MBFE - Day 11 - Student research plans

Here we are eleven days into the BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience.  And today we entered the research phase of the experience.  Oh we'll still have classes every day, but other than that time is devoted to student research.

I met with each research team earlier today, and here are the projects that they are targeting:

• Isaac and Shannon: Interspecific behavioral interactions of hermit crabs in the presence of predators and food stimuli.
• Joseph, Luke, and Devon: Substrate preferences of early post-metamorphic juveniles of the the commercially important dungeness crab.
• Rachel S and Skyler: Behavioral response of individual and schooling sand lance (fish) in response to simulated predatory bird attack.
• Rachel M, Danielle, and Courtney: Comparative timing of development of sea slug embryos through hatching when reared under traditional versus flow through culture regimes.
• Arianne, Jessica, and Kelly: Shell selection behavior of hermit crabs in the presence of predator stimuli.
• Eileen and Jennifer: Population genetics of shell color in the smooth muscle Mytilus trosselus and the effects of that trait on mortality of individuals with different shell colors..

Everyone is enthusiastic about getting started on their research.  

Then at 4pm everyone attended the weekly OIMB Friday seminar.  This week Dr. Shawn Arellano of Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Station presented a talk titled "Will Climate Change Cause "Lazy Larvae"?"  She told us about extremely interesting research she and her students have been doing on larvae of commercially important oyster species and their growth and swimming behavior under different temperature and water pH regimes.

That's the excitement for the day!