Protected: GAME Presentation

Goodbye Kiel!

As GAME students, we only had a month in Kiel and it was very busy. The course at IFM-GEOMAR was intense, as was the development of our experimental design for the group project. In our time in Kiel we studied biostatistics, learned to identify algae and marine invertebrates using keys, read many scientific papers and talked much about experimental design. The pilot study on blue mussels helped us hone our ideas about our approach to our main experiment.

At the end of April, we all met at the institute to make a farewell dinner of pizza, a GAME tradition. It was our last night to hang out together as a team before we dispersed across the globe.

In the last days in Kiel it was evident that the seasons were shifting. The walk to the institute was now subtly different due to the emergence of tender shoots of vegetation in the gnarled, old trees lining my path.

We left Kiel excited to start on our projects, knowing that six months would pass quickly.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Kiel 4-25-10

This was a particularly sunny day in Kiel. Jeremy and I took full advantage of the balcony and view of the backyard while we worked.

We were told to expect horrible weather in the springtime in Kiel, but luckily most of the days were sunny and beautiful.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Hamburg 4-24

Wow.

I had hoped for this to be an ongoing blog about this project, but it seems as usual, I tend to get busy and forget to document things along the way.

So for the next few posts, I will retroactively document the trip with my photos. It won’t be a play-by-play report, but it will summarize the main events. At this point, that is what I aim to do!

Here are photos from our first trip to Hamburg. We all hopped on the train in Kiel and easily ended up in Hamburg to explore for the day. It’s a beautiful city and I felt very comfortable there. I am looking forward to going back when I go back to Germany this winter.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Pilot experiment in Kiel

4-17-10

We devised an experiment to investigate the stress tolerance of blue mussels,  Mytilus edulis, that live in the Baltic Sea versus those that live in the North Sea. The two populations diverged when some North Sea individuals expanded their range (we examined this as a sort of proxy for invasion) into the Baltic Sea approximately 7,000 years ago. Although this event happened so long ago, we wanted to see if the populations differ in their ability to withstand stress. We selected thermal stress, and subjected some individuals from both groups to stress conditions for one week (as well as kept some individuals in control conditions). We hypothesized that the Baltic Sea mussels would have a higher stress tolerance, since they were the “invading” population. However, we found the highest mortality with the Baltic Sea mussels. This could be due to the fact that the North Sea mussels experience a tidal fluctuation, and therefore are exposed to higher temperatures, while those in the Baltic do not. Either way, the blue mussels of the North Sea were more tolerant to thermal stress. The basic experimental design proved sound and was the basis for the design of our international project.

This was my day to contribute to the week-long GAME pilot experiment in Kiel. Mareike and I changed the water in all of the replicates and replaced it with water from the appropriate sea. It took a very long time to do and we took a break to get coffee and warm up our hands in the middle of the day.

Marieke and I in front of an IFM-GEOMAR research vessel

Alkor research vessel

...in the institute

Invertebrate ID in Kiel

4-14-10

Identification of invertebrate specimens from the Baltic and North Seas, guided by scientists at IFM-GEOMAR

(algae ID was also of specimens from the local area)

Artica islandica

Artica islandica:

-largest bivalve in the Baltic Sea

-periostracum (organic outer layer of some shelled animals like bivalves and gastropods) is flaky and thick

-7-8 cm

-3 cardinal teeth

-curved anterior line

-single lateral tooth

-prominent umbones

-sand and muddy sand, found off of all British coasts

***can live up to 400 years!

interior of Artica islandica

Tridonta montagui

Tridonta montagui:

-30-40 raised concentric ridges

-white with thick, light or dark brown periostracum

-right valve with 2 cardinal teeth

-inner shell margin smooth

-offshore to 100m, in sand and fine gravel

-circumboreal, most frequent off north and west coasts, no farther south than Bay of Biscay

Specimen boxes

(from left) David Jofre Madriaga, Charles Ma, Dr. Mark Lenz, Florian von Bechtolsheim in background

Sophia Schubert at work

Algae ID in Kiel

4-13-10

Algae identification in Kiel…

Phyllophora pseudoceramoides

Laminaria saccharina

Tiny sea star on a Laminaria digitata holdfast

Maasholm Day 2

4-10-10 Second day in Maasholm

Reveling in the beauty of the northern coast continued…

Maasholm Day 1

4-9-10 Our first day in Maasholm

The GAME team spent the first weekend in Germany together exploring the coast of the Baltic Sea. We had a great time investigating microclimates, searching for fossils and collecting blue mussels for our pilot experiment back in Kiel.

Article published about GAME program

This article is in German- it announces the beginning of GAME VIII!
It is posted on the IFM-GEOMAR website.

http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?id=537&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=556&tx_ttnews[backPid]=8&cHash=445ba13d18