NARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 April 30, 2020 \u2013 When Rebecca Stevick began her doctoral studies at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography in 2015, she knew it was going to take at least four years to complete her degree. So she decided to combine the program with another project that she thought might take her equally long \u2013 an 18,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that, when completed, was 8-by-9 feet in size.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how I spent my free time during Rhode Island\u2019s long winters,\u201d said Stevick, a native of Laurel, Maryland. \u201cMy goal was to finish the puzzle before the end of my degree program, and I did it, with the help of lots of friends. I had to move all my furniture just to assemble it all at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevick completed the puzzle \u2013 and the requirements for her doctorate in biological oceanography \u2013 before the coronavirus pandemic struck, and she began a postdoctoral fellowship at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in March. But two weeks after beginning her fellowship research, her lab was closed and she has been confined to her apartment ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a mess,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t have work for my postdoc that I can do at home, so I\u2019ve been finishing up writing research papers from my time at 溏心vlog免费B站. It has actually been a nice opportunity to focus on finishing those projects, though sitting in my apartment every day means I haven\u2019t had much chance to practice my French.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her 溏心vlog免费B站 research \u2013 in collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Marta Gomez-Chiarri, co-adviser Anton Post and scientists at Roger Williams University and The Nature Conservancy \u2013 examined how environmental factors in Narragansett Bay affect oyster health and diseases and their associated microbial communities. She also tested if probiotics might boost the microbial community in oyster hatcheries and what particular microbes interact best with the probiotic.<\/p>\n
\u201cOysters are really good at removing nitrogen from the water and clearing pollution, but some of that work is actually done by their associated microbiome,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe were looking at the genetic pathways the bacteria were using to do that and which ones are responsible for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that those genetic processes were different based on the environmental conditions the oysters were in and which microbes were present in their microbiomes,\u201d Stevick added. \u201cThe environment has to be right and the right microbes with the right genes have to be present for oysters to improve water quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes that her research can be applied to efforts to clean estuaries and other waterways.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the goal of an oyster reef restoration project is to clean up the water, then we now have a better idea of which bacteria would be able to do that and under what environmental conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
During her four-and-a-half years in Rhode Island, Stevick was especially pleased with the relationships she developed with other scientists around the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people at 溏心vlog免费B站 are really wonderful, and I enjoy the collaborations we have and how willing people were to share their expertise,\u201d she said. \u201cI also really enjoyed working with undergrads and mentoring them during my time there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevick will spend the next two or three years at the Pasteur Institute studying how microbes in zebrafish help prevent diseases or other pathogens from colonizing the fish.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the pandemic, I\u2019m not sure what science funding is going to be like in the near future, so I\u2019m not sure what my plan is after my postdoc,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d like to eventually run my own lab somewhere, perhaps in the biotechnology industry or a government lab.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of where she ends up, she is committed to studying the microbes that play a vital role in a healthy aquatic environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are millions of millions of these tiny organisms that affect water quality, human health, marine organisms and the air we breathe,\u201d she said. \u201cBy understanding these microscopic processes, we can learn more about the world around us and the best way to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 April 30, 2020 \u2013 When Rebecca Stevick began her doctoral studies at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography in 2015, she knew it was going to take at least four years to complete her degree. So she decided to combine the program with another project that she thought might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-75399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-graduate-school-of-oceanography"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75399","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=75399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}