled, some forage, management of disturbance and invasives, restoration of diversity, amplify natural features like topography and hydrology
Isolated Preserves - Regional Planning: Threats increase as the spatial scale increases (e.g. hunting at 10km2, deforestation at 10,000km2, pollution at 1mil km2). Targets also change with scale (individuals 10km2 --> communities 10,000km2 --> Global processes 1mil km2) at each scale, there are different things to measure, different variables that are meaningful and important. Each of these factors, threats, and focuses are nested within each other.E.g. in 1900 in US, wolves existed where people didn't, kind of still holds.
Are we managing nature or managing human impact? 2 different visions for the future, WCS embraces both, because both are necessary. Personally, prefer managing human impact because it preserves the wildness of the world. Predicted to plateau human pop at 9billion people in 2050, and stabilization at 2100...which is beyond 100yrs. So we have to protect through this plateau before things start to get better. Sometimes cheaper to manage people than wild animals.
E.g. African Wild Dogs and distemper/rabies vaccination program. Preserving and moving around can spread disease and make it hard to control in wild populations.
10% of land surface is protected, 1% of marine; target to protect 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine protected. Marine protection is going to be the challenge and where the game is! But you can't just protected the Sahara and call it a day, must focus on protecting the more diverse/important to protect places. By 2030, 70% of the human population will live in urban areas, and this presents a conservation opportunity! People usually move out of marginal agriculture areas, preserve those. However, the challenge will be the people who move into the prime agriculture areas. Reduction in subsidies to rural states will increase migration from rural to urban areas.
Global Tiger Initiative is a prime example of how govt and scale management works together.
Conservation Conversations: The Live Blog!
I'll have to clean up mistakes and typos later.
Dr. Jim Miller; NYBG - Research to inform conservation: Assessing the risk of extinction for the world's plant species
Focusing on the conservation efforts of the NYBG. But with some background about the garden: Gardens are built around a collections based research program, since it was founded in 1891. Also, research is focused internationally, not just NY or the US.
Core goal of the NYBG is to understand and describe global plant diversity. However, the literature is still a long way away from fully understanding the diversity of plants on earth. This taxonomic plant knowledge is coupled with understanding the local ecology and traditional local knowledge of the plants (e.g. ethonobotany, Institute for Economic Botany). Herbarium contains over 7million specimens, largest in the Western Hemisphere. All of this is used to created proper relationships between plant taxa. Increasingly using molecular/DNA data to elucidate phylogeneitc relationships.
Not only are many of the world's plants in danger of extinction, but also the culture and local knowledge associated with these plants are in danger (like how 2/3 of the world's languages are moribund, not spoken by anyone under 30). A good portion of the planet is reasonably well explored, and the NYBG separates the globe into 5 geographic regions that they focus on. However, many researchers are still closely examining the less studied parts.
Many of the world's plant species face extinction in the next 50 years. However, we don't know which species are in danger, so we don't know where to focus our conservation efforts. UN set protection targets to help prevent this; 1) A comprehensive inventroy of the world's plant species by 2010 (fail) and 2) a comprehensive list of the world's endangered plant species by 2010 (fail!). One of the troubles is that many plants have been published with multiple names. Over 1million plant names have been published, who knows how many are synonymous. Also, we are still discovering new species! And who knows how many of them will be named multiple times. Lots of samples sitting in herbariums, waiting to be described.
The vertebrate community has done a descent job of cataloging all the vertebrates and which ones are in danger. But there's only 10,000spc of vertebrates, there's 300,000-400,000 plant species. Also, since vertebrates are more charismatic, people have been following the populations for longer, so we know where the issues are. This hasn't happened for plants.
Progress is happening! As of next year, we will have a checklist of plants for every country in the new world, except Mexico. But no demographic data. Also, many older specimens have descriptive locations (1.5 miles north of City X in Country Y). Each point needs a lat/long. Only 12,000 plant species have had their conservation status identified.
IUCN working groups: Only the palm and cycad groups have fully identified all their species and assigned conservation status to all known taxa. Method for evaluating IUCN status mainly uses GIS; if you don't occur many places, then you must be a rare/endangered taxa. IUCN uses a series of area thresholds, and if it falls below various values, it is categorized as threatened, endangered, sensitive, etc.
