{"id":73210,"date":"2017-08-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-studies-how-climate-change-will-affect-larval-growth-of-marine-invertebrates\/"},"modified":"2017-08-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-studies-how-climate-change-will-affect-larval-growth-of-marine-invertebrates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2017\/08\/uri-student-studies-how-climate-change-will-affect-larval-growth-of-marine-invertebrates\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student studies how climate change will affect larval growth of marine invertebrates"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 24, 2017 \u2013 Hopkinton<\/strong> resident Evelyn Siler has long been interested in studying genetics, in part to learn whether there is a genetic component to her brother\u2019s autism. The 溏心vlog免费B站 senior has taken initial steps in that direction by studying the genetics of an invasive marine organism that can be used to understand the environmental effects on numerous other ocean creatures.<\/p>\n

Siler, who is majoring in cell and molecular biology, is working with 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Steven Irvine to understand how climate change may affect a common sea squirt, Ciona intestinalis<\/em>, which she describes as \u201ctwo-siphoned, gelatinous blobs that filter feed and spawn.\u201d The animals are found on marina docks, shallow rocks, and other coastal habitats where you might also find mussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey grow fairly quickly \u2013 it only takes 18 hours for them to develop from fertilized egg to larvae \u2013 so they\u2019re useful to study in the lab,\u201d Siler said. \u201cYou can follow their growth in a very short time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Irvine wonder whether the sea squirts will develop normally in water that is warmer, less salty and more acidic than they are used to \u2013 all conditions predicted to occur as a result of climate change. So she collected some sea squirts from Narragansett Bay and raised their larvae in water of varying salinity and pH levels and in temperatures of 18 or 22 degrees Centigrade, both warmer than the species\u2019 preferred temperature of 14 C.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs expected, we saw a definite decrease in normal larval growth at both temperatures, but the difference was most significant in the 22-degree water,\u201d Siler said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we saw the least normal development.\u201d<\/p>\n

What her results mean, she said, is that if climate change continues to warm the ocean, lower salinity and increase acidification, the sea squirts will have a much more difficult time producing normal larva.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t be able to cope with the stresses, and that will probably affect their population size,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd based on the fact that it\u2019s a model organism that shares many genes with vertebrate species, we suspect the trend with those other species may be similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next step in her research will be to test whether the offspring of sea squirts that grow to adulthood in the altered water conditions \u2013 instead of taking specimens from the wild \u2013 will show the same results.<\/p>\n

Siler\u2019s research was funded through a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship provided by the Rhode Island Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which provides training and career development for undergraduate students. The intensive summer research experience\u00a0breeds a deeper\u00a0involvement in the sciences and advances technical and cognitive skills. The program also helps students define a clearer picture of their career path.<\/p>\n

Following graduation in December, the 溏心vlog免费B站 student plans to enroll in graduate school to pursue a doctorate in genetics and eventually pursue a career conducting genetics research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure exactly where I see myself five years from now, probably working for a university or a private company,\u201d Siler said. \u201cI just know that I would definitely like to continue pursuing research-based fields. Having the opportunity to spend the summer conducting hands-on research has assured me that this is the field I belong in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 24, 2017 \u2013 Hopkinton resident Evelyn Siler has long been interested in studying genetics, in part to learn whether there is a genetic component to her brother\u2019s autism. The 溏心vlog免费B站 senior has taken initial steps in that direction by studying the genetics of an invasive marine organism that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73212,"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-73210","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\/73210","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=73210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}