{"id":11359,"date":"2016-04-05T14:07:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=11359"},"modified":"2016-04-05T14:07:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:07:49","slug":"sea-squirt-study-seeks-clues-to-climate-change-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/04\/05\/sea-squirt-study-seeks-clues-to-climate-change-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea squirt study seeks clues to climate change impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thomas<\/a>Thomas Meedel<\/strong>
\nRhode Island College<\/a><\/strong>
\nProfessor; biology<\/strong>
\nSURF program<\/a> mentor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"weareriepscor-2\"<\/a>Throughout much of the Rhode Island EPSCoR grant, Thomas Meedel\u2019s key involvement has been as a mentor for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.<\/p>\n

A 2015 RI Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) collaborative grant with lead researcher Steve Irvine and Niall Howlett, both of University of Rhode Island<\/a>, added a new layer, tapping into his work as a developmental biologist with sea squirts \u2014 Ciona intestinalis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically we\u2019re interested in seeing how these animals respond to climate change,\u201d Meedel says. \u201cThey are an important part of the ecology of places like Narragansett Bay, where they exist in large numbers. As filter feeders, they have an important impact on plankton in the water column.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Rhode Island STAC<\/a> award<\/h3>\n

2015 STAC grant: A Proteomics Approach to Analyzing Phenotypic Plasticity versus Adaptation in the Response of Marine Invertebrates to Climate Change. <\/strong>This team studies the response of the complete complement of proteins of a common marine species to predicted climate changes such as increased ocean temperatures. The study will determine whether the organism responds to stress via phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation. The findings will be used to predict the impact on economically important fisheries and aquaculture.<\/p>\n

Collaborators:<\/strong> Steven Irvine, URI; Niall Howlett, URI; Thomas Meedel, RIC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Specifically, the researchers will look at the proteins, which Meedel describes as the workhorses of the cell that carry out and regulate most cellular activity. The question is how do those proteins, and consequently their activities change at different water temperatures?<\/p>\n

The team has set up aquaria at the seawater facility in the Marine Science Research Facility<\/a> (MSRF), a RI EPSCoR core facility on the URI Bay Campus, exposing the sea squirts to water temperatures of 14-, 18-, and 22-degree Celsius. In addition to analyzing the protein composition of animals raised in these different conditions, the researchers also examine their reproductive and developmental health.<\/p>\n

The expectation is that the sea squirts from Narragansett Bay will be better suited to the warmer temperatures than those from the Gulf of Maine, which have adapted to colder water. The contrast will provide a good indication of how the species will respond to predicted climate change scenarios.<\/p>\n

Meedel says there is no clear-cut answer to whether sea squirts are good or bad; they have qualities that make them both beneficial and harmful. An invasive species \u2014 Didemnum vexillum \u2014 <\/em>native to the Pacific is now found throughout the Northeast. Meedel says they often grow in large, gooey, gelatinous mats that can destroy shellfish beds and fish spawning grounds. Ciona,<\/em> too, is not native to the northeastern United States, but they have been around here for so long that most people don\u2019t consider them to be invasive.<\/p>\n

Professor Thomas Meedel says EPSCoR research also provides an exceptional\u00a0training ground through the\u00a0Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program:\u00a0\u201cSURF broadens their education and exposes them to ways of thinking that they don\u2019t typically get in their coursework. Too many students have such low expectations of what they can accomplish. SURF demonstrates to them what they are capable of.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ciona<\/em> are not considered an economically important species, so people often ask Meedel why he studies them. He typically explains that there are many reasons for his focus, but for this particular project they serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. If Ciona<\/em> can\u2019t adapt to changing conditions, then other filter feeders could face a similar fate. In other words, the coal mine is not a good place to be when the canary dies.<\/p>\n

Scientists also find the sea squirt a valuable organism to study because it is\u00a0among the best available in terms of resources, like a completed genome, to use, according to Meedel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can combine that sort of resource with the peptide fragments our study generates to identify the proteins being expressed under different conditions and you can\u2019t do that with just anything,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, the methods we develop in our studies should be applicable to studying how the protein composition of other marine organisms responds to predicted climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the ongoing research, Meedel considers the EPSCoR SURF program one of grant\u2019s best works. Often times, the fellowship opportunity does not register on students\u2019 radar, yet it evolves into a transformational life event. Meedel says he commonly hears from students that they never expected to have such a research experience during their undergraduate years.<\/p>\n

Working on an open-ended research project rather than a proscribed lab exercise engages students in a different type of intellectual pursuit than they are used to, says Meedel. And, the fellowship pays a stipend so they can focus on the science and don\u2019t have to take on an additional job for financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSURF broadens their education and exposes them to ways of thinking that they don\u2019t typically get in their coursework,\u201d he says. \u201cToo many students have such low expectations of what they can accomplish. SURF demonstrates to them what they are capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle | RI NSF EPSCoR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Meedel Rhode Island College Professor; biology SURF program mentor Throughout much of the Rhode Island EPSCoR grant, Thomas Meedel\u2019s key involvement has been as a mentor for the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. A 2015 RI Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) collaborative grant with lead researcher Steve Irvine and Niall Howlett, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,1,63],"tags":[159,558,570],"class_list":["post-11359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","category-we-are-ri-epscor","tag-ciona-intestinalis","tag-rhode-island-college","tag-rhode-island-nsf-epscor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}