tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31012034817516824732024-03-05T02:34:01.782-07:00Dr. Emily A. KaneAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-42030968773596030842017-04-17T19:16:00.002-06:002017-04-17T19:16:57.312-06:00New WebsiteI made a new website for my new lab!<br />
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Please follow along with our research and outreach at Georgia Southern University at this new site:<br />
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<a href="https://www.thekanelab.com/">https://www.thekanelab.com</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-79558530804222460732016-09-02T11:39:00.005-06:002016-09-02T13:29:55.783-06:00Accepting MS students for Fall 2017I am recruiting 1-2 Masters students to start in the Biology Department at Georgia Southern University in Fall of 2017!<br />
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I am looking for self-motivated students with an interest in functional morphology, biomechanics, ecology, and evolution of fishes. Current work in the lab is examining the coordination, or integration, between locomotion and feeding during prey capture in fishes, including native freshwater Centrarchids as well as Trinidadian guppies. I expect that projects will align with this current work, but I also encourage students to develop their own interests within this scope.<br />
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Tuition and stipend support will primarily be in the form of teaching assistantships, but other opportunities are available, including a summer supplement. Partial support for research and travel will also be available. I expect students to apply for external funding to supplement these funds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I encourage interaction with both scientists and non-scientists through collaboration, conference attendance, publications, online media, and outreach events. I support student creativity in these efforts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Georgia Southern University is part of the University System of Georgia and is located in Statesboro, about 1 hour west of Savannah. The Biology Department consists of approximately 40 faculty with interests ranging from cell and molecular biology to ecology and evolution. Resources that would be available to graduate students include a new LEED certified research and teaching building, animal housing facilities, microscopes, boats, a museum collection with regional fishes, and collaborations with field stations throughout Georgia.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Interested students should make sure they meet the admission requirements and contact Dr. Emily Kane at ekane@georgiasouthern.edu with a statement of interest and CV.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The application deadline for Fall 2017 admission is March 1, 2017.<o:p></o:p></div>
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More information on the graduate program is available here:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/GSU_BioGradProgram">http://bit.ly/GSU_BioGradProgram</a></div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/GSU_MSBiology">http://bit.ly/GSU_MSBiology</a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby blue-spotted sunfish (<i>Enneacanthus gloriosus</i>)<br />
with swamp guppies (<i>Poecilia picta</i>)</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-20470484887408556582016-08-06T18:49:00.003-06:002016-08-06T18:49:49.468-06:00Transitioning to a faculty position<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidWyPL3l3dABlQZkZBk2iF0uYUO3N1swVkev3r1UGyHWQ7rPCyb46SIEewdStw_lqcsIFI7VPBJHa4KqV88sO4P8RCK3rLY2N1x7quZ0ONTqxa7k5npVe9jcnv0uYdXt3laIkrO3y86ig/s1600/IMG_20160803_091643225_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidWyPL3l3dABlQZkZBk2iF0uYUO3N1swVkev3r1UGyHWQ7rPCyb46SIEewdStw_lqcsIFI7VPBJHa4KqV88sO4P8RCK3rLY2N1x7quZ0ONTqxa7k5npVe9jcnv0uYdXt3laIkrO3y86ig/s320/IMG_20160803_091643225_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This will be my new home!</td></tr>
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I am visiting Statesboro and Georgia Southern University this week for my new faculty orientation and to try to find a house to buy so we can move here soon. Both things have been successful! I am officially onboarded and have my email address and we had an offer accepted on a house! I even visited the <a href="http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/museum/" target="_blank">GA Southern Museum</a> on campus, where I hear they might have some ideas in store for me!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vTKZWsgE4SnfeHNA6-T7GWKTAN9si9i8MqUNhz6HqQ0VJ8j5EBpYkb9yteJ9i4YL2brRIDsI1_I_7iRFqQ7Lpzfi2mksyZtuyzIhZr1qoEMbrlZq_mHyu4BgNkVBB7EQNBrTFyDZTyQ/s1600/2016-08-04+16.12.