Program Description: The Blinks Fellowship Program brings together enthusiastic fellows with marine scientists in a setting which features pristine biological resources at University of Washington's marine science research facility, Friday Harbor Laboratories. With support from the United Negro College Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, and the Anne Hof Blinks Memorial Fellowship, the Blinks Program offers a full immersion research experience for motivated undergraduates, post-baccalaureates and graduate students. In keeping with the University of Washington's policy of encouraging diversity in its student body and including under-represented groups, the program seeks 6-8 students of diverse backgrounds and interests to participate in a eight to twelve week summer research project in the marine sciences. By linking fellows with marine scientists in a 1:1 research experience, fellows learn both the process and the substance of scientific research. As the research progresses, fellows will be encouraged to become semi-independent collaborators. The experience will expose fellows to the life and work of a marine science research laboratory.
There are three alternatives for this program:
The mentors and projects vary from year to year according to the developing research interests of faculty and graduate students. Research projects are designed by the scientists to be achievable projects which dovetail with their research plans. Project descriptions are posted below. Fellows will work semi-independently for approximately 40 hours per week.
As participants in the FHL community, Blinks Fellows will attend the FHL weekly seminar, eat in the Dining Hall and live in the dorm. Early in the summer session there will be a meeting of student participants with graduate students and mentors to share perspectives on graduate programs and participation in academic life, with a brief description of on-going projects, and a question/answer session.To bring the experience to closure, fellows will give a short summary of their work in a Powerpoint presentation to interested FHL people. Fellows will write a short paper describing their work, and revise it based upon feedback from the mentor.
The Setting: Friday Harbor Labs is University of Washington's marine science field research station. Located north of Puget Sound in the San Juan Islands, FHL takes advantage of a remarkable diversity of marine habitats and organisms. FHL hosts 10-12 courses per year and approximately 100 independent researchers during the year. The 484 acre campus is the site for twelve lab buildings, a dining hall, 3 dorms and other housing units.
Research at FHL emphasizes marine invertebrate zoology, phycology, fisheries science, conservation biology, molecular biology, oceanography and other scientific disciplines. Investigators and students use diversified field resources as well as modern analytical technologies such as a nucleotide sequencer, scanning laser confocal microscopes, scintillation counter, centrifuges, HPLC, TEM, SEM and other equipment. The Labs is equipped with a 58' research vessel, numerous smaller boats, cold rooms, and an extensive seawater system serving numerous lab buildings. The facility includes a computer lab, networked research labs, wi-fi connectivity, a well equipped stockroom, an 17,000 volume library, and SCUBA facilities.
Financial Support: Participants will be provided with financial support to meet costs of room, board, round trip travel and a $750/month stipend.
Eligibility: This program targets students who bring diversity to the FHL student body. In particular, we seek students who are entering their senior year of college/university, or post-baccalaureate, or graduate students.
Application Deadline: January 31. Students who are selected will be notified in late February or early March. The duration and dates of each internship will be determined by the mentors' research schedules and students' availability.
Please e-mail all application materials to Scott Schwinge (schwinge@u.washington.edu). US Mail also works but e-mail is preferred.
Scott Schwinge
Helpful links:
Dr. Jennifer Burnaford
University of Puget Sound
jburnaford@ups.edu
Dr. Scottie Henderson
University of Puget Sound
shenderson@ups.edu
Dr. Erika Iyengar
Muhlenberg College
Erika.Iyengar@gw.muhlenberg.edu
When a non-native species invades an ecosystem, how does it interact with native species? When you consider this question, you need to think about all sorts of interactions – predation, competition, facilitation, and parasitism. Our research group is interested in the relationship between the invasive purple varnish clam Nuttallia obscurata and several native species of kleptoparasitic “pea crabs” in the San Juan Islands. Using both field and laboratory studies, we are hoping to determine how the native pea crabs affect the invasive clams and how the invasive clams in turn affect the populations of pea crabs.
