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Kwadwo Omari - Summer 2007 - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
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Kwadwo spent his internship studying the sediment distribution on Muddy Creek and the Rhode River. He found seasonal factors as well as mobile benthic animals causing sediment problems. Using cylinders, as shown in the photo, to enclose a column of water he was able to track the sediment as it settled to the bottom of the creek and in the river. The comparisons between sites indicated that shallow muddy sites may be the source of turbidity for most of the river.
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Satish Serchan - Summer 2006 - University of Vermont |
Satish is working with calanoid copepod Acartia Tonsa to evaluate their feeding rates on phytoplankton Thalassiosira weissflogii and Prorocentrum minimum at different temperatures and salinity. The project uses data analysis and existing models to evaluate clearance rates by zooplankton assemblage. CASM (comprehensive aquatic ecosystem model) is the pre-existing model that evaluates the consumption of phytoplankton by zooplankton assemblages, the overall goal of this project is to assemble data to re-evaluate CASM and provide a means of predicting grazer feeding responses to changing abundances and species composition of phytoplankton.
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Lauren Esposito -Summer 2006 - McDaniel College |
Lauren studied the effects of ithyotoxic Karlodinium veneficum on three species of rotifers in the Rhode River, an estuary off the Chesapeake Bay. K. veneficum is a dinoflagellate that causes red tides in the Chesapeake Bay mainly in the late spring to early fall. There are both toxic and non-toxic strains of K. veneficum present in the Chesapeake Bay. Lauren contrasted rotifer responses to another bloom-forming alga, Prorocentrum minimum . This is important because the results will tell us if they are able to distinguish between the toxic strain and non-toxic strain of K. veneficum . If they are able to then the toxic strain have rapid growth and it would potentially increase the threats to other Bay consumers.
(Lauren did her internship with Dr. Kevin Seller of the Chesapeake Reserach Consortium and associate investigator in the Phytoplankton Lab.)
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Amy Kochanowsky - Summer 2005 - University of Virginia |
Amy's project was Comparison of Water Characteristics in the Rhode River and Adjacent Tidal Creeks. Her goals were: Determine attenuation of light by the water column which affects SAV, analyze properties of water that affect phytoplankton growth
and measure the rate of photosynthesis by phytoplankton
in water samples. This would aid in developing a model for smaller creeks based on their unique characteristics and how they affect the Rhode River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
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Augustina Novillo -Spring 2004 - Florida State University |
Augustina project was The Effects of bloom forming dinoflagellate, Prorocentrum minimum, on optical properties of water.
Prorocentrum minimum is a potentially toxic dinoflagellate, and typically the dominant spring blooming species in the mid-salinity waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
By growing cultures in the lab, she could compare the data with data collected in the field and estimate the impacts of the bloom on light attenuation .
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Sonja Johns - Summer 2004 - Clarkson University |
A study of Alkaline Phosphatase Enzyme Activity in the Rhode River Estuary was Sonia's project for the summer.
Her conclusions were; the similarity in dominant species at areas exhibiting large amount of alkaline phosphatase activity, coupled with the erratic trends at all sampling site suggests that species composition may affect alkaline phosphatase activity and alkaline phosphatase activity may be a natural part of the temporal nutrient cycle rather than a sign of phosphate stress.
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Liz Saunders - Summer 2003 - Autumn 2004 -University of Virginia,
University North Carolina for graduate work |
Liz chose as her project Predicting Phytoplankton Productivity by Using Optical Modeling in the Rhode River, Tributary to the Chesapeake Bay. She carried forth this project as her senior thesis through the school year.
Returning to SERC in autumn 2004, her objective was to attempt to resolve a model to predict phytoplankton maximum photosynthetic rate on a rapid time scale for shallow, turbid estuaries.
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Robin Barnes - Summer 2002 - Winter 2003 - Humbolt University,
SUNY for graduate work |
Robin's summer project was Total Suspended Solids and Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter: Two Experiments on their Relationship to Light Penetration.
When she returned for her second Internship she followed a similar hypotheses as her first project; "Influence of particle size on specific -absorption and scattering coefficients of non-algal particulate matter.
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Tina Fedarcyk - Summer 2001 - Notre Dame |
Using SERC designed benthic containers, Tina's project was to determine grazing by benthic microzooplankton on phytoplankton. She took chlorophyll readings before and after the containers were situated on the bottom in the Rhode River, which allowed her to determine any phytoplankton growth or demise from microzooplankton grazing. She also determined phosphate release from the benthos and
how it affected growth of phytoplankton.
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Erin Turack Cosky- Spring 1999 - Kentucky University - San Diego State University teaching degree. |
| Erin developed our Hydrologic Primer web pages. Erin is currently in her second year teaching Marine Biology at Gulf Breeze High School in Sarasota, Florida. She has also worked as a lab assistant at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in the Phytoplankton Biolumenscence laboratory with Dr. Mike Latz. |