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vTKZWsgE4SnfeHNA6-T7GWKTAN9si9i8MqUNhz6HqQ0VJ8j5EBpYkb9yteJ9i4YL2brRIDsI1_I_7iRFqQ7Lpzfi2mksyZtuyzIhZr1qoEMbrlZq_mHyu4BgNkVBB7EQNBrTFyDZTyQ/s320/2016-08-04+16.12.53.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swag acquired at orientation</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3z-EPs09IIYktF-eyg9nXnDBb1GrW2ABgJcwpA3h21i3IQ-B7pPF19rLA0epf1VnsIzvkJKmokXYIH7-76rH5t15UAD4NGApItYaQvi4RZdK6wXRCqvGzy6pcBZcnKox-p-63YKKf78/s1600/2016-08-06+15.49.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3z-EPs09IIYktF-eyg9nXnDBb1GrW2ABgJcwpA3h21i3IQ-B7pPF19rLA0epf1VnsIzvkJKmokXYIH7-76rH5t15UAD4NGApItYaQvi4RZdK6wXRCqvGzy6pcBZcnKox-p-63YKKf78/s320/2016-08-06+15.49.30.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mastodon selfie</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7cEFRR7AAe6zSHoOLMAI9O-IP96-199vi9AQmWZNnJqzAFxmYjkF0KgyAo1lJDbentGYQaVE6DYzqNzdR2mGAGePpJSHOD1dqX79qDWOq61kmq90Lg-j79xPPCCdxh6Tm0snmtgJRAE/s1600/2016-08-06+16.09.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7cEFRR7AAe6zSHoOLMAI9O-IP96-199vi9AQmWZNnJqzAFxmYjkF0KgyAo1lJDbentGYQaVE6DYzqNzdR2mGAGePpJSHOD1dqX79qDWOq61kmq90Lg-j79xPPCCdxh6Tm0snmtgJRAE/s320/2016-08-06+16.09.15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Georgiacetus, the oldest fossil<br />whale from N. America</td></tr>
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I have also had a lot of time to think and reflect on the transition from student to faculty. Now that I am standing in GA and they're pointing to where my name is going to go on the door, it's becoming real. I am still in shock that this is all happening - that I am going to be a tenure track faculty, have graduate students, run my own lab, and create my own courses. Maybe it's the imposter syndrome, maybe it's all the grim social media posts about the low percentage of us that make it into academic jobs, maybe it's that I still feel so young compared to my advisors, or maybe all of the above. It's hard for my brain to realize that I am transitioning from being a student to now being the teacher. I know I will still continue to learn, but I'm supposed to be an expert, passing on my wisdom to the next generations. I have only ever been partially responsible for molding young minds because I always had to report to an instructor or coordinator. Now I am going to not only be the instructor, but also an advisor, and mentor.<br />
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I am starting to spread my wings and fly on my own. Some days I feel like a tiny baby bird with no feathers, and I just need someone to toss me a caterpillar and tell me they'll help me get there. Those are the days that I wonder how I am going to do it all. Other days I feel like I've been flying on my own for years now and am essentially running my own lab out of Cameron's lab. I'm the one handing out caterpillars and helping students discover their own wings. Fortunately, those more mature days now outnumber the helpless days, so I know I'm heading in the right direction. Part of how I judge my success is based on my students' successes. So part of why I feel unsure sometimes is because I am still new to the game and the number of students I have interacted with is small compared to someone like Cameron, Tim, or Chris (my advisors), but that doesn't mean I am bad at teaching and advising. I have to remind myself of this a lot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kane Lab at GSU</td></tr>
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Still, it is intimidating to look at my lab space and see a blank slate and think that I am responsible for making this work. And while I am figuring that out, I also have to learn to teach a new class, get involved in service opportunities, and move to a new town with 2 dogs, a rabbit, and fish. It's also intimidating to think that my colleagues consider me an expert on functional morphology and that they will come to me with questions on how animals work. I have always thought of others, particularly those with many book chapters and symposia papers, as the experts. But I am doing those things too, and in fact, I do know a lot about functional morphology and how animals work. I have to accept that we all have specialties, and if someone asks me about seal whiskers or lizard muscles, I might have to send them to someone else, but it's a different story if they ask me about fish heads!<br />
