Ryan Moody
Ryan is a Master’s degree student at the University of South Alabama.
He recently went to Antarctica to continue a research program started
by his faculty advisor, Dr. Richard Aronson. Aside from travelling to
the frozen South, he also participated in the Penguin Pen Pal program
with K-1 students at the Pelican’s Nest in Fairhope, Alabama. He
visited these young scientists before and after his visit to Antarctica
to give them a preview and debriefing of his journey. When e-mail permitted,
he also corresponded with them from Antarctica.
"Ryan was a delight with the students," said Pelican’s
Nest Director Charlene Dindo. "He brought several types of summer
clothes, like shorts and sandals, and asked the students if they were
appropriate to Antarctica. Of course, he was greeted with a resounding
‘No!!!’ He hit the right combination of teaching science and
relating to little children - how wonderful for a graduate student to
share his research and field work with these young students."
| Here’s a brief travelogue of Ryan’s
journey: As I lay on my bunk, battling bouts of nausea while heading north across the Drake Passage, I wished I was back in my tent on Seymour Island, |
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| Antarctica (as much as I missed indoor plumbing). Though two of our four weeks spent camping in Antarctica were not conducive to field work, the result of 40+ knot winds, snow and mud, my four colleagues and I managed to brave the elements and collect our quota of fossil invertebrates ranging from snails and bivalves to coral and starfish. These will be used to shed some light on the changes that took place within the island’s invertebrate faunas during the last glaciation event. | ||
We had many visitors during our stay. Penguins wandered from their nearby
colony to check us out, as did a few seals and a great many seabirds.
I was surprised at the diversity of animals that inhabited the mud flats
and the shoreline: it was not at all like the barren ice shelves depicted
on television.
I was honored to share some of my experiences with kindergarten and first
grade children at the Pelican’s Nest in Fairhope. As one might expect,
the penguins were a hit. Yep. I shall miss my penguin friends most of
all.
John Higgins III
John is a Ph.D. student of faculty scientist Dr. Monty Graham. He was
recently awarded first prize at the 4th Annual Graduate Student Symposium
for his poster entitled "Methods for assessing sperm viability of
the cosmopolitan moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita."
 John Higgins (second from right) hunting for gelatinous animals with faculty advisor Dr. Monty Graham (second from left). |
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The poster outlined staining methods and techniques for assessing the viability of Aurelia sperm. By staining samples and observing them under an epifluorescent scope, John could determine live cells (which fluoresce green) and dead cells which fluoresce orange). These methods are important because |
| techniques were adapted from the Molecular Probes Live/Dead Sperm Viability Kit that tests mammalian sperm, not invertebrate sperm. | ||
"Having the capability to assess viability of samples can help me
determine how viable each male Aurelia is at different times during
the summer. This research is very important to the overall understanding
of how Aurelia successfully reproduce each year in the Gulf,"
said John.
John spent his latest research cruise collecting samples to determine
the sex ratio and gonad index of populations in the Gulf this year. "This
type of data will allow me to determine how fertile and reproductively
active these animals were during the summer of 2001," he concluded.
You can catch a glimpse of John in the second episode of "The Shape
of Life."
Other news…
Ph.D. student Julien Lartigue received Runner-Up for Best Graduate
Student Poster at the 2002 Estuarine Research Federation Conference in
Tampa, Florida. His poster was entitled, "Can an estuarine macroalga
respond to ephemeral pulses of nitrate: an enzymatic assay for detecting
nitrate reductase (NR) activity in the field."
Master’s student Adrienne Dunsmuir won first place for Best
Talk – Work in Progress at the 4th Annual Graduate Student Symposium
held at the Gulf Coast Research Lab. Her talk was "Measuring Microphytobenthic
Production and Consumption using a Spectrophotometric Technique."
The DISL Graduate Students were on hand for a massive community
project sponsored by the Alabama Coastal Foundation. Here’s an account
of it by Master’s student Alina Corcoran:
| Arbor Day generally comes and goes without anyone taking notice, but this year was different, as many of the DISL grad students not only recognized our lovely leaf-laden friends but also helped out in protecting them. The Alabama Coastal Foundation, Gothic Arch Greenhouses and the Mobile Bay |  Graduate students (L-R) John Higgins III, Kim Hamilton and Alina Corcoran rolled up their sleeves and got digging for the Cypress Tree Planting Project (photo by Geremea Fioravanti). |
Local groups from Mobile and Baldwin Counties organized to identify restoration
areas for plantings and then hauled out a few shovels along with a couple
of thousand trees.
The Sea Lab graduate students were in charge of planting 250 trees in three
pre-designated areas near the island. The saplings were planted and then
marked with flags so that their growth can be monitored and tracked in the
future. Despite getting pretty sweaty and dirty, the students really came
through on this one!
The Cypress Tree Planting Project, although still in its nascent stages,
has already been a tremendous success. Cypress swamps are important natural
environments as they stabilize the soil, help in maintaining and enhancing
water quality and provide habitat to a gamut of wildlife species. Because
of this importance and because digging in the mud is so much fun, big plans
will be made to help out with the tree planting next year.
For more information about the Cypress Project, check out the website for
the Alabama Coastal Foundation at www.alcoastalfoundation.org.
