WEEK THREE - Equations with MATLAB

This week was really busy around the center. We had the NSF visit, which gave us interns a chance to see presentations about all aspects of the center. As far as my own work goes, I've been doing a lot of research about how zooplankton function, move, eat...etc. That way, I can make my model as realistic as possible.
I also finally got a preliminary picture going to start building into my model! There is still a lot of work to do, but seeing the picture helped me to get a good idea of where I need to go from here. So what you see here is a visual 3-D representation of the plankton (zooplankton to come later, check next week's blog!). It doesn't look like much yet, but there is still a lot to be added.

My job will be to build equations with the MATLAB program that will control how they move, when they die (or get eaten), their absorption of nutrients, and what they excrete into the system.
Then, I'll do the same with the zooplankton. And the final goal is to come up with an equation that realistically represents the growth rate and the grazing rate of the zooplankton.

An IBM (individual based model) is different than your "average model." Rather than trying to fit our graph to a set of data and coming up with the closest equation to the picture, we try to actually produce accurate data by making our virtual plankton's behavior as close as possible to the behavior of an actual organism.

At the brown bag seminar this past week, we were encouraged to think about why our project matters in the big picture. Well here is my explanation for my project: The existing EcoSim model tells us a lot about plankton and how their behavior would change when the environment changes. What Marta Rodrigues has done is to add the "next step up" in the food web (the zooplankton). My work this summer will be to do my best to improve the work on this level. Then, someday in the future, we can add more and more trophic levels. This way, we can study how changes in the ocean environment impact the animals living there. Using a computer to simulate this provides an easy way to "observe" behaviors in the open ocean, that may not be so easy to observe and measure first hand.

This week, we also went to a lunch in the Primate Center here and got to hear about some other intern work going on at the campus. And this weekend, we went on a hiking trip to Mt. Hood National Forest. It was so beautiful out there, basically what I'd been imagining Oregon to be like. It was also pretty interesting to be sweating in the 90 degree weather and then come upon parts of the trail covered in snow! Overall, it was a great week!