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I've been promoted from crew to captain, and it's my turn to get this ship into port safely. It's a challenge, but it wouldn't be exciting if it was too easy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVlW7Md0v5UyI4EhWb3dUGp0yq0cNKBNA29tNm2Z8efhrRzo69OCy1238PeDlDK9LcObJ_6yEfAsGx6uD6oBoAoxugz74shDH2sGnu3cdauiyOi78VV6dkH1FMmK1F9VrjEeIpBOiFCI/s1600/2016-04-24+10.26.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVlW7Md0v5UyI4EhWb3dUGp0yq0cNKBNA29tNm2Z8efhrRzo69OCy1238PeDlDK9LcObJ_6yEfAsGx6uD6oBoAoxugz74shDH2sGnu3cdauiyOi78VV6dkH1FMmK1F9VrjEeIpBOiFCI/s320/2016-04-24+10.26.54.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About to head out for a sail<br />at the Sea Scout Base in<br />Galveston, TX</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-6979341629955294942016-07-11T13:53:00.003-06:002016-12-20T11:45:53.293-07:00My first book chapter!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabsGO6Xi7MglGYgRHB437lzv-HmwQk5WUez3kMOl9_t_AxxPtSC0yKz8aXBpbaIdEfMu05-TlBCzXyjRnmg9SBImF7buphXaBm9ovM4WKtjsCFbtTPSuyzxE7aIOOYU3vm7Rz7sIKcTE/s1600/DSC_0048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabsGO6Xi7MglGYgRHB437lzv-HmwQk5WUez3kMOl9_t_AxxPtSC0yKz8aXBpbaIdEfMu05-TlBCzXyjRnmg9SBImF7buphXaBm9ovM4WKtjsCFbtTPSuyzxE7aIOOYU3vm7Rz7sIKcTE/s320/DSC_0048.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Domestic guppies</td></tr>
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It's officially been accepted by the publisher! Dale and I were asked by one of the editors, Amanda Glaze (@EvoPhD) to contribute to a book entitled:<br />
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<b>Evolution and education in the American South: </b></div>
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<b>culture, politics, and resources in and around Alabama</b></div>
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Our chapter is on our own experiences with evolution, the background behind the guppy kits, and the general approach of the kits. <br />
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UPDATE 9/12/16<br />
Here's a link to pre-order the book!<br />
http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781349951383<br />
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UPDATE 12/20/16<br />
I figured out how to download the cover art:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqedmOfyJAMMU2BlT4qiYhuBajTxGWgH-0dsk3KVqD22O5tIs7GikQx5ESyXm8Sh-HqaQLXQX-_BC6HZsW6ks4_XEKZ_Q-dyq9IBaEvqiGGFETIY8ni4tC_fSxwdPRdv845_KUFXbXMLI/s1600/9781349951383.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqedmOfyJAMMU2BlT4qiYhuBajTxGWgH-0dsk3KVqD22O5tIs7GikQx5ESyXm8Sh-HqaQLXQX-_BC6HZsW6ks4_XEKZ_Q-dyq9IBaEvqiGGFETIY8ni4tC_fSxwdPRdv845_KUFXbXMLI/s320/9781349951383.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-3629369557615687782016-07-07T11:57:00.001-06:002016-07-07T11:57:27.971-06:00The Sinful Side of Guppies<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVypc_fKLupriEESVkUNwKIAnRxk2kt3kV3lj-f3_ZkafEUq5FntWLJaBubbv5qPZsU98BCT-2b0XrGk_Rg_O2s96CwX-9gKWA9L6JygKbXqBfXThsWuIygKeKCpF3DXjxJk9A18VIyJE/s1600/DSC_0072.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVypc_fKLupriEESVkUNwKIAnRxk2kt3kV3lj-f3_ZkafEUq5FntWLJaBubbv5qPZsU98BCT-2b0XrGk_Rg_O2s96CwX-9gKWA9L6JygKbXqBfXThsWuIygKeKCpF3DXjxJk9A18VIyJE/s320/DSC_0072.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Female (front) and male (back) guppies</td></tr>
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First, congrats to my colleague Dale Broder for accepting an offer for a postdoctoral position with the <a href="http://www.du.edu/irise/" target="_blank">Interdisciplinary Research Incubator for the Study of (In)Equality</a> at Denver University! In celebration of her impending defense, I thought I would post about what I've learned from her over the past few years regarding the dark side of guppies, that is, reproduction. Also, since I took some photos for her to use and wanted to post them, it seemed like the right place.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnfE_zu7QWctEt0FCGu0setrQznk478LrqcqBuWlfBPuEoUHRlC8FQ5BYtl42-nYBXQ__mQVUDNcTBAY3RDnBIRSUL8e8w6bqlxCKb6R9gZNz6fxiFqoD2jo2JRWSB9sQmz-vOUJ0VHk/s1600/DSC_0425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnfE_zu7QWctEt0FCGu0setrQznk478LrqcqBuWlfBPuEoUHRlC8FQ5BYtl42-nYBXQ__mQVUDNcTBAY3RDnBIRSUL8e8w6bqlxCKb6R9gZNz6fxiFqoD2jo2JRWSB9sQmz-vOUJ0VHk/s320/DSC_0425.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby guppies (domestic strain)</td></tr>
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Guppies are a small livebearing fish from the Caribbean and South America. This means that they have internal fertilization and the young develop inside the females, similar to pregnancy in humans. Males inseminate females with an organ called a gonopodium, which is a modified anal fin. Since females have a large investment into these offspring, they are choosy about who they mate with. The idea is that they should give their offspring the best chance of also surviving and reproducing, increasing the female's fitness. However, males should also do their best to pass on their genes, which leads to an interesting paradigm where males and females potentially have conflicting goals (if the female is not interested in the male). This is the primary force behind the vast differences in size, color, body shape, and behavior between males and females.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_d4ul6giTJ6ApR9Olm6VHE-dSUt7dqWRLbWiLbqFAc8lYOOoTM3d-yjK6BUyjVOMZsM_DbaRH-uLdT7Xk1g8nGSKGOXVUlzpKlTJL8bKoEUFKLrrkcUSMLHTT7P_P0yiiW0bNLr0f_WM/s1600/DSC_0101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_d4ul6giTJ6ApR9Olm6VHE-dSUt7dqWRLbWiLbqFAc8lYOOoTM3d-yjK6BUyjVOMZsM_DbaRH-uLdT7Xk1g8nGSKGOXVUlzpKlTJL8bKoEUFKLrrkcUSMLHTT7P_P0yiiW0bNLr0f_WM/s320/DSC_0101.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A male showing off his colors</td></tr>
