{"id":66721,"date":"2008-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/enthusiasm-for-algae-helps-uri-student-bloom\/"},"modified":"2008-07-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-16T00:00:00","slug":"enthusiasm-for-algae-helps-uri-student-bloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/07\/enthusiasm-for-algae-helps-uri-student-bloom\/","title":{"rendered":"Enthusiasm for algae helps 溏心vlog免费B站 student bloom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tClinton Township, Mich., resident examines seaweed\/snail interactions<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 16, 2008 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Emily Blair has a somewhat surprising revelation. She likes seaweed. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMost people think of it as nasty green stuff, but there are a lot of different kinds and it\u2019s fun working with it,\u201d said the resident of Clinton Township, Mich., who is studying marine biology at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe admits, however, that she isn\u2019t a fan of every kind of seaweed. She describes one, called Neosiphonia, as \u201ca branching brown boring-ness that seems to be taking over some parts of the intertidal zone\u201d of Narragansett Bay.<\/p>\n


\n\tBlair is spending her summer elbow deep in seaweed \u2013 called macro-algae by scientists — in a research project aimed at determining the effect that snails have on the growth and recruitment of Neosiphonia, an invasive species from Asia, and the native species Ceramium, which she described as being \u201cred with little lobster pinchers on the end.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tInvasive species often compromise the diversity of wildlife in the environment because they have no natural predators in the area. Blair\u2019s research project, in collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 biology professor Carol Thornber and graduate student Nicole Rohr, will help determine if native snails may be able to keep Neosiphonia in check or if, by feeding only on native seaweeds like Ceramium, the snail is helping it to spread.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cInvasive species are a problem almost everywhere,\u201d said Blair, who became interested in marine biology after she learned to scuba dive as a fifth grader. \u201cThe first step in dealing with them is figuring out what kind of impact they have. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing this summer.\u201d

\n\tBlair spent most of June and July visiting several coastal areas to set up her experiment. \u201cWe put a piece of rope in a bucket in the intertidal zone and waited for the algae to grow on the rope,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen we put snails in with it, waited some more, and removed the rope from the bucket. Now, under a microscope, we\u2019re identifying everything on the ropes and figuring out whether the snails had any effect.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBlair\u2019s research was funded through the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique program designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 12th year, the Coastal Fellows Program teams students with faculty, research staff and graduate students to help them gain skills that will ensure their future success.<\/p>\n


\nThe seaweed project isn\u2019t Blair\u2019s first experience conducting field research. During the summer after her freshman year at 溏心vlog免费B站 she participated in a project to create maps of subaqueous soils in estuaries around Rhode Island. She collected and analyzed core samples of the sediments found at the bottom of salt ponds and bays in the area.<\/p>\n


\nWith just one more year of her undergraduate education to go, Blair is considering her options for her life after graduation. She said she will probably go to graduate school in hopes of eventually getting a job conducting marine ecology research or conservation.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhatever I end up doing, it will most likely have something to do with marine invertebrates or algae,\u201d she said. \u201cAlgae has been a good time this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nEmily Blair

\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinton Township, Mich., resident examines seaweed\/snail interactions KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 16, 2008 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Emily Blair has a somewhat surprising revelation. She likes seaweed. \u201cMost people think of it as nasty green stuff, but there are a lot of different kinds and it\u2019s fun working with it,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66723,"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-66721","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\/66721","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=66721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}