Jadin Scott, Rohwer Lab, Week 2

As I end my second week working at the Rohwer Lab at SDSU, I can finally say that I can drive to and from campus without relying on google maps! In case you missed my first blog, I am from Telluride and I am spending my Pinternship studying the interactions of microbes on coral reefs to improve reef conservation and restoration.

This week I focused mostly on sampling, as the lab’s DOC experiment was in full swing. On Monday (Day -1), I collected, photographed, and replaced slides from the light reef which will be used to analyze CCA (crustose coralline algae) and algae growth. Since these pictures need to be high enough quality to be published in a research paper, we had some trouble figuring out the best way to take them. We were struggling with finding the right lighting so that the photos of the slides wouldn’t be overexposed, but also wouldn’t have our shadows casted on them when taking the pictures. Ultimately, we discovered the best lighting for our goal was achieved by taking the pictures outside with natural sunlight.

I repeated this photo process every morning as my contribution to the sampling element of the experiment. In addition to taking photos, I also took and fixed water samples from the light and dark reefs for Anneke’s protist analysis, as she was out sick for the first half of the week. “Fixing” the samples with glutaraldehyde stops the cells from reproducing so that the sample is an accurate representation of what’s in the water at the time the sample was taken. After sampling on Monday, I assisted Jenna with making the sugar stock solutions that we did the calculations for the week before. Tuesday was a very exciting day, as it was Day 0 of the experiment, meaning the first day that the treatment is introduced. I got to do the honors of pouring the sugar stock solution into the aquarium! I then proceeded to complete the same sampling procedures as I did on Monday, as well as learning to use the Sterivex: an alternate method for collecting microbes for DNA sequencing. After the experiment work was done, I spent the rest of my day reading a book about the Civil Rights Movement and race relations for the lab’s “Hazy Histories” discussion that evening. On Wednesday, after sampling, I received an introduction to Unix coding, which I am learning to use for the organization and analysis of Fasta files. I practiced this more on Thursday after sampling, and then helped Anneke with a water change for her Algae Tank–reinforcing my knowledge of salinity measurement. I also began reading another one of Dr. Forest Rohwer’s books on Thursday, called Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas. On Friday, I took my pictures and then joined the team for an aquarium meeting to discuss the progress of the DOC experiment. After this meeting, I finished the week by learning how to culture general bacteria in a petri dish.

I spent most of my free time this week reading on the beach and exploring the SDSU and UCSD campuses. This weekend, I drove up to Santa Barbara to visit my cousin. Here, I toured the UCSB and SBCC campuses, ate lots of good food, and got sunburnt on the beach.

I am enjoying my time in California, and am looking forward to meeting a new intern that is joining us in the lab next week!