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To compete with each other, males develop unique color patterns that are attractive to females. Females are attracted to the color orange. This may be because of a sensory bias since orange is also associated with tasty food items, but it may also be an indicator of male quality since orange pigment is derived from diet. Females also prefer uniquely patterned males, which leads to the most extreme polymorphism I am aware of, such that no two males (even brothers) are exactly alike.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJU_7B7t8pQE9-0CXf-mLU-WdBmGpyFU2hAbQ4_JyKCY8LWHCVX2XmGL1_VZ3i0Kdih_1FkOVrBei4QH_z5v9UIo9IOMKDFes16OZjxOUe8uRmf9e4-TbvyESoSCcXf5aXhzq9NFvx24/s1600/DSC_0237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJU_7B7t8pQE9-0CXf-mLU-WdBmGpyFU2hAbQ4_JyKCY8LWHCVX2XmGL1_VZ3i0Kdih_1FkOVrBei4QH_z5v9UIo9IOMKDFes16OZjxOUe8uRmf9e4-TbvyESoSCcXf5aXhzq9NFvx24/s320/DSC_0237.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Variation of color pattern among males</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">from the same population</span></td></tr>
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One interesting way that males try to encourage females to mate with them is through courtship displays. This involves males swimming around females to ensure they can see their colors, as well as displays that look like a whole-body spasm, called sigmoids. Males are also fairly pre-occupied with females, and follow her everywhere just in case she finally wants to mate. Based on my observations in the lab, I'm pretty sure that, given the choice between food or a female, he will always pick the female.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR9_TEJim-C5zjo2l3kIBuRG1KNdJtYQz0nLkPb2qv0fteneDlwcsHvI-23Gc6KISKzfcF4mkV7MaSTyx3HZLCv49JM0GLABANcrEPtFeIIQUuqpXYMBk98QZ9_RbbiBgsbO0Unhinhyphenhyphen0/s1600/DSC_0109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR9_TEJim-C5zjo2l3kIBuRG1KNdJtYQz0nLkPb2qv0fteneDlwcsHvI-23Gc6KISKzfcF4mkV7MaSTyx3HZLCv49JM0GLABANcrEPtFeIIQUuqpXYMBk98QZ9_RbbiBgsbO0Unhinhyphenhyphen0/s320/DSC_0109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Male doing a sigmoid display for a female</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhesQBnG9JRxiV8URE2tcBme2TJF4AKpRfFCPSGVIgS4y035p1-3ivTjO5fnuQvw7gK1fws_7r4FD7J4HSnZF4gCCYV-yZ9E3XYv6MK1VT6FuEovCdJjqTxhS8_VXy-yCB9jc7fSQ4E2Do/s1600/DSC_0978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhesQBnG9JRxiV8URE2tcBme2TJF4AKpRfFCPSGVIgS4y035p1-3ivTjO5fnuQvw7gK1fws_7r4FD7J4HSnZF4gCCYV-yZ9E3XYv6MK1VT6FuEovCdJjqTxhS8_VXy-yCB9jc7fSQ4E2Do/s320/DSC_0978.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of a sigmoid display</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVv4y4MIPCGkHHYdUxjnlDO3lMrOvxIdOZA-tX1C06zYUfiuCGoU1PUdvhIq-8f2jn4ie4dDsT1d4_c7hyphenhyphen-sZ4IMNWzMOdA2uJAZ9S-nsHUvDKjGimBHb42YGDuqAGheaBF3-0f9M_wI/s1600/DSC_0103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVv4y4MIPCGkHHYdUxjnlDO3lMrOvxIdOZA-tX1C06zYUfiuCGoU1PUdvhIq-8f2jn4ie4dDsT1d4_c7hyphenhyphen-sZ4IMNWzMOdA2uJAZ9S-nsHUvDKjGimBHb42YGDuqAGheaBF3-0f9M_wI/s320/DSC_0103.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male following a female</td></tr>
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So what does he do if she doesn't want to mate? This is where it gets a little more sinister. At this point, male guppies engage in a behavior called forced copulation, in other words, they don't give the females a choice (I didn't get photos of this). This can become particularly stressful for females since there are often several males around, all of which are trying to mate with her. For this reason, once they are mature, females are continuously pregnant. Females can also store sperm (in my experience, up to 1 year!), which is presumably an adaptation for colonizing new areas of streams. Because of these two mechanisms, multiple matings and sperm storage, the offspring from one female may be sired by several fathers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOEoPsLblQogrGRyj3zifVxtj24EG8_IEz7NZBBv-Bw_i4jIDZkGuutwaKaCEldzOCUjXkIDAbP_b0-X1AmE8gTUWS8FCcYyRbh_R3jmDeehE4kc1ba8KMX5gpk9WnC8gXStywUxaETSc/s1600/DSC_0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOEoPsLblQogrGRyj3zifVxtj24EG8_IEz7NZBBv-Bw_i4jIDZkGuutwaKaCEldzOCUjXkIDAbP_b0-X1AmE8gTUWS8FCcYyRbh_R3jmDeehE4kc1ba8KMX5gpk9WnC8gXStywUxaETSc/s320/DSC_0005.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male swinging his gonopodium</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLz2zEAcrvY8wmm-jAZzjmjmQMBEc5glYlxo9mPB3ulNNnQx2AZOe-5nqRbVq7Nd3zn9pPuih_Zjv1vXnQakRlWx7mCJ-q3hyuDui6vpYGhaecZeaO7J6gjrXxdaj5dME6ViTUka6f3_U/s1600/DSC_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLz2zEAcrvY8wmm-jAZzjmjmQMBEc5glYlxo9mPB3ulNNnQx2AZOe-5nqRbVq7Nd3zn9pPuih_Zjv1vXnQakRlWx7mCJ-q3hyuDui6vpYGhaecZeaO7J6gjrXxdaj5dME6ViTUka6f3_U/s320/DSC_0003.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of a gonopodium swing</td></tr>
