Recently, I found myself eavesdropping on two elderly fellows debating an age-old question: does size matter? Yes! declared one. Small ones have never satisfied anyone. It needs to be big!You’ve got it all wrong,countered the other. Proper use of a small one can be just as good as having a big one. And what good is a big one if you don’t use it properly?/o:pIn a nearby lecture theatre the Costa-Rican Mermaid was preaching the power of long distance swimming to promote big ones.
The end of the semester is always hectic. Especially this year, since our lab had three year-long undergrad thesis students working away on various projects.
Brittany Ferguson worked this semester on whether duck dispersal influenced macroinvertebrate metacommunity patterns. She found one of those very zen-like conclusions, where the absence of a predicted pattern is actually evidence for the importance of the process, and we will expose her zen-conclusions hopefully sometime this summer to the very critical research community.
One of the most common complaints about the world of science is it’s inaccessibility to the everyday person. Carl Zimmer has put together an “Index of Banned Words”. Words that should be vanquished from the vocabulary of scientists everywhere. The list includes the taboos “elucidate”, “predation”, “mechanism”, and (gasp!) “community ecology”.
Reading through the list has made me realize how incredibly predictable my choice of words has become when writing in my science courses.
I recently gave a brief project update to the gang. Here are the nuts and bolts of my undergrad thesis (I’ll try to stay brief): -Eelgrass meadows are important. They provide habitat for dozens of fish and invertebrate species, stabilize sediment, and cycle carbon and nutrients. Meadows are found in shallow coastal waters on the East and West coasts of North America. Seagrass meadows are globally threatened.
-The community dynamics of eelgrass meadows in temperate zones are largely not understood.
Oh hello there, community ecology enthusiasts I believe an introduction is in order. My name is Kyle and I am a recent addition to the Cottenie Lab. I will be undertaking an undergraduate research project under the guidance of Karl and the rest of the gang at CottenieLab beginning this fall (you may have seen my mug in a recent post on this blog in daphnia/stormtrooper attire!). First, a little bit about me… my passions include diving, the outdoors and marine science (not necessarily in that order) and I have been fascinated with aquatic systems since spending my childhood summers sifting through tide pools on Canada’s east coast.
After a whole month of preparations, it finally happened: the procession of species. It started a little bit late for us, since I had a race in the morning. But thanks to cell phones, we could join the parade half way through. Kobe was really excited and waiting for the first sign of the parade and the rest of the lab.
Here are some random pictures of the different species and musicians bringing life music.
How many do you need to make a costume? Apparently more than 5. However, based on this last evening, we now have a full design, including the know-how on how to make it. So the next time we meet, we should have 6 full Daphnia costumes for the parade. 4 degrees to work with papier mache, your quality education at work
To illustrate that this is part of the rostrum, all you dirty minds
Well, as Karl has mentioned our lab will be participating as a horde of zooplankton in the KW Procession of Species Parade. The parade is as much about encouragaing local expressions of art as it is about showcasing biodiversity. With that in mind we set out yesterday to stretch our creativity and construct a prototype of our first costume. We decided that Daphnia would be our main inspiration and started on a carapace and post abdomen.