Growth

Through my lab work, I have observed growth in amazement of suspended hair-like webs, green stationed tufts, and minuscule white balloons sailing across the underwater world within my experiment's beakers.

Two of my co-interns, Kirsten and Naomi, are in search of patterns which can indicate factors influencing wild rice growth (soil type, etc.) and examining if the presence of wild rice reduces phosphorous concentrations along the Red Cedar River through their nutrient uptake. I had the pleasure of assisting Naomi and Kirsten in kneading the bagged mud samples for mixing purposes and scooping the pudding like muck into glass bowls which were then put in the oven to dry and later analyze of their texture and organic content (loss of ignition). I also assisted them in pipetting lake samples into glass vials which will be analyzed for their phosphorous concentration. The remains of the lake sample was put through a filter to catch and measure the organic biomass in the water column. [Note: This is not the full extent of their project analysis, but is of what I assisted Naomi and Kirsten with.]

The analysis processes of the wild rice project is not far off from my own. Similarly I will be filtering out the biomass of my own experiment to dry and weigh in order to analyze the growth of the cyanobacteria (and algae) from each control and treatment. 

[Note on experimental set-up -- Treatments: 1. Crushed Lone Rock containing iron from glauconite mineral, 2. Crushed Eau Claire Rock containing phosphorous from appetite mineral, 3. Mixture of glauconite and appetite; Controls: lake mud, lake mud used in microbial fuel cells, silica sand, filtered lake water with dissolved synthetic potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate, and only filtered lake water with cyanobacteria]

Both the wild rice group project analysis and mine overlap in our search to understand the relationship between nutrients and either plant or bacteria growth. It connects in the way Kirsten and Naomi are searching to see if the wild rice reduces the phosphorous in the Red Cedar River, which would improve water quality and I am searching to see if increased iron content increases the cyanobacteria abundance decreasing water quality, so we are both learning how our living organism affects the water quality of the Red Cedar watershed with their nutrient interaction.

From both research projects, I have learned to organize my time and observations in an efficient manner and the ability to adapt with the many curveballs of lab work in analysis and testing the natural world in a more controlled setting.