The Captain of the Lake Guardian wishes us "an uneventful, enjoyable cruise." He reminds us of the chain of command. We learn how to knock on a door in a bedroom because there are always people sleeping on a ship. The 1st day was filled with rules, regulations, procedures, and practicing those procedures. No streaming youtube, always sign off of wifi after using it, no gambling. The chain of command is Captain Dean -- 1st Mate Freese --2nd Mate Paul -- Kristin.
Saw presentations from the three research groups: Quagga mussels and P cycling, microplastics with Tim Hoellein, and video taping the bottom of the lake with GoPro video, with Glenn Warren.
Day 2 July 13th
This is awesome. Waves 2-3 feet, rain, thunderstorms. Station #1 is on hold due to lightning. Sat and talked with Mike about Toledo water and algae issues. We left Milwaukee late last night, I woke up a couple of times, especially when the boat's diesel engine was fired up for the first time. The hum of the engine is constant. I hope my toothache isn't too bad (just had a root canal last week). I'll take some pain medication. There's a big blob of red all over the radar. For research, I am in the quagga mussel research group with two graduate students (Zac Driscoll and Emily Tyner from Harvey Bootsma's Lab) from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Station #1 is between South Haven and Saint Joseph, MI. I can see steam from Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Station #2 is further north, out between the Grand Haven and Muskegon.
Zac and Emily are studying phosphorus cycling and the impacts of quagga mussels. As the weather is pretty filled with lightning out over the middle of the lake, it is pretty cool to think about how few people it is impacting, since very few people are out in the middle of Lake Michigan right now.
I am curious about how many other boats are out here within a 10 mile radius. (after later visiting the Captain post, there were zero-two boats on his radar at any given point). I neglected to ask how far his radar reached.
Here are the tasks I helped with today..
1.) Placing pucks at the bottom of coring samples to stop the sediment core from falling through the tube.- For quagga mussel research.
2.) Stablized the coring device as it went overboard and came up from the depths. -For quagga mussel research. See video of multi-corer device in operation here.
4.) Helped with trial run of using an extruder to take slices of a sediment cores for later phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon testing through a sediment core.
5.) Using a net and funnel with a 60 micrometer screen and 152 micrometer screen I helped read a flow meter and clean the screens to collect samples for microplastic analysis.
6.) Completed ponar grabs to collect sediment samples that for microplastic analysis. See video of this here. I was able to help rinse out all of the equipment after completing the ponar grab. Using a hose on the back of a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan was pretty fun.
8.) I extruded sediment cores to gather data about the top 2-3 inches of sediment that contained mussels. I then cleaned out the coring tubes and returned the bottom sediment back to the lake. This was very dirty, but very fun. Cross sections of 2-5 mm of the sediment cores were used for later analysis for nutrient flow and dating purposes. This was done with 4 people working extruder. Thanks to Jessica for running the water pump on the extruder. This was very meticulous work to get about 30 samples that were 2 mm to 5 mm in depth.
The benthic sled was dragged for a good amount of time from Station 1 to Station 2; A Go-Pro camera was attached to a sled to record bottom imagery for analysis to measure the amount of quagga mussels at the bottom of the Lake.
Since earlier in the day, waves have subsided, the sun is out and it'll be warm this afternoon. I'll be inside doing lab work in the phosphorus cycling lab.
Steps to find microplastics in the water with Tim Hoellein's research group...
If a water sample from rosette sampler...
1.) Simple filtration.
2.) Add salt to filtrate so that plastics rise to the top.
3.) Use microscope to count.
If a net collection or sediment material...
1.) Use a sieve 3mm - 0.3 mm
2.) Add high % hydrogen peroxide and iron (II) sulfate to digest organic material. Allow time for digestion.
3.) Add salt; plastic in solution should float to the top.
Notes on the initial trials to determine respiration rates and phosphorus cycling in quagga mussels.
1.) Potential phosphorus contamination, as P is present in DNA,and our cell membranes and we all have DNA and cell membranes.--Therefore we need to clean the cores/pucks/glassware more thoroughly with a 5% HCl rinse.
2.) Potential "messy" feeding by quaggas = higher Phoshorus release known as pseudo feces.
3.) Respiration rate issues: Holes in top of core tubes allowing for diffusion of atmospheric oxygen, control temp was not the same as the others, and experiment is not being done at the bottom of the lake.
*we were using a rhenium light dissolved oxygen sensor.
The boat is load, a diesel hum while listening to our curriculum helper, Kirsten Walker did not make it easy after a long day.
Curriculum Ideas
What should humans do because of the quagga mussel invasion?
1.) Entry Event: Benthic sled Go Pro video from Quin Loch., map of quagga distribution over time
2.) Have a couple of article available, food webs.
3.) Claim-Evidence-Reasoning whiteboard session.
What should humans about estrogen secretion by septic fields and waste water treatment plants?
1.) Entry Event: Fish sex change video/ gummy bear demonstration courtesy of Kirsten Walker.
2.) Have a couple of articles available,.
3.) Claim (we should...) -Evidence (data with sources)-Reasoning (explain why) whiteboard session.
Should microplastics be banned nationally?
1.) Entry Event: NewsHour
2.) Have a couple of articles available,.
3.) Claim (we should...) -Evidence (data with sources)-Reasoning (explain why) whiteboard session.
No comments:
Post a Comment