{"id":28869,"date":"2019-03-04T11:51:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T16:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=28869"},"modified":"2019-03-05T14:44:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:44:06","slug":"ways-of-the-ocean-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2019\/03\/04\/ways-of-the-ocean-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Ways of the Ocean Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LincolnShip\"
Eva Lincoln (left) prepares plankton samples aboard the R\/V Endeavor with Dr. Gayantonia Franze and undergraduate Anna Ward. Photo: Miraflor Santos\/WHOI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This past summer, Eva Lincoln<\/strong> was working in an unfamiliar place: a boat at the edge of the continental shelf, facing 12-foot swells and waking up at 2 a.m. to process water samples with tiny specks of phytoplankton in them. And she loved it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep was relative,\u201d laughs Lincoln, a senior at Rhode Island College. \u201cOur daily routine was, once we got to a station, to take water samples from the CTD (an instrument to measure salinity, temperature and depth profiles in the ocean), and place these water samples in our incubator. It was our job to make sure everything got done on time and that we handled the samples carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 10 weeks, Lincoln was immersed in hands-on, oceanographic research as a SURF student, working under Dr. Susanne Menden-Deuer<\/strong>, professor at URI\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography and a leading expert on plankton ecology.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave me the reins and said, \u2018I want you to figure out what aspects of oceanography you find interesting, and then we can build a project from there,\u2019\u201d says Lincoln.<\/p>\n

At the end of her SURF experience, Lincoln was invited by Menden-Deuer to conduct research aboard the R\/V Endeavor. Working with a fellow undergraduate, Lincoln filtered the water samples over 24-hour and then 12-hour periods in order to achieve the most accurate chlorophyll readings. The data collected will help scientists on board better understand how quickly plankton, the base of the marine food web, grow and die.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a privilege to provide students with the opportunity to explore their own research interests, and Eva\u2019s experience was the real thing,\u201d notes Menden-Deuer. \u201cWith access to the high-caliber research environment at GSO, students like Eva quickly attain a high degree of proficiency, and as oceanographers, we gain a new colleague with a unique perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LincolnConf\"
Eva explains her summer research at the annual SURF Conference to RI Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor and Christine Smith, Managing Director of Innovation at RI Commerce. Photo: Michael Salerno\/URI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Functioning as a researcher on board a ship was an entirely separate, and important, lesson for Lincoln.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the dock, we had to make sure we had all of the equipment needed,\u201d she explains. \u201cOn the first day we had to get up super early, and I was so sick. I had to go back to bed. There is so much that goes into not just the actual science, but preparing for the cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth-year RIC student, who also tutors anatomy and physiology at the Community College of Rhode Island, has always had a deeply inquisitive mind, and wanted to know more about plankton interactions in marine food webs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been the pain in the butt kid who asks, \u2018Why does that happen?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201c\u201cPlankton are an essential part of the food web and are eaten by so many things. If you add more nutrients to the phytoplankton, does that make them happier and therefore better food for the zooplankton?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Sarah Knowlton<\/strong>, Lincoln\u2019s advisor and chair of physical sciences at RIC, first suggested SURF as a possible research experience, meeting with the undergraduate this past spring to guide her through the application process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith SURF, you are in the middle of a research lab, learning all sorts of techniques and interacting with faculty, graduate students and post-docs,\u201d explains Knowlton. \u201cThe experience really builds confidence, and that students can cross institutions and see how things go is so valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln presented her research on single-cell herbivores, or \u2018microzooplankton,\u2019 at the annual SURF conference this past July. For her work, she was honored by Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor at July\u2019s SURF Conference for producing outstanding research.<\/p>\n

The RIC senior knows that she loves the environment and chemistry. Now, Lincoln\u2019s focus is getting accepted to the best-fitting graduate program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get that little taste of what it is going to be like when you go to graduate school through SURF,\u201d she emphasizes. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to be in graduate school myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past summer, Eva Lincoln was working in an unfamiliar place: a boat at the edge of the continental shelf, facing 12-foot swells and waking up at 2 a.m. to process water samples with tiny specks of phytoplankton in them. And she loved it. \u201cSleep was relative,\u201d laughs Lincoln, a senior at Rhode Island College. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[891],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curr-non-list"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28869","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\/1994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28869"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29555,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28869\/revisions\/29555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}