Post-Presentation

Hello again, everybody!

Yesterday I gave a presentation to the other Cooperative Extension interns on my project/internship thus far. I also got to listen to presentations from the other interns and learn about what they've been working on!

I get very nervous giving presentations, so naturally I was anxious. However, it went well and I only got a little bit flustered! The audience seemed interested in my work and asked questions about shucking oysters, blending them into a "smoothie" for processing (see the picture below!), and if swimmers need to be concerned about Vibrio-related illnesses around here.

I've also been doing some research on ways to analyze microbial communities in oysters for a potential upcoming experiment... very exciting! Being a microbiologist, learning about all of the bacteria I can work with as well as ways to analyze them is thrilling!

Until next time!
Audrey

Still Going Strong!

Hi Again!

I am writing from after the UNH Extension internship presentation!  All the interns under UNH Extension were to present a quick talk on their experiences at their internship so far.  When I showed up today, I was expecting only a few people, but there was a whole classroom of people there to listen and present!  At first, it was a little nerve-racking, but as people started presenting I started to think less about the nerves of my presentation and just focus on the people who were presenting and what they had to say.  It was a fun few hours, and I got some great questions at the end which made me excited that people were interested in what I had to say.
Also, earlier today, a group of high schoolers came to tour the Jackson Estuarine Lab (where most of my work is based out of), and I got to explain my project to them as well! I was also able to connect with a girl who is a junior in high school interested in the field of environmental science (my major) and marine biology as well.  It was very fun being able to explain the work that I am taking part in to so many interested ears today, and also made me excited to keep going strong with the research so that hopefully we get good results!


Until next week!
~Nicole

Next, the Females

Hello Everyone,
Happy 4th of July!  This past week was full of interesting things.  Last week, I mentioned that there was some bad weather that possibly caused some of the males to regress in their molting process and not molt when we thought they would.  This past week, we had more males molt again!  That was a good sign.  We concluded that it was the drastic temperature difference that caused the males to halt their molting for a week or two.  The storms brought in a lot of rain and colder weather, which caused a big drop in the temperature; though this past week, the temperature outside was extremely warm-close to 100° some days-so it warmed the water temperature a lot.  The water temperature in the tanks went from 18°C to 24.5°C.  This is an even bigger change than it may seem because it is in Celsius.  It is the equivalent of going from 64.4°F to 76.1°F.

As mentioned above, we have gotten a few more male molts, but we are on the tail end of the male molting season and the female molting season is coming up soon!  We have put a few females that are showing the signs we believe indicate it may molt soon in separate containers to track their progress.  We have already gotten a few that molted just within a few days of watching it! Hopefully, with the warm weather and as the weeks go by and we get further into the female molting season, we will get even better at predicting when they will molt and will get a lot to molt!

Pictured above: Female green crab being monitored for molting signs

Until next time!
Nicole

Sand Dune Monitoring

Hey guys a lot has been happening since my last blog post and I haven’t been in the office much since! I have so much information to share and tons of great pictures too!

One project we have been doing is sand dune surveying at about 11 different different sites. This project is done every 3 months unlike beach profiling that is done every month. Dunes are dynamic but they are stable meaning they retain sand in the system unlike beaches where their profiles can change within hours during a storm. At these 11 sites each one has a rebar (a metal stake in the ground) that allows us to record data from the same exact location each time. With this stake in the ground we use a tape measure and create a straight line using a designated focus point. A laser is set up a few feet away from the rebar and we follow the measuring tape going towards the beach (positive) and away from the shore (negative). When there's a topographic change in we stop and collect the data. Using an adjustable meter stick that has a laser marker connected to it. One the laser marker meets the laser a loud beep occurs and we take the measurement. It’s quite fun to do and time flies once you get in the groove. But when the meter stick goes to it full height of 7 meters high, it gets quite hard and heavy to hold up when the wind is blowing. At our first site we had Peter Eisenhaure photograph us in action. And the photos came out amazing!

  

  

I also went to the NH Coastal Climate Summit and it was a big success! Representatives for Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen came to talk, so many scientist, researchers and experts in the field were there. They even had every day folks from Hampton talk about the challenges they face from storms and high tides in the winter. Two things that I thought were expressed the most were, one it’s only going to get worse and two living shorelines can truly help reduce the impact on structures and ecosystems from storms and flooding.