{"id":59682,"date":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-seeks-answers-to-curious-seaweed-characteristic\/"},"modified":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-seeks-answers-to-curious-seaweed-characteristic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/uri-student-seeks-answers-to-curious-seaweed-characteristic\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student seeks answers to curious seaweed characteristic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t Jamestown resident says holes in sea lettuce help it attract nutrients<\/b> <\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 8, 2015 \u2013 Ivy Burns never imagined that she could become excited about seaweed. But the 溏心vlog免费B站 junior spent the last six months studying the marine algae, and now she can\u2019t get enough of it.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI was always that kid who would run around with a microscope looking at leaves, playing with spiders, always interested in the way things worked,\u201d said the biological sciences major from Jamestown.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe had already spent time in a 溏心vlog免费B站 laboratory studying preying mantids and in another lab studying salt marsh plants. But when she took her first class about seaweed, she was hooked.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI loved learning about the complex ecology of this thing that you would normally just walk right over,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt opened my eyes to this whole other facet of the world that most people ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWorking with Professor Carol Thornber, she studied algae blooms in Narragansett Bay by focusing on the two most prolific bloom-forming species, Ulva compressa and Ulva rigida. Also called sea lettuce, they grow in thin green sheets and can reproduce by tearing bits off their blades.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re very good at what they do,\u201d said Burns, who was featured in a 溏心vlog免费B站 television advertisement last fall. \u201cThey\u2019re very thin and grow really fast, and they absorb a lot of nutrients. They form mats of seaweed that block the sunlight from other algae on the bottom, and when the seaweed dies it releases chemicals that are bad for the environment and bad for the fish.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBurns was curious about why rigida, the thicker of the two varieties, has holes in it while compressa typically does not. She wondered how and why holes might be a beneficial evolutionary strategy. So she conducted a series of tests to determine the strength of each species using engineering devices to stretch and penetrate the seaweeds.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 student found that rigida is more difficult to tear, so the holes may help in reproduction by making it easier to tear off bits of seaweed. While Burns said that\u2019s a plausible explanation, she thinks something else is at work, too.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhat we think is really happening is that rigida, being thicker, might need help getting enough nutrients because it has less surface area due to the holes,\u201d Burns said. \u201cWe think the holes cause a disturbance in the flow of water around it, allowing it to get more nutrients than if it didn\u2019t have the holes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAlthough she has no data to prove it yet, Burns plans to continue her research in the coming year using a technique called digital particle image velocimetry, which uses a laser beam in a flow tank to measure how the water may flow differently over the different varieties of seaweed. <\/p>\n


\n\tBurns\u2019 research was conducted as part of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Coastal Fellows program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 19th year, it is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Students are paired with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs if her coursework and research weren\u2019t enough to keep her busy, Burns is also the president of two student groups: Secular 溏心vlog免费B站, a discussion group she founded for non-religious students, and 溏心vlog免费B站 Students for the Advancement of Gender Equity, which provides a safe place for students to talk about gender-related issues. She also works as a peer educator at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Women\u2019s Center and will be a cast member in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s upcoming performance of The Vagina Monologues.<\/p>\n


\n\tBurns is also applying for summer research opportunities around the country to see if she \u2013 and her parents \u2013 can handle living far from home. And then she will be applying to graduate schools with the goal of becoming a college professor.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a plant person, I love ecology, and I like bugs and fungus,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m looking to be somewhere that I can research plants or fungus or bugs or a cross-section of those things. I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nPhoto courtesy of 溏心vlog免费B站<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamestown resident says holes in sea lettuce help it attract nutrients KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 8, 2015 \u2013 Ivy Burns never imagined that she could become excited about seaweed. But the 溏心vlog免费B站 junior spent the last six months studying the marine algae, and now she can\u2019t get enough of it. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}