Example project: the flora of PR is very well known, 2,076 native spc. Which are endangered? Using GIS and database software, determined that 59 "at risk" taxa. Used "at risk" because the term is not used anywhere else in the literature, and doesn't carry any official status, since this was just a preliminary survey. Approximately 1/4 of all PR species are endemic to there, and of those, about half are "at risk". Interestingly, there is a high correlation between the important places for plants, and important places for birds in PR. Going to expand this project from PR to the tropics, and then the New World.
The 50 scientists at the NYBG can't do it alone. They work through many partnerships with local governments, institutions, and other international protection agencies. They also have a graduate program that has a partnership with 6 different universities. Also provide internships for undergraduates, both during the summer and school year.
Dr. Jim Miller; NYBG - Research to inform conservation: Assessing the risk of extinction for the world's plant species
Focusing on the conservation efforts of the NYBG. But with some background about the garden: Gardens are built around a collections based research program, since it was founded in 1891. Also, research is focused internationally, not just NY or the US.
Core goal of the NYBG is to understand and describe global plant diversity. However, the literature is still a long way away from fully understanding the diversity of plants on earth. This taxonomic plant knowledge is coupled with understanding the local ecology and traditional local knowledge of the plants (e.g. ethonobotany, Institute for Economic Botany). Herbarium contains over 7million specimens, largest in the Western Hemisphere. All of this is used to created proper relationships between plant taxa. Increasingly using molecular/DNA data to elucidate phylogeneitc relationships.
Not only are many of the world's plants in danger of extinction, but also the culture and local knowledge associated with these plants are in danger (like how 2/3 of the world's languages are moribund, not spoken by anyone under 30). A good portion of the planet is reasonably well explored, and the NYBG separates the globe into 5 geographic regions that they focus on. However, many researchers are still closely examining the less studied parts.
- North America: the member of the poppy family that are able to grow here have increased by 50 members
- Carribean: waiting for relations with Cuba to normalize to explore flora to protect it from development.
- Brazil/S.A.: every trip finds new species
- SE Asia
- Africa: projects can uncover 5 new species a day
Many of the world's plant species face extinction in the next 50 years. However, we don't know which species are in danger, so we don't know where to focus our conservation efforts. UN set protection targets to help prevent this; 1) A comprehensive inventroy of the world's plant species by 2010 (fail) and 2) a comprehensive list of the world's endangered plant species by 2010 (fail!). One of the troubles is that many plants have been published with multiple names. Over 1million plant names have been published, who knows how many are synonymous. Also, we are still discovering new species! And who knows how many of them will be named multiple times. Lots of samples sitting in herbariums, waiting to be described.
The vertebrate community has done a descent job of cataloging all the vertebrates and which ones are in danger. But there's only 10,000spc of vertebrates, there's 300,000-400,000 plant species. Also, since vertebrates are more charismatic, people have been following the populations for longer, so we know where the issues are. This hasn't happened for plants.
Progress is happening! As of next year, we will have a checklist of plants for every country in the new world, except Mexico. But no demographic data. Also, many older specimens have descriptive locations (1.5 miles north of City X in Country Y). Each point needs a lat/long. Only 12,000 plant species have had their conservation status identified.
IUCN working groups: Only the palm and cycad groups have fully identified all their species and assigned conservation status to all known taxa. Method for evaluating IUCN status mainly uses GIS; if you don't occur many places, then you must be a rare/endangered taxa. IUCN uses a series of area thresholds, and if it falls below various values, it is categorized as threatened, endangered, sensitive, etc.
Example project: the flora of PR is very well known, 2,076 native spc. Which are endangered? Using GIS and database software, determined that 59 "at risk" taxa. Used "at risk" because the term is not used anywhere else in the literature, and doesn't carry any official status, since this was just a preliminary survey. Approximately 1/4 of all PR species are endemic to there, and of those, about half are "at risk". Interestingly, there is a high correlation between the important places for plants, and important places for birds in PR. Going to expand this project from PR to the tropics, and then the New World.
The 50 scientists at the NYBG can't do it alone. They work through many partnerships with local governments, institutions, and other international protection agencies. They also have a graduate program that has a partnership with 6 different universities. Also provide internships for undergraduates, both during the summer and school year.
