By Naomi, Ashley, and Jesse
Researchers helping researchers from afar
When you think about the people affected by Covid-19, patients and essential workers immediately come to mind. But the underlying effects of the coronavirus branch much farther than the doctor’s office. As far as the Salish Seas.
The Salish Seas and other marine science data collection hubs around the world are inaccessible to many researchers this summer due to the effects of Covid-19. Scientists are unable to visit their typical research areas leading to data gaps, unproductive summers, and incomplete research projects with years worth of data.
However, the Salish Sea Sciences team was able to help out one of these scientists today; specifically, we had the chance to go out and collect earwigs for Dr. Vikram Iyengar.
Earwig Encounters
Dr. Iyengar studies sexual selection and dimorphism in maritime earwigs (Anisolabis maritima). (Dimorphism is when opposite sexes have physical differences other than their sexual organs). This entomologist is one of the many scientists who has volunteered their time to speak with our cohort about their work. These scientists are truly interested in what we are doing and we couldn’t be more grateful.
In an attempt to repay his kindness, we watched from afar as the team collected maritime earwigs for Dr. Iyengar’s labs. They turned over driftwood and scooped the bugs into a tub as fast as they could. They then packed the earwigs in little vials and made sure they were ready for their flight to Philadelphia. Have a safe trip little arthropods!!
We watched as the team collected earwigs and placed them in tubes.
As we watched, we were able to learn even more about the Earwigs habitat. Tim Dwyer – a high school teacher who has an Antarctic giant sea spider collection, ancient pottery surveying experience, and who has explored the deep sea using ROVs – explained why the earwigs were being collected and demonstrated how to identify the earwigs’ sex. As we learned yesterday during Dr. Iyengar’s lecture, the male earwigs have asymmetrically curved pincers while the females have straighter ones.
The very first earwigs to be collected!
They even found an albino earwig! We wonder how rare these are.
Tedious tasks
Last week we had the chance to speak with Morgan Eisenlord about her research on eelgrass wasting disease. Morgan introduced us to the methods required to measure the infected lesions of the grass blades. Today we were able to give back by helping her measure the area of different eelgrass blades. This process was new to almost all of us, and as we downloaded ImageJ and began to measure, we realized why Morgan had left the task for us! The tedious task had us fried!
Despite this mental setback, we powered through, and the Salish team made noticeable progress on the data collection. We will continue to analyze Morgan’s data as the program goes on.
Podcasts and Planning
Since Colette was unable to record the Mako’s podcast yesterday due to data collection for her individual project, Derek and Kay split us up into 2 different breakout rooms. The Makos worked on the recording, while the Bottlenose Dolphins planned for future outreach projects.
The Bottlenose Dolphins researched and found different topics and media to spread awareness of environmental issues. Our ultimate goal, create a page on the Salish Sea Sciences website with podcasts and artwork on environmental conservation. Stay tuned for future developments!
In the meantime, please enjoy this podcast from the Bottlenose Dolphins on A Decade After Deepwater, the documentary we had the fortune of seeing before it was released! Click on the link or search for A Decade After Deepwater Review on Spotify.