{"id":12353,"date":"2016-07-28T15:41:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T19:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=12353"},"modified":"2016-07-28T15:41:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T19:41:33","slug":"surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/07\/28\/surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-22\/","title":{"rendered":"SURF’s up 2016: Rhode Island undergrads in research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conkiln_Courtney\"<\/a>
Courtney Conklin pulls up a trap from a research site in Wickford Harbor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Research fellow:<\/strong> Courtney Conklin
\nHometown:<\/strong> Warwick, RI
\nSchool:<\/strong> Salve Regina University<\/a>
\nMajor:<\/strong> Biology, with environmental science concentration<\/p>\n

Research fellow:<\/strong> Katarzyna Kos
\nHometown:<\/strong> Braintree, MA
\nSchool:<\/strong> Salve Regina University<\/a>
\nMajor:<\/strong> Biology, with environmental science concentration<\/p>\n

Mentor:<\/strong> Jameson Chace
\nProject:<\/strong> Response of near shore marine macroinvertebrate and small fish populations to climate driven sea level rise and associated abiotic conditions<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Kos_Kat\"<\/a>
Katarzyna Kos takes the helm of the Salve Regina University 16-foot Boston Whaler for the morning’s site sampling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summer sun starts its daily climb over Narragansett Bay as Katarzyna Kos and Courtney Conklin amble down the dock in a Wickford Harbor marina and step into the 16-foot Boston Whaler named Biology Research.<\/p>\n

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows<\/a> (SURFs) from Salve Regina University untie the ropes as marine biology tech Katie Jones turns on the motor and eases the boat out of its slip before turning the wheel over to Kos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryday, we go out in the boat and collect traps,\u201d Kos says, explaining the routine. \u201cThere are nine locations, with 33 sub-sites. So, we rotate traps through the sub-sites every day. Half the week, we do the north sites and half the week the south ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

They motor from buoy to buoy, each hand-painted with Salve Research Gear, and stop to pull up small, cylinder cages. As Kos idles the boat, Conklin and Jones split\u00a0open the traps and spill out the contents into the shallow water of a plastic bin.<\/p>\n

Conklin counts the mud snails and dumps them back into the water as she reports the number for Jones to record.\u00a0Then, from a small cooler, they fish out fresh bait, fill the trap and loop it shut with plastic ties, working together easily and methodically from one sub-site to the next.<\/p>\n

During low tide, the crew tracks marine life along the shoreline to measure the quality of the biological and physical conditions across a wide reach of western Narragansett Bay. To do so, the students map out small sample areas and\u00a0determine the\u00a0<\/strong>density of intertidal organisms and the size and composition of the surface\u00a0\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0sand, cobble, boulders, etc., \u2014 that\u00a0the organisms are living on.<\/p>\n

They also test water quality conditions across a depth profile at each location \u2014 acidity, salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen \u2014 to gauge patterns of quality and changes over the duration of the summer.\u00a0Salve Associate Professor Jameson Chace is using the collected data to document the response of near shore marine macroinvertebrates to changing climate conditions and sea level rise.<\/p>\n

Putting Kos and Conklin\u2019s work this summer into context, Chace explains: \u201cThey are sitting at the end of five years of intensive summer sampling across a wide spectrum of the near shore environment in\u00a0the Bay and outer Newport Neck, trying to understand the drivers of\u00a0the abundance and distribution of key organisms \u2014 small fish and\u00a0macroinvertebrates \u2014 that are near\u00a0the base of a magnificent food web that promotes the diversity of the Bay and economic base of Rhode Island\u2019s fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Courtney Conklin, left, and Katie Jones empty a trap into a plastic bin to count and record the contents. Photos below indicate the series of sampling sites, left, and the Wickford Harbor sites where the traps are stationed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For both students, the SURF project is their first experience with fieldwork. Conklin, heading into her junior year, says she applied to the program after hearing about it from other students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun, and I\u2019m learning a lot of research methods and techniques,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Kos, a senior, says she had done some research work in a lab, for credit, during the academic year: \u201cThis is awesome. I love the outside aspect to the work, and now I have a better sense of our surroundings. I\u2019m learning a lot how to process and analyze the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project with Chace, she says, has given her a broader perspective of the bigger issues facing society and made her think about how they might be solved, possibly orienting her toward the field of environmental engineering. Conklin remains unsure of her exact direction, but says the summer\u2019s experience has piqued her interest in research.<\/p>\n

Jones, a former SURF student and 2016 Salve grad, planning to apply to graduate school, has her sights set on becoming a marine biologist and doing fieldwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think this helps out students a lot,\u201d she says of the SURF opportunity. \u201cSalve being a part of this program gives us a lot more experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Chace\u2019s view, the value of hands-on research is integral to undergraduate learning and gives students insight to the process of doing science:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cannot be said enough \u2014\u00a0real experience trumps classroom experience for deep\u00a0learning and understanding. However, you have to have both. We have plenty of the latter on campus and SURF provides opportunities for the former.”<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cEcology comes alive when presented with authentic questions and managing research and address those questions. Students come to realize what ends up in\u00a0the published paper is the result of countless headaches, wrong turns, days of no data or lost data, and what seems so neat and tidy isn\u2019t necessarily so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research fellow: Courtney Conklin Hometown: Warwick, RI School: Salve Regina University Major: Biology, with environmental science concentration Research fellow: Katarzyna Kos Hometown: Braintree, MA School: Salve Regina University Major: Biology, with environmental science concentration Mentor: Jameson Chace Project: Response of near shore marine macroinvertebrate and small fish populations to climate driven sea level rise and […]<\/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":[321,372,423,570,606,735,774],"class_list":["post-12353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surfsup","tag-hands-on-research","tag-marine-biology","tag-narragansett-bay","tag-rhode-island-nsf-epscor","tag-salve-regina-university","tag-undergraduate-research","tag-wickford-harbor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12353","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=12353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}