Our project also includes field and laboratory studies to investigate the effects of the pea crabs on the invasive clams. We are interested in a number of questions with regard to this association:
Each Blinks fellow on this project will be assigned to a single primary advisor. Fellows will also work closely with the larger research team which includes all 3 faculty members, up to 3 Blinks fellows, and other research students. The entire team will participate in on-going field sampling on beaches around the San Juan Islands. Each Blinks fellow will also conduct laboratory and field experiments to investigate a question that they find most interesting with regard to the clam / crab association. Good physical health and a love of field work are essential because we will be doing a lot of digging on sandy beaches. This project would be appropriate for students generally interested in the ecology of species interactions and also for students specifically interested in the community-level effects of invasive species.
Dr. Sophie George
Biology Department
Georgia Southern University
georges@georgiasouthern.edu
The effect of food quality on number of cells ingested, growth, development and survival of echinoderm larvae will be investigated in summer 2008.
The main goal is to determine whether differences among larvae in the nutritional value of algal diets and growth of larvae on these diets is due to differences in ingestion rates, larval ability to process dietary fatty acids into the needed fatty acids and their ability to develop at low salinites. Two main groups of fatty acids found in micro-algae are the saturated fatty acids (SAFA) and the short- and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). These fatty acids vary with micro-algal species, algal developmental stage, light intensity, culture media, temperature, pH, and time. The predominant SAFAs in most micro-algae are myristic (14:0) and palmitic (16:0) acids. Together with the short-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) linoleic (LA), linolenic (LNA), and stearidonic acids (SDA), SAFA’s function as precursors for chain elongation and desaturation during synthesis of long-chain PUFAs (Eicosapentanoic acid, EPA, docosahexanoic acid, DHA, Arachidonic acid, AA). Short-chain PUFAs are found in abundance in marine plants and are referred to as essential fatty acids as they cannot be synthesized by animals and must be acquired from the diet.
Preliminary studies from summer 2003 through 2006 found a relatively large percentage of the SAFAs palmitic and stearic acid (up to 35% of stearic acid) in the echinoid larvae Dendraster excentricus although only trace amounts of this latter acid were found in the algal diets. In addition, the short-chain PUFAs, LNA and SDA were abundant (up to 30%) in the algal diets but found in trace amounts in echinoid larvae while long-chain PUFAs absent from the diet where found in larvae. This suggests that echinoid larvae were converting LNA and SDA to long- chain PUFAs. The optimal diet for this species was Isochrysis galbana and Dunaliella tertiolecta. Preliminary studies on the sea star Pisaster ochraceus indicates that diets with a high threshold level of PUFAs was favored.
This summer, the alga Dunaliella tertiolecta with no long-chain PUFAs will be used to determine whether other seastar, echinoid and holothuroid larvae can elongate short-chain to long-chain PUFAs. Single algal diets (Rhodomonas sp, Nannochloropsis sp., Isochrysis galbana), with low threshold levels of short and long-chain PUFAs, and mixed algal diets with high (Dunaliella+Rhodomonas sp., Nannochloropsis+ Dunaliella), and low (Dunaliella+Nannochloropsis) threshold levels of PUFAs will be used to determine what threshold levels lead to optimal growth of echinoderm larvae. This project will illuminate the complex interactions between nutrition, salinity, ingestion rates, and growth rates of the echinoidea with pluteus larval forms, and the asteroidea and holothuroidea with bipinnaria, brachiolaria and auricularia larval forms. Knowledge of the specific PUFAs and optimal salinity required for development could lead to the formulation of diets for rapid growth to metamorphosis of various edible sea urchins and sea cucumbers. The participating student would be directly involved in preparing algal cultures; rearing larvae to metamorphic competency, preparing larvae for biochemical analysis, photographing echinoderm larvae etc. Past students have presented their research at regional (GAS) and international meetings (SICB), and are coauthors on manuscripts and published articles.
Schiopu D., George, S.B. & Castell, J. 2006. Ingestion rates and dietary fatty acid composition of Dendraster excentricus larvae Journal of experimental marine Biology and Ecology, 28 pages, 328:47-75
George, Sophie B. & Walker, Devoc. 2007 Short-term fluctuation in salinity promotes rapid development and metamorphosis of Dendraster excentricus larvae Journal of experimental marine Biology and Ecology. 348:113-130.
