Week 4: Waiting and Preparing

During this week, there was not much for me to do within the lab. Once the biological experiments had been set up in the mornings or the afternoon before, they did not need much maintenance. So once again for this week I did mostly lab maintenance such as acid washing and odd jobs for anyone within the lab as needed.

Since I did not have much to do within the lab I joined other people when they went out field sampling. We went to a station on the Columbia River on the Washington side of the river. There we cleaned the machine that records data at that sampling station and collected different types of samples. I even helped collect zooplankton samples that were preserved for later observation and water samples from the river itself. The whole experience was great! I got time out of the lab on a beautiful sunny day to sample. It was a great break from constantly making new media, reagents for the pHstat and acid washing.

At the end of the week I did a lot of algal kills since the shelf was getting cluttered with phytoplankton samples that were no longer needed. I also transferred cultures into new media and containers. From there I completed more acid washing and autoclaving for the lab preparing for the next week. On Friday I gave a presentation on the data that I had collected so far to my lab and showed my part within Rachel’s overall project by stating my goals for my project this summer. I am hoping that I will be able to eventually accomplish long term biological experimentation with the pHstat!