{"id":12332,"date":"2016-07-27T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T19:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=12332"},"modified":"2016-07-27T15:59:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T19:59:31","slug":"surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/07\/27\/surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-20\/","title":{"rendered":"SURF’s up 2016: Rhode Island undergrads in research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kinsella_Marguerite\"<\/a>Research fellow:<\/strong> Marguerite Kinsella
\nHometown:<\/strong> Basking Ridge, NJ
\nSchool:<\/strong> University of Rhode Island<\/a>
\nMajor:<\/strong> Marine biology; minor, Wildlife Conservation Biology
\nMentors:<\/strong> Lindsay Green, Carol Thornber, Stephen Licht
\nProject:<\/strong> Monitoring harmful algal blooms in Narragansett Bay via ecological and aerial technology approaches and determining the impacts of climate change on the physiology of bloom-forming macroalgae<\/p>\n

The last summer of her undergraduate years, rising senior Marguerite Kinsella is busy in the lab and out in the field, working on several related projects with harmful macroalgal blooms.<\/p>\n

In her role as a RI EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow<\/a> (SURF), Kinsella is studying Gracilaria<\/em> and Ulva<\/em> species, tracking how nutrients affect their growth rate. She does this, she says, by trying to mimic the impact of fertilizer pollution, looking at the different effects between artificial and natural rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cSURF definitely has been rewarding, knowing how to think like a scientist.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kinsella also has been assisting with an ongoing survey of macroalgal blooms in Greenwich Bay, processing and identifying species to yield a better understanding of the diversity that exists and whether any new species enter the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has really exposed me to more information and new skills,\u201d says Kinsella. \u201cIt\u2019s exactly what I wanted to do.\u00a0I\u2019m learning to identify new species based on molecular work, so I know what species I\u2019m looking at. Before, I didn\u2019t know anything about microscopic work. Now I can do more techniques \u2014 DNA sequencing, pipetting \u2014 and I\u2019ve learned a lot about scientific statistics and software.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skills and professional development prompted her to apply\u00a0for the fellowship, Kinsella says, and she wants to put both her major and minor fields of study to use, exploring\u00a0the impact of invasive algae on both organisms and the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

She also appreciates the bigger picture and the importance of the work she is doing. Ulva<\/em>, in particular, she says, is a primary producer of harmful macroalgal blooms, which can grow to be expansive and cause fish kills.<\/p>\n

\u201cSURF definitely has been rewarding, knowing how to think like a scientist,\u201d Kinsella says. \u201cLindsay (Green) has been a huge role model and the work is definitely interesting \u2014 it points to what I want to do and where I want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinsella says she hopes to secure a job post graduation in Florida, where toxic algae blooms have been in the news lately: \u201cI want to work not so much in research, but more with outreach and education as well as more government and EPA work. That\u2019s ultimately my career goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Research fellow: Marguerite Kinsella Hometown: Basking Ridge, NJ School: University of Rhode Island Major: Marine biology; minor, Wildlife Conservation Biology Mentors: Lindsay Green, Carol Thornber, Stephen Licht Project: Monitoring harmful algal blooms in Narragansett Bay via ecological and aerial technology approaches and determining the impacts of climate change on the physiology of bloom-forming macroalgae The […]<\/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":[21,51],"tags":[84,366,570,741],"class_list":["post-12332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surfsup","tag-algal-blooms","tag-macroalgal-blooms","tag-rhode-island-nsf-epscor","tag-university-of-rhode-island"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332","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=12332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}