{"id":22049,"date":"2026-08-17T14:50:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=22049"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:50:51","slug":"tiahnna-dalpezzo-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/tiahnna-dalpezzo-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating how coastal stressors affect oysters: Q&A with Tiahnna Dalpezzo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marine biology <\/a>and marine affairs <\/a>double major Tiahnna Dalpezzo spent her summer studying juvenile Eastern oysters as a CELS Summer Research Fellow<\/a>. Working in Dr. Jonathan Purtiz\u2019s<\/a> lab, she investigated how different algae diets affect oysters\u2019 nutrient uptake and growth as part of a larger research project examining how coastal stressors affect marine populations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her days began at 8 a.m. with the work needed to keep the oysters healthy, from cleaning filters and maintaining tanks to measuring water quality, feeding the oysters, and tracking their growth. Each week, she used photo analysis software to measure the oysters\u2019 shell length, width, area and circumference.<\/em>

Q. What are you researching?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general focus of our lab\u2019s research is to understand how climate change can affect marine ecosystems and the animals that live in them. We look at how environmental changes, such as ocean acidification and low oxygen levels, can affect the growth, survival, and health of young oysters. We also study whether these stressors make oysters more vulnerable to diseases, helping us understand how climate change may impact marine life and the ecosystems and people that depend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. What’s the coolest thing you’ve experienced so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coolest thing I experienced so far with this fellowship would be getting to see the oysters under a microscope and getting to see them move, breathe, and even eat. You would never expect these rock-like creatures to move, but they do! It was very rewarding to also get to see their growth since the beginning of the summer and even now continuing the fellowship. We started with microscopic creatures that looked like grains of sand, and now are finally getting to see the shape of a typical oyster grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s been one of the most rewarding moments so far this summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most rewarding moments of the summer so far would be getting to learn so many lab techniques and applying them to this lab. Not only did I have the opportunity to work with a marine sea animal, but I also got to learn different instrumentation skills like microscopy and liquid cell counter. We also got to learn salt-water lab skills like animal husbandry, water quality tests, water changes, feedings, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. How has working with your faculty mentor enriched your experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in Dr. Jonathan Purtiz\u2019s lab under the mentorship of graduate students Olivia Nieves and Dahlia Bercow was a great experience for my first research lab experience. Everyone in this lab is very knowledgeable about this project and all the moving parts it has, and they have all been amazing instructors. Both Olivia and Dahlia were very helpful, especially when it came to learning all the new lab techniques needed for our project. They even helped me get more information on the grad school process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has this fellowship taught you that you couldn’t have learned in a classroom? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to work an experience like this one has taught me how to apply what I have learned in the classroom to real-world environmental issues. In the classroom, I have learned so much about climate change, marine ecosystems, and the factors that affect marine life, but working in a lab has shown me how that knowledge can be used to better understand and address these issues. It has also taught me the importance of research, patience, and problem-solving, especially when experiments do not always go as planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a CELS Summer Research Fellow in Dr. Jonathan Purtiz\u2019s lab, Tiahnna Dalpezzo investigated how different algae diets affect nutrient uptake and growth in juvenile Eastern oysters. Her work was part of a larger research effort examining how coastal stressors such as ocean acidification and low oxygen affect marine populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":22050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fellowships","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22051,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22049\/revisions\/22051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}