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This scenario that I've just explained becomes more complicated in high predation environments, where color patterns and displays make males highly conspicuous to predators. Here, males have minimum color and do not display as much, engaging in more forced copulations. This means that their gonopodia tend to be longer than males in environments without predators (sometimes up to 1mm longer!). See some examples below (note the colorful guppies are from Dale's personal tank and are <i>extremely</i> colorful):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jUkORf48FEUx_H6v2MehqyP5UeRbzqICI0DXCPFwM3I56PXfR5vP-xWUUBQu-XTKsWi-K7neg1cRg_j3CGUMh8TzQB8R2PHCwSwGIg4e8pShjQKDJ42L6ZCc4CS7onVJ69Ke6rwJHpY/s1600/DSC_0644.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yCSYXk76I73xLb6lv7FVRTPvK-rq7qltIapMg2k9uRyvkLf-cla9ZjEZiPBOfZ6WsAES5iXzI303y8Bbgqf_R0Gq3KyY-ExuxGFMD_2gnQNBNsHzXm4WaEkwnjDySJqvaSw530pQLxk/s1600/DSC_0200.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yCSYXk76I73xLb6lv7FVRTPvK-rq7qltIapMg2k9uRyvkLf-cla9ZjEZiPBOfZ6WsAES5iXzI303y8Bbgqf_R0Gq3KyY-ExuxGFMD_2gnQNBNsHzXm4WaEkwnjDySJqvaSw530pQLxk/s320/DSC_0200.jpg" width="320" /></a><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jUkORf48FEUx_H6v2MehqyP5UeRbzqICI0DXCPFwM3I56PXfR5vP-xWUUBQu-XTKsWi-K7neg1cRg_j3CGUMh8TzQB8R2PHCwSwGIg4e8pShjQKDJ42L6ZCc4CS7onVJ69Ke6rwJHpY/s320/DSC_0644.jpg" width="320" /><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuDpgWC4aF-asC7mfm7T634FiprahR3qUtZ3DNpyYGJbzkeulhmwIJ9vk93rKddvPqZuEy9RRre_dHOm-UfyLt61TQQipRNV9TRIhbMfmSASIq73QMInKJoWoYacN_7z6PB-b3bWQ8dI/s1600/DSC_0489.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiWIwcrUKOP19rCkZX3A2vxxRWcS4RUCJ7cSEiuAG2XMGUYp3AdRrms6YVUFP5HZCGgB0xxTCcJ1hHkCulaaLsddFcLmSXEeRRDutyqeot9WG5SaN-y0qKhcK_JXjEtghh5B9cBH4bJM/s1600/DSC_0166.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiWIwcrUKOP19rCkZX3A2vxxRWcS4RUCJ7cSEiuAG2XMGUYp3AdRrms6YVUFP5HZCGgB0xxTCcJ1hHkCulaaLsddFcLmSXEeRRDutyqeot9WG5SaN-y0qKhcK_JXjEtghh5B9cBH4bJM/s320/DSC_0166.jpg" width="320" /></a><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuDpgWC4aF-asC7mfm7T634FiprahR3qUtZ3DNpyYGJbzkeulhmwIJ9vk93rKddvPqZuEy9RRre_dHOm-UfyLt61TQQipRNV9TRIhbMfmSASIq73QMInKJoWoYacN_7z6PB-b3bWQ8dI/s320/DSC_0489.jpg" width="320" /><br />
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These may be small fish, but they sure do have a lot for us to learn about. The more I learn the more I am intrigued by them! Also, the more I am glad I'm not one of them...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxT-LxFAZQcLG_Ko8BVCXpRRzoymsScs2vnPU2jeGKXzwnU9JxMqx7VMYEqjMIJw75L_eEBryTZnhNYFscmu2qg7j0mplyuO3b0KzEKhH4vbEveQnTrdw_LnAp8VDvBkcC3gbaSpajnI/s1600/DSC_0061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxT-LxFAZQcLG_Ko8BVCXpRRzoymsScs2vnPU2jeGKXzwnU9JxMqx7VMYEqjMIJw75L_eEBryTZnhNYFscmu2qg7j0mplyuO3b0KzEKhH4vbEveQnTrdw_LnAp8VDvBkcC3gbaSpajnI/s320/DSC_0061.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male harassing a female</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-69628840136123669022016-05-24T11:38:00.003-06:002016-05-24T11:38:35.596-06:00EOC/Sigma Xi Spring Showcase<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GTH6EGTPLrOeLAkDU3xlPNYMmK_QapMwguwAyLg2VZBfIzo_ObaiL1I3XQM7u2dez-XdTE1tB_vhff8kJgrOabXuAUDAeUeYpjxY3PrIEgjl-BWtAcE2aV2hWyilcVdsQKbHhEcyhAc/s1600/13220891_1066241833446889_6216027462035792194_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GTH6EGTPLrOeLAkDU3xlPNYMmK_QapMwguwAyLg2VZBfIzo_ObaiL1I3XQM7u2dez-XdTE1tB_vhff8kJgrOabXuAUDAeUeYpjxY3PrIEgjl-BWtAcE2aV2hWyilcVdsQKbHhEcyhAc/s320/13220891_1066241833446889_6216027462035792194_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local teachers participating in the guppy kits</td></tr>