Conservation Conversations: Year 2
Good morning out there! Today is Conservation Conversations day at Fordham University. This event is a developing cooperation between Fordham University, the New York Botanical Gardens, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the American Museum of Natural History. Last year was the first year of this event, and it was just FU, NYBG, and WCS. This year, it's grown to include the AMNH. If you're interested in attending next year, send me a note or something and I'll do my best to remember to let you know when it comes up. If you're in the NYC area and would like to attend, here is the Facebook event page. It starts at about 9:30am, so don't expect too much until then.
In the meantime, now that you've had a look at the event, tell me what you think about this? If you are attending, what would you like to see this event become? If you're not attending, but would think about it for next year, what would really make you want to participate? I'll be attending a brainstorming session after lunch, so ideas are appreciated.
See you in the live blog!
In the meantime, now that you've had a look at the event, tell me what you think about this? If you are attending, what would you like to see this event become? If you're not attending, but would think about it for next year, what would really make you want to participate? I'll be attending a brainstorming session after lunch, so ideas are appreciated.
See you in the live blog!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Current Lab Endeavors
Now that most of the semester is out of the way, I can get back to the fun, research side of things! So here's a little glimpse into what I've got going on:
Gas Chromatography
I'm still learning about this, so excuse me if I say anything incorrect. Part of my hypothesis from my summer project (and future dissertation project) is that the nutritional quality of periphyton will vary, in this case based on whether the community is grazed by macroinvertebrates or not. Part of what determines the nutritional quality of a food source is the composition of fatty acids. Many organisms acquire their essential fatty acids from the trophic level below them, so the fatty acids (FA) of periphyton matter for macroinvertebrates, and macroinvertebrates matter for fish.
The way that we measure the composition of FA of a sample is with gas chromatography. So just like with the pigment chromatography experiment we all do in into bio lab, a gas chromatograph (GC) seperates out different molecules based on some varying property. With the image below, the pigment molecules are separated based on size. A GC can separate based on size, weight, charge, different functional groups, almost whatever you want.
So we've got a GC and several different inserts that will separate all sorts of molecules by all sorts of properties. However, currently the machine isn't set up for our method, so that work is going on now. There are all sort parts, columns, and injector that have to be changed, reagents need to be made up, and (scarily) everything must be washed with chloroform! The idea of working with that much chloroform scares me. Currently another grad student is taking care of that part, but I don't want to be using all his work without putting in some of my own. Hopefully tomorrow, I can get up to the lab and help him with something.
Mianus River Gorge
The other (and last!) big project that needs to get completed this semester is this grant application for the Mianus River Gorge. It's not as big as the EPA grant, but it's still a very nice chunk of change!! So part of my dissertation calls for conducting this study on relatively pristine streams so that I can compare impacted streams to the "natural" state. I think the Mianus River Gorge would be a great place to conduct that part of the study since it's been a protected area for so long...and they're offering a nice incentive to do research there! My problem is I've never been there, and I think the Mianus river itself is too big for my study. I'd be more interested in working on the smaller streams and tributaries, but I don't know a) if there are any there and b) what condition they're in. I know they're in a preserve, but their status could still be questionable. So I need to do some more research into that, and get that taken care of. But this is really my last big hurdle for the semester!
So, I've just about made it! I survived taking 2 classes, teaching 2 classes, writing (almost) 4 grant applications, and still managing to keep the house in working order and have a bit of a social life. And I only had one breakdown (aw, no, I remember a 2nd...) during all of it! That's a record in my book!
Gas Chromatography
I'm still learning about this, so excuse me if I say anything incorrect. Part of my hypothesis from my summer project (and future dissertation project) is that the nutritional quality of periphyton will vary, in this case based on whether the community is grazed by macroinvertebrates or not. Part of what determines the nutritional quality of a food source is the composition of fatty acids. Many organisms acquire their essential fatty acids from the trophic level below them, so the fatty acids (FA) of periphyton matter for macroinvertebrates, and macroinvertebrates matter for fish.