Dr. Sarah Gilman
The Claremont Colleges
Joint Science Department
sgilman@jsd.claremont.edu
The intertidal is a highly complex and variable environment. Organisms separated by only a few meters may experience great differences in temperature, wave strength, and surrounding community composition. These differences may affect the behavior, growth, survival, and reproductive success of an organism. I am interested in the ecological and evolutionary consequences of environmental variation for organisms and populations.
One goal of my research is to understand how temperature influences species interactions. Global climate change is expected to significantly increase air and water temperatures. One simple effect of temperature on ectotherms is to increase metabolic rates. At warmer temperatures individuals must either increase feeding rates or reduce energy allocations to growth and/or reproduction. In turn, these changes can strongly affect a species’ ecology and its interactions with other species. For example, changes in feeding rates may affect the abundance of prey species. Changes in size could affect susceptibility to predation or competitive success. These changes can then cascade to other species in the community.
Whelks (Nucella lamellosa, N. ostrina, and N. canaliculata) are common predators on rocky intertidal shores of the San Juan Islands. Their primary prey species include mussels (Mytilus spp.) and barnacles (Balanus glandula, Semibalanus cariosus, Chthamalus sp.). An alga (Fucus gardneri) provides a shade refuge for both species. I am studying how a warmer climate will affect each species individually as well as the interactions among species. For example, do warmer temperatures increase or decrease growth rates of whelks and barnacles? Does temperature influence the foraging rate of whelks, or the frequency of sheltering under algae? How do changes in predation rates affect the survival and growth of the prey (barnacles and mussels)? How do changes in the growth rate of the prey affect the energy intake of the predators?
There are several projects that a Blinks student could conduct that would address these questions. For example, several species could be reared in the lab under different temperature conditions to see how temperature affects growth rates. A similar project could be done in the field and coupled with measurements of environmental conditions. A student could also study the behavior of different whelk species to determine if temperature changes foraging activity. Specific skills that a Blinks fellow could learn over the course of this project include: the design of manipulative field experiments, use of a variety of meteorological devices, and the use of software packages for database management as well as graphical and statistical analysis.
Dr. Sveta Maslakova
University of Oregon - Oregon Institute of Marine Biology
maslak@u.washington.edu
If you think that the age of descriptive biology is over – you are mistaken. The little-known nemertean worms are a fascinating group of marine predators related to annelids and mollusks. They display a large diversity of developmental modes - from direct development with a short-lived worm-like planuliform larva to indirect development with a long-lived transparent planktonic pilidium larva. During the indirect development the juvenile (little worm) develops inside the pilidium larva from several independent rudiments and devours the larval body in the process of catastrophic metamorphosis. Although it is the best studied type of development in nemerteans, there is not a single complete description of pilidial development and metamorphosis in the literature. One of my projects for the Summer 2008 is to create a fully illustrated description of pilidial development of the nemertean Micrura alaskensis, a species commonly found on the sand flats of the San Juan Island, WA.
The pilidium larva and its mode of development is unique and appears to have evolved in only one group of nemerteans. All the other nemerteans have direct development. What little we know about nemertean direct development suggests that its diversity is greatly underappreciated. Palaeonemertean planulifrom larvae are modified trochophores (the larvae typical of many annelids and mollusks), whereas the little-studied hoplonemertean planulifrom larvae are very different and some possess a mysterious transitory larval epidermis, which might be a rudiment of pilidial development. A parallel project for the Blinks student is to study and describe development of the local hoplonemertean Tetrastemma phyllospadicola, which lives intertidally on the blades of surfgrass (Phyllospadix scouleri) and deposits egg clutches inside the surfgrass inflorescences. Development of this species is entirely undescribed.
For the first project we will dig ripe adults of Micrura alaskensis at the beautiful False Bay sand flat, obtain and fertilize gametes and rear planktonic larvae to metamorphosis in the laboratory, all the while taking microphotographs of larvae and recording our observations on the timing of development. For the Tetrastemma project we will head for the rocky intertidal to collect adults and egg masses and rear embryos in the lab. You will learn how to preserve, fluorescently label, mount and clear invertebrate embryos and larvae and will be able to image the embryos with a confocal microscope under my supervision. Doing a project with me, you will not learn how to count or analyze your results using a statistical software package or likely do a key experiment to solve a long-standing biological problem, but you might see something that no human has ever seen before and have an opportunity to take a pretty picture or a movie of it.