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The Education and Outreach Center, who we have been collaborating with on the guppy kits, sponsored a spring open house to give local educators an opportunity to learn about their STEM kits. This was the perfect opportunity to showcase the guppy kits! We had about 30 participants, including middle and high school students, local teachers, and Dale's mom. Here are some highlights from the event:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale Broder and Lisa Angeloni prepping guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pre-fished guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opening the kits!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HOmJNbfYi15AmskGIRtpbiBYWv9hrl3F9EmgdAe6j3z0JhVrBo98CH4LJ5spcpZNDYVObTFyYeLYP-OfR6nfimhobsgVGbQiCACktAst3jm6lHC1bu_n7H33ea0e6rcydKxxgg16hmk/s1600/13239372_1066239516780454_2589057976422103919_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HOmJNbfYi15AmskGIRtpbiBYWv9hrl3F9EmgdAe6j3z0JhVrBo98CH4LJ5spcpZNDYVObTFyYeLYP-OfR6nfimhobsgVGbQiCACktAst3jm6lHC1bu_n7H33ea0e6rcydKxxgg16hmk/s320/13239372_1066239516780454_2589057976422103919_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My pup came along because his class was right after</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHefT2btVMi-rrzVidOecfDj3QOZFDWyflY85z-jEQGd5WdThfVcqjSpi5z2FHow40a0MKvsBvtPgAIhT27MWZZm_ZXAOOSInDnSbAVy4_LlqBvZMd27yci1RqEzp6A3NYG-14Vh-nrg/s1600/13233105_1066242196780186_5335858572916750348_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHefT2btVMi-rrzVidOecfDj3QOZFDWyflY85z-jEQGd5WdThfVcqjSpi5z2FHow40a0MKvsBvtPgAIhT27MWZZm_ZXAOOSInDnSbAVy4_LlqBvZMd27yci1RqEzp6A3NYG-14Vh-nrg/s320/13233105_1066242196780186_5335858572916750348_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examining guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaagkGwAKvAvZ_xaIYtDjQ1DTLK6s5Co6-ekrPdlzEKY7vWZ67p6Ib1DoYkgBA1eLAIIwchmyIV0u6HGAZwqV9neE1uitXwuRM8sKc39a9nJ4liHePWD50k6iOu3BKzO0M-hGrylUHww/s1600/13220891_1066241833446889_6216027462035792194_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaagkGwAKvAvZ_xaIYtDjQ1DTLK6s5Co6-ekrPdlzEKY7vWZ67p6Ib1DoYkgBA1eLAIIwchmyIV0u6HGAZwqV9neE1uitXwuRM8sKc39a9nJ4liHePWD50k6iOu3BKzO0M-hGrylUHww/s320/13220891_1066241833446889_6216027462035792194_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using the stencils</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6GNLozLJyKQivNMwXLcnauOJ66rorillqcV3aB_kVkQCdvLO8rIz4ZV1SNMzxMID9HfyGIWqFvgGvOUq5-9zRwsFX7rom7WRit2kVyk-F1S1KFru5sbGOHD_2PRYP-r7bRlKmHLcKLI/s1600/13226968_1066243346780071_5487200955215625879_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6GNLozLJyKQivNMwXLcnauOJ66rorillqcV3aB_kVkQCdvLO8rIz4ZV1SNMzxMID9HfyGIWqFvgGvOUq5-9zRwsFX7rom7WRit2kVyk-F1S1KFru5sbGOHD_2PRYP-r7bRlKmHLcKLI/s320/13226968_1066243346780071_5487200955215625879_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science notebook</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-YUfsLgIZDFD4Nhw7_tzi7As9pqawQR_nWa-MwJxFkpthvWaPArzW1DI9MVVb19yveNyirrgagyXEefFj_CFJtrVCmGKu4xsSpC20uMRH0HfULuMjAGxOMugbcK7HrwA1rda9xavPNU/s1600/13240068_1066241136780292_6013065121256577164_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-YUfsLgIZDFD4Nhw7_tzi7As9pqawQR_nWa-MwJxFkpthvWaPArzW1DI9MVVb19yveNyirrgagyXEefFj_CFJtrVCmGKu4xsSpC20uMRH0HfULuMjAGxOMugbcK7HrwA1rda9xavPNU/s320/13240068_1066241136780292_6013065121256577164_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting started</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtney with some students</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44NjGttcmwxM4ymTWIafHdFDCawXXMw_QbOUUmj7R-k9SwqmFhZ1joZcYmp8w1agDDJOCc1vfweCUYj7_P-taFS-_DaOsPbBpiQhkvq2t-xc2vttuF-dlqc4Rn5DcfM1Br315sO3PLrg/s1600/13092138_1066242556780150_7131698006912914615_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44NjGttcmwxM4ymTWIafHdFDCawXXMw_QbOUUmj7R-k9SwqmFhZ1joZcYmp8w1agDDJOCc1vfweCUYj7_P-taFS-_DaOsPbBpiQhkvq2t-xc2vttuF-dlqc4Rn5DcfM1Br315sO3PLrg/s320/13092138_1066242556780150_7131698006912914615_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scoring color</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgtncGzGU-eSv15xpTIp9ZloDLygZ2jahUEtxXPoIDOYDmYg2HGCJTsKYOlEfQeX8nPnXwrMFoPABfjoTdlTp_5TODWQYPK7AEaAaJExFy6WzVTDXykox15L51g02wU8hBkbTEsJ7w3E/s1600/13240566_1066242560113483_8764825861069817173_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgtncGzGU-eSv15xpTIp9ZloDLygZ2jahUEtxXPoIDOYDmYg2HGCJTsKYOlEfQeX8nPnXwrMFoPABfjoTdlTp_5TODWQYPK7AEaAaJExFy6WzVTDXykox15L51g02wU8hBkbTEsJ7w3E/s320/13240566_1066242560113483_8764825861069817173_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloring guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtZNxxnWezKlVMXmO_QwWQiZthNNA_Ydu_0S1kQtfi7GIA1h_05DL4o3nuVQtFJ7Xh_Olgeswu3724z6O2rNrTa7HxFhlhXATEMAfTxZfmHbQcuCSZ44YNihhrfxijPslmphnw8G_CBs/s1600/13266023_1066243060113433_6947403883424176151_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtZNxxnWezKlVMXmO_QwWQiZthNNA_Ydu_0S1kQtfi7GIA1h_05DL4o3nuVQtFJ7Xh_Olgeswu3724z6O2rNrTa7HxFhlhXATEMAfTxZfmHbQcuCSZ44YNihhrfxijPslmphnw8G_CBs/s320/13266023_1066243060113433_6947403883424176151_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloring guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ey-aBKUjCFR8-SLTB2sR1eRbwZrh50UFqiMIiF2-6b026nbJWxGcH_ekx9FDkiyEO-tji8kspV1o0jL4iGzLNUlE8Sas0cn5uNOy6_vY9jwLvH9YGIRSlL7saejjL6jl9aqe5JZf2Po/s1600/13266090_1066243366780069_5071293863596110635_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ey-aBKUjCFR8-SLTB2sR1eRbwZrh50UFqiMIiF2-6b026nbJWxGcH_ekx9FDkiyEO-tji8kspV1o0jL4iGzLNUlE8Sas0cn5uNOy6_vY9jwLvH9YGIRSlL7saejjL6jl9aqe5JZf2Po/s320/13266090_1066243366780069_5071293863596110635_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solving