Surprising results from the lab at #RUC. Kelp freakout!!
Woah, these algae really puzzles me. The PI-curves run at different temperatures (10, 15 and 20 C) before acclimatisation (10 C kelp) are incredibly similar – huge surprise! The first thorough analyses and views of the data with proper calibrations performed on them shows almost no difference in respiratory rates!! What the fuck!? One would think…
Read more HERE…
Update from #RUC experiment
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 Kelp, Marine biology, PhD, Science None
Enric Sala: Glimpses of a pristine ocean | Video on TED.com
Friday, May 14th, 2010 Ecology, Marine biology conservation, Enric Sala, TED None
I’ve been posting quite a few TED talks lately… I will try to spread it out more evenly in the future. This time though, I just HAD to post two in a row. The reason is that this brilliant talk by Enric Sala follows up on Jeremy Jacksons kind of pessimistic attitude with a more hopeful approach. He shares quite new insight, which I am sure applies to our northern systems as well. This is a path and a way of thinking we really need to explore more extensively in the future.
If you are interested in the research, I suggest you read this: Baselines and Degradation of Coral Reefs in the Northern Line Islands.
Jeremy Jackson: How we wrecked the ocean | Video on TED.com
Sunday, May 9th, 2010 Ecology, Marine biology, Uncategorized None
I’ve heard this talk before. What came across as the most important message to me is how we need to realise the synergistic effects created by our fuckups and that we have to face these issues right now!
Notes from the lab at #RUC
These are the two chambers we use. The oxygen electrodes are the rods you see coming out on the right side of the chambers… The temperature in the surrounding water is kept stable by a heater with a thermostat (the grey box), and a cooler (not visible). We regulate light intensities by shadowing with decreasing layers of black nets (above the chambers) until full light.
These past days have been really hectic. We’ve had our share of problems. Yesterday, one of the thermostats supposed to govern one of the 10 C batches started whining – really high pitched tone. I turned both the cooler and the thermostat off and went home, being as the culture room itself holds about 10 C. I spent the night in agony, really wondering why the fuck I bother doing this. On top of that frustration the lighting in the culture room was off today, and we discovered even more problems…
Read more HERE
In Roskilde doing Science
Well, it finally happened. My trip to Roskilde was set. Just before, or more correctly in the beginning of our Easter holiday, I got the message: You are expected. I had to jump into my field gear, ditch all other plans and catch a plane to Bergen (the west coast) to collect some juvenile kelp (- about 200 individuals!)… One of my supervisors joined me a couple of days later by car to Grimstad in the south to get some individuals from there as well. Just before leaving for Denmark we collected some individuals from Drøbak (close to Oslo). On April 7. my two supervisors and I drove down from Oslo to Roskilde, which is my current location :) Next week it’s down to business. Hard core science! I’m going to run PI-curves (by O2 measures) at 10, 15 and 20 C to see where the point of compensation lies (where photosynthesis in the kelp meets its respriation). Then we’re going to let the kelps acclimatise for two weeks at 10, 15 and 20 C to run another set of PI-curves. EXCITED! The results may provide the backing I need for stating my hypothesis on why the kelp is disappearing – with confidence!! :D
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