Dr. James Murray, California State University, East Bay
tritoniadiomedea@mac.com
The local sea slug Tritonia is a remarkable animal which has been studied intensely due to its enormous brain cells, which are sometimes 100 times bigger than human brain cells. Because their brain cells are so large, it is relatively easy to record their activity with electrodes. By recording from their brain cells, which number about 7000, we understand a lot about how their brain cells process sensory information and control their movements. My laboratory has focused on how some brain cells help the slug sense the directions of the tides, and to move into tidal flow. Although we know about how some brain cells control contractions of the foot, we don't yet know which cells are needed for turning during crawling. Turning is caused by muscular contractions of the foot, but there are hundreds of brain cells that cause some contraction of the foot, and most of these cells have not been studied. This gap in our knowledge is an excellent opportunity for student research.
This project will emphasize brain function. This student will learn how to record electrical activity from brain cells, how to stimulate brain cells to cause muscular contractions of the foot, and how to video record these movements. The student will then inject a fluorescent tracer chemical into the brain cell, and will create a three-dimensional scanned image of the cell using the confocal microscope. These results will contribute to an atlas of brain cells and the movements they each cause. These data will be submitted to the Neuron Bank, an online database of brain cells and their functions. This database is a valuable resource that will benefit brain researchers world-wide.
Dr. Dianna Padilla
State University of New York - Stony Brook
padilla@life.bio.sunysb.edu
Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to natural communities and conservation efforts. The Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas, is the most widely cultured aquaculture species around the world. This species has recently become invasive in important ecosystems in at least 20 countries, covering areas of Northern and Central Europe, South Africa. Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia and North America, and is having major impacts on shores that it invades. This species invaded the shores of San Juan Island in the mid-1990s, and continues to spread. This invaders is also more abundant within our marine reserves than comparable non-reserve areas.
Our research to date has shown that these oysters have a large impact on communities they invade, decreasing local abundance and diversity of members of the community. One exception to this is limpets. Limpets are snails that have shield-shaped shells, so have a large foot that they use to attach to the substrate. Their teeth are made of iron and silica, and thus they are important grazers on all algae and can control most algal species when they are in high abundance. Because of their large foot, limpets are restricted in living on substrates open enough for them to attach and crawl.
We will be using field and laboratory experiments and physical models (oysters with temperature loggers) to test hypotheses about why limpets are more abundant on oysters, and whether the increase in limpet abundance on oysters is an important factor responsible for the impact of oysters on local diversity. This project provides opportunities to see beautiful field sites around San Juan Island, conduct field and laboratory experiments, and learn about physical biology and models, and conduct important research on invasive species and climate change.
Dr. Rebecca Price
University of Washington - Bothell
RPrice@uwb.edu
Paul Bourdeau
State University of New York, Stony Brook
bourdeau@life.bio.sunysb.edu
Over the last 500 million years, snails have adapted to different ecological conditions. These adaptations are compromises, evolutionary solutions to conflicting selective pressures, about which surprisingly little is known. We want to know how abiotic and biotic environmental factors affect the rate at a species of marine snail called Nucella lamellosa grows and repairs its shell.
The energetic costs of growing a shell fall into two categories: those addressing the rate at which shells grow, and those assessing the rate at which snails can repair damage to their shells. Both types of deposition must be energetically costly, and studying these two categories will reveal how Nucella lamellosa allocates energy to the shell. The experiments that we will conduct this summer aim to (1) identify factors other than predation—such as temperature, diet and the availability of food—that affect the rate of shell growth and (2) identify the causes of shell damage—other than predation—and the mechanism of shell repair. More specifically, we’ll ask the following questions:
The Blinks fellow will gain experience collecting and identifying marine snails at difference sites throughout San Juan Island, designing and implementing lab and field experiments and analyzing the results. This combination of activities will provide a well-rounded research experience. Of course, this experience may also lead to conference presentations and publications.
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