punnett squares</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdXwwveA4aKs5h8ocy-St89KiuoOwMgCXnJbDe3eSINu-nfCGBZ8G1XZOMM2ucdNYi6lJcMase1DE0R6GWi0Un2Is_05dSPSBY1E1A2Ez23i7ByuR-JwVN4H3-sYVE5N28_i-dIWTtDw/s1600/13233049_1066245583446514_8398228493422109434_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdXwwveA4aKs5h8ocy-St89KiuoOwMgCXnJbDe3eSINu-nfCGBZ8G1XZOMM2ucdNYi6lJcMase1DE0R6GWi0Un2Is_05dSPSBY1E1A2Ez23i7ByuR-JwVN4H3-sYVE5N28_i-dIWTtDw/s320/13233049_1066245583446514_8398228493422109434_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing anti-predator behavior in pet store guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yen2NW2CCU8s6KA0C3ICbVWZvzMkarAuiTJcN2txR-ZQb1gcYrju5xByji1Ah7VS2jkcJJHfBjwzf-YFVSqZg5wuddbnbhve4SvlSQiiTtid1MRSBwQwgkeX5_RUnSEkoj7CSq9T87E/s1600/13239107_1066244900113249_4256184630221698121_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yen2NW2CCU8s6KA0C3ICbVWZvzMkarAuiTJcN2txR-ZQb1gcYrju5xByji1Ah7VS2jkcJJHfBjwzf-YFVSqZg5wuddbnbhve4SvlSQiiTtid1MRSBwQwgkeX5_RUnSEkoj7CSq9T87E/s320/13239107_1066244900113249_4256184630221698121_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching pet store guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLcApkrU_rm5am015jhat0J05xIlYjt7ZUxusvKAWe6EzXZuc6KcYM8Dhj8UhPYl6LBtWBxmisQJZ0Za6X7uVEpr02rQvhyphenhyphen8gOdqCYA7T6WDEsYk5crGK9Mu3ErbZGyXXTfXUGct34l8/s1600/13220985_1066245586779847_6374991371867729895_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLcApkrU_rm5am015jhat0J05xIlYjt7ZUxusvKAWe6EzXZuc6KcYM8Dhj8UhPYl6LBtWBxmisQJZ0Za6X7uVEpr02rQvhyphenhyphen8gOdqCYA7T6WDEsYk5crGK9Mu3ErbZGyXXTfXUGct34l8/s320/13220985_1066245586779847_6374991371867729895_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching predator videos</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCi49Opj96bXyKi7EcaFkJ6oAKR11pl6bJM-uftMF_H-SM8EMuxyHhicOfkOyiLBy19VDiT3Onmy26ztnmZ8MIeJuyjqL7U22nwDDAj5fzwzSU75LzweZ7LkJrvT0sZB9IYS_65zcG0M/s1600/13232927_1066245743446498_7976239975284725478_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCi49Opj96bXyKi7EcaFkJ6oAKR11pl6bJM-uftMF_H-SM8EMuxyHhicOfkOyiLBy19VDiT3Onmy26ztnmZ8MIeJuyjqL7U22nwDDAj5fzwzSU75LzweZ7LkJrvT0sZB9IYS_65zcG0M/s320/13232927_1066245743446498_7976239975284725478_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale wrapping it up</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-80103879732041789442016-05-12T09:15:00.000-06:002016-05-13T12:02:56.367-06:00Delaney's Honors thesis defense<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUP_uEc7WsUh9-x2Mbt1Q3b3BhbgWz3ozHKtMj3X4zeOu_Zuazhc2ETgNbWixXXTpjw5Hgv8euq2PT5uIDgTeQNDxNDSg6pVaWTimj_GtFxM-8ff8GypVqh93gEYUK7-GN6FAsbZEo90/s1600/2015-05-08+12.40.24+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUP_uEc7WsUh9-x2Mbt1Q3b3BhbgWz3ozHKtMj3X4zeOu_Zuazhc2ETgNbWixXXTpjw5Hgv8euq2PT5uIDgTeQNDxNDSg6pVaWTimj_GtFxM-8ff8GypVqh93gEYUK7-GN6FAsbZEo90/s320/2015-05-08+12.40.24+copy.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delaney Laughlin, Honors student</td></tr>
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<br />
Today is the day that Delaney Laughlin defends her honors thesis! I have been working with her for about 2 years now to help her achieve this feat, and it has been a long and winding journey for both of us. I thought I would post about that journey and all the hard work she has put into getting to this moment. This post is:<br />
-- partly for her, to remember how far she's come<br />
-- partly for me, to reflect on the challenges, rewards, and lessons learned<br />
-- partly for any readers, to demonstrate the reality of working with students one-on-one and to help future students and mentors learn from our experience<br />
<br />
<b><u>How it all began...</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
About 2 years ago, when I just started my postdoc at CSU, I got an email from my colleague Dale Broder saying that she had a bright and talented honors student just starting her junior year that was interested in doing independent research for an honors thesis. But since Dale was finishing soon she didn't have the resources for taking on such an endeavor. She also mentioned Delaney's interest in outreach and education, which would be a perfect fit for getting involved in some of the outreach work I was planning. With a recommendation like that, why would I say no! I was also flattered by the amount of trust Dale was putting in me by recommending that I work with such a good student, especially since she didn't know me well back then. I had worked with students in the past but not to this degree. I knew it would be a more substantial time commitment, but this opportunity with Delaney would let me stretch my mentoring legs a bit. If I wanted to be a tenure track professor one day, mentoring would be a large part of my job and I needed to know whether I would be good at it or not. I'm not sure Delaney really knew what she was getting into!<br />
