  {"id":7953,"date":"2022-10-21T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T15:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=7953"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:50:31","slug":"aperture-research-and-scholarship-photo-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2022\/aperture-research-and-scholarship-photo-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Aperture: Research and Scholarship Photo Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Research and Scholarship Photo ContesT<\/p>\n<p>溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s fifth annual Research and Scholarship Photo Contest attracted a stunning collection of photos from 溏心vlog免费B站 students, staff, and faculty.<br \/>\nThe contest provides a unique opportunity for our researchers and scholars<br \/>\nto convey their ideas and work, as well as their unique perspectives, through<br \/>\nthe images they capture.<br \/>\nWe\u2019re proud to share this year\u2019s top-placing photos and images, which represent a range of disciplines\u2014from aquaculture to cell and molecular biology. This year, for the first time, all our winning photos were from 溏心vlog免费B站 students. Their photos reinforce that time-tested adage: \u201cA picture is worth a thousand words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First Place<br \/>\n\u201cWater Collection of a Honeybee\u201d<br \/>\nCasey Johnson \u201919, M.S. \u201922<br \/>\nGraduate student in plant sciences and entomology<br \/>\n\u201cIn the heat of summer, honeybees can often be found collecting water from puddles, gutters, and other unsavory sources,\u201d says Johnson, who is a graduate student in Professor Steven Alm\u2019s lab at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Agricultural Experiment Station at East Farm in Kingston. She continues, \u201cWe noticed that our honeybees were drinking water from sphagnum moss in the pots of pitcher plants, which led us to investigate the water-collecting behavior of honeybees on four local moss species. Here, a water forager honeybee rests on one of our observational moss setups, drinking water that she will bring back to her hive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Second Place<br \/>\n\u201cJam-Packed Micromussa\u201d<br \/>\nMichael Corso \u201924<br \/>\nAquaculture and fisheries science major<br \/>\n\u201cThis Micromussa lordhowensis coral colony was shot<br \/>\nat Love the Reef, a marine animal distributor\/coral aquaculture facility in Wilmington, Mass., where I work,\u201d says Corso, who aspires to preserve tropical marine<br \/>\nspecies. He continues, \u201cIn the wild, this species is found<br \/>\nin the South Pacific and along Australia\u2019s Great Barrier<br \/>\nReef. The bioluminescent colors emanate from the coral\u2019s symbiont algae, zooxanthella. Rising ocean temperatures and acidification can prevent the corals from holding<br \/>\nonto the algae they depend upon, resulting in coral bleaching. Land-based sustainable aquaculture efforts<br \/>\nmay be the last chance coral species like these have at surviving in our future environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Third Place<br \/>\n\u201cPiping Plover Chick\u201d<br \/>\nBranden Costa, M.E.S.M. \u201921<br \/>\nGraduate student in environmental science and management, focused on conservation biology<br \/>\nCosta observed this juvenile piping plover foraging after a rainstorm on Washburn Island in Falmouth, Mass. \u201cThese birds,\u201d says Costa, who studies migratory bird behavior and population dynamics \u201care vulnerable to many threats before and after hatching, including predation, desiccation, human disturbances, and storm surges. They begin foraging for themselves mere hours after hatching and remain flightless for 25\u201330 days as they develop flight feathers for end-of-season migration. This chick was the last surviving member of its brood. The others were \u2018taken\u2019 by two off-leash domestic dogs. This chick demonstrates the unwavering resilience piping plovers must exhibit to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Mention<br \/>\n\u201cRadiotagged Diamondback<br \/>\nTerrapin Hatchling, Spring 2021\u201d<br \/>\nCarolyn Decker, M.S. \u201921<br \/>\nGraduate student in natural resources science<br \/>\n\u201cThis 9-month-old, rare salt marsh turtle is about the size of a poker chip and has just emerged from the secret sandy burrow where he spent his first winter,\u201d says Decker. \u201cFor my master\u2019s thesis, I documented the movements and habitat use of this species. This individual turtle helped us better understand the differing needs of hatchling and adult terrapins. My observations helped us to make wildlife management and conservation recommendations to protect the animals at all ages. This photo shows the tiny radio transmitter that was glued to the terrapin\u2019s shell so researchers could track his movements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Mention<br \/>\n\u201cLast Nerve\u201d<br \/>\nMichelle Gregoire, Ph.D. \u201926<br \/>\nDoctoral student in cell and molecular biology<br \/>\nNerves relay sensory or motor information in the body and are made up of nerve cells, or neurons, says Gregoire. \u201cIn Professor Claudia Fallini\u2019s lab, where I do my research, we study cellular pathologies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS\/FTD). We differentiate the neurons we study from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patient skin or blood cells. Using immunofluorescence and our Leica DMi8 Widefield Fluorescence microscope, we visualized this stunning motor<br \/>\nneuron. During the differentiation process, not all the stem cells differentiated into neurons, instead forming a mass of cells, visible here above the lone neuron.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Mention<br \/>\n\u201cMicroplastic Particle from Narragansett Bay\u201d<br \/>\nSarah Davis, Ph.D. \u201927<br \/>\nDoctoral student in biological and environmental sciences<br \/>\n\u201cThis strangely beautiful image of a 1 mm microplastic particle was captured with an Olympus BX63 automated light microscope,\u201d says Davis, who works with professors Coleen Suckling and Andrew Davies on a Rhode Island Sea Grant project investigating microplastic particles in Narragansett Bay. \u201cFor this project,\u201d she says, \u201cwe trawl a plankton net behind a 溏心vlog免费B站 vessel. The net collects material floating on and just below the water\u2019s surface; the material collected is processed and analyzed in the lab. By studying the concentration and characteristics of microplastics in our local environment, we can help inform decisions about mitigating pollution at the source.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research and Scholarship Photo ContesT 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s fifth annual Research and Scholarship Photo Contest attracted a stunning collection of photos from 溏心vlog免费B站 students, staff, and faculty. The contest provides a unique opportunity for our researchers and scholars to convey their ideas and work, as well as their unique perspectives, through the images they capture. We\u2019re proud [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022","architecture-aperture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8435,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions\/8435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}