The way that we measure the composition of FA of a sample is with gas chromatography. So just like with the pigment chromatography experiment we all do in into bio lab, a gas chromatograph (GC) seperates out different molecules based on some varying property. With the image below, the pigment molecules are separated based on size. A GC can separate based on size, weight, charge, different functional groups, almost whatever you want.
 |
| What is the spectrum of algal fatty acids? |
Mianus River Gorge
The other (and last!) big project that needs to get completed this semester is this grant application for the Mianus River Gorge. It's not as big as the EPA grant, but it's still a very nice chunk of change!! So part of my dissertation calls for conducting this study on relatively pristine streams so that I can compare impacted streams to the "natural" state. I think the Mianus River Gorge would be a great place to conduct that part of the study since it's been a protected area for so long...and they're offering a nice incentive to do research there! My problem is I've never been there, and I think the Mianus river itself is too big for my study. I'd be more interested in working on the smaller streams and tributaries, but I don't know a) if there are any there and b) what condition they're in. I know they're in a preserve, but their status could still be questionable. So I need to do some more research into that, and get that taken care of. But this is really my last big hurdle for the semester!
So, I've just about made it! I survived taking 2 classes, teaching 2 classes, writing (almost) 4 grant applications, and still managing to keep the house in working order and have a bit of a social life. And I only had one breakdown (aw, no, I remember a 2nd...) during all of it! That's a record in my book!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Dropped a Ball...
I've fucked up. Really fucked up. So I turned in two funding applications this week; the Phycological Society of America one, and the EPA one. I've got two more in the works. This totals 4 funding applications on top of a full course load, a full teaching load, and running the household while the hubby is in law school. That's a lot of juggling, for those keeping score at home. And I dropped a ball!! I knew at least one of these applications called for a CV. So after going over all the requirements I could find for the two applications coming due and not finding a CV requirement, I figured it was one of the others and I didn't sweat it. Then tonight, as I was clearing out some email, I clicked on one directing me to the PSA website regarding society elections. To my absolute horror, there on the main page, was a summary of requirements for the PSA application, including a CV!!!! Of course it's now not there...don't know why. All I know is I had a mini panic-attack/melt-down. This was supposed to be the easiest application and I fucked it up because I didn't notice the two lists of requirements?! What the fuck is wrong with me?! So after I could finally see through the tears again, I grabbed the CV, copied it into the application, made a new pdf, and sent it off (a whole week late!!!!11!!!1!!) with many pleadings for forgiveness. I don't have much hope though. If I were on the committee and I heard about this, I wouldn't give me funding. Even for a small grant, it's competitive. There's no room for awarding fuck-ups like me. I had too much on my plate and I fucked up. I'm sure some would say that everyone fucks up once and a while, or it was at least the small one...but I don't hold much hope for me getting the big ones, and I fucked up the small one....there's no hope for me at all. Grrrrr..!
Well, I've sent it off, again. All I can do now is eat my tacos, drink my beer, and pray to the funding gods to have pity on me. What do you sacrifice to the funding gods? I'll take suggestions.
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Update: Very nice man over at the PSA said that it would be alright and he'd send off the corrected application, no worries. Phew!
Well, I've sent it off, again. All I can do now is eat my tacos, drink my beer, and pray to the funding gods to have pity on me. What do you sacrifice to the funding gods? I'll take suggestions.
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Update: Very nice man over at the PSA said that it would be alright and he'd send off the corrected application, no worries. Phew!
Monday, November 1, 2010
PSA: Check!
Well, it's been a crazy couple of weeks since I last posted. But I just submitted my application to the Phycological Society of America for their student Grant In Aid. Of course it was right down to the wire. It usually is! So, this is application 1/4....
Next one due on Friday is the big one, the EPA STAR! All the pieces are written, half have been reviewed, and now it's just a process of making corrections. Hopefully this will be submitted by Thursday, I've heard the grants.gov website can be wonky.
Life is finally starting to calm down. Everything is coming due, and most of everything is in a fairly finished state. So, that's what's going on...not too much! Now, I'm going to go home and clean up 2 weeks worth of abandoned messes that occured during the time-crunch from hell!
Next one due on Friday is the big one, the EPA STAR! All the pieces are written, half have been reviewed, and now it's just a process of making corrections. Hopefully this will be submitted by Thursday, I've heard the grants.gov website can be wonky.
Life is finally starting to calm down. Everything is coming due, and most of everything is in a fairly finished state. So, that's what's going on...not too much! Now, I'm going to go home and clean up 2 weeks worth of abandoned messes that occured during the time-crunch from hell!
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