It all started after the pilot study in the field was completed, another alteration to the plans had to be made. The big blue box (read our great adventure of 680 red copepods….and friends) was taken out. It altered the sediment too much compared to the surrounding. It was basically doing too much of the purpose we had intended it to use. Decisions made, we set out to place our sorkcoresTM for the real deal!
On our way to place our field experiment! Two excellent bearded boat drivers who took us to the location.
All happy and back in the lab, doing our normal thing, we were realising something became scarce, time. Bringing back the samples from the field. made us aware of the fact that we couldn’t distinguish meiofauna from detritus and sediment.
Don’t know what we’re looking at but we are definitely busy with something!
So a solution was created, the use of bengal rose stain was introduced. We were happy, for only a brief moment… an email from Tim in our inbox and the relief of finding a solution was stamped upon. Formalin, a crucial component for the stain is under strict regulation so the lab manager initially told us no you can’t use the stain. However, we got the green light to use it after all if a teacher made the solution. Oh what a happy bunch we became.
Staining our samples in the fume hood.
Analyzing and identifying the communities was executed faster than we anticipated so we felt we were on a good track.
Identifying meiofauna with an improvised maze. Samples were to large to examine completely. Counting only the white cells improved the analyzing speed.
In three days we managed to analyse 36 petri dishes for community composition, 45 petri dishes for the lab experiment and writing a report about all of it as well.
Relieved and sleep deprived we all called it a night. The things to come will be another hill to conquer.
On our way to place our field experiment! Two excellent bearded boat drivers who took us to the location.
All happy and back in the lab, doing our normal thing, we were realising something became scarce, time. Bringing back the samples from the field. made us aware of the fact that we couldn’t distinguish meiofauna from detritus and sediment.
Don’t know what we’re looking at but we are definitely busy with something!
So a solution was created, the use of bengal rose stain was introduced. We were happy, for only a brief moment… an email from Tim in our inbox and the relief of finding a solution was stamped upon. Formalin, a crucial component for the stain is under strict regulation so the lab manager initially told us no you can’t use the stain. However, we got the green light to use it after all if a teacher made the solution. Oh what a happy bunch we became.
Staining our samples in the fume hood.
Analyzing and identifying the communities was executed faster than we anticipated so we felt we were on a good track.
Identifying meiofauna with an improvised maze. Samples were to large to examine completely. Counting only the white cells improved the analyzing speed.
In three days we managed to analyse 36 petri dishes for community composition, 45 petri dishes for the lab experiment and writing a report about all of it as well.
Relieved and sleep deprived we all called it a night. The things to come will be another hill to conquer.
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