<br />
So I said yes to this opportunity and set up a meeting with Delaney.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Project 1: Competition between native and invasive fishes</u></b><br />
<br />
In our meeting, I explained my role in Cameron Ghalambor's lab, what my research project is, the outreach work I planned, and how I thought I might be able to contribute to her thesis. I also asked her about her experiences, why she wanted to do a thesis, and what ideas she might have for a project. She mentioned her volunteer work with outreach and camps at the Denver Zoo, her interest in conservation and animal welfare issues, and her desire to do a research project. I suggested that we begin by having her contribute to my current work to learn more about my research methods, and try to think of a question within the relative bounds of my work but from more of a conservation angle. This was my way of giving her the reins, but keeping them at a reasonable length so that her work could fit in with what would require minimal additional IACUC approval and a study system I was familiar with (but still learning). I thought these boundaries would maximize our chances of completing the project. We also planned what we thought was a more than reasonable timeline given that this was September - finish the project by May, have it written up by September the next year, and defended by December in time for a winter graduation.<br />
<br />
Over the next few weeks, Delaney, Cameron, and I discussed a project examining competition between invasive mosquitofish and native fish in Colorado. Delaney and I scoured the internet to find information and contacted Colorado Parks and Wildlife to obtain data on species distributions at sites they regularly sample. If we were going to look for invasive fish, we needed to know where others had found them first. This was my way of minimizing the time commitment for sample collections. We filled out their forms and within a day they sent us the data we were looking for. Our next step was to map all the sites with significant population sizes. Delaney learned how to sort excel files and worked with my labmate Maybellene Gamboa to learn GPS. She also had to complete animal care training to be added as personnel on my current IACUC protocol and we had to think about any amendments or additional protocols that needed to be submitted for work she wanted to do.<br />
<br />
By this time, it was the end of our first semester together.<br />
<br />
Winter break came and went, SICB 2015 came and went, my husband's visit from his job overseas came and went, and Delaney and I lost touch for a few months. By the time we were able to meet again, it was February and the end of her junior year was quickly approaching. I realized that our timeline was looking less and less reasonable. We hadn't even submitted for IACUC approval or field collection permits, much less collected fish to do the experiments with since many of the streams were frozen over! Plus, if she was going to do competition experiments examining growth rate, that means time, time, TIME! I had to have a very difficult conversation with her about the realities of the work and that I was concerned about not having enough time. I told her she should make a decision: 1) to continue with the project, 2) to think of a simpler, faster to complete project, 3) abandon a research project. She agreed that my concerns were reasonable and would take a few days to think about what she wanted to do.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #1: There's not as much time as you think, even for small projects.</span><br />
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<b><u>Project 2: Complexity and performance in frogs</u></b><br />
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During that meeting I tried to seed her with ideas for alternative #2, switching to a simpler, faster project. I showed her the video above of a bullfrog capturing a suspended cricket. This was one of many videos I had collected during my PhD, but for some reason I could never find someone who wanted to use them. Since I already had video, maybe she could analyze it, and since bullfrogs are invasive, maybe there was still a way to work in the conservation aspect that she was interested in. Also, if she decided that she wanted a bigger sample size, we could order 1-2 frogs from online vendors. The only difficulty here would be IACUC approval since it would require a new protocol. But we could work with that if the rest of the project would be simpler. I sent her home with a digital file of papers, about 30, that I had collected when I was first interested in the frogs. She came back a few days later with a hypothesis. Here's how I summarized it to Cameron (because I had to break the news to him as well):<br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.744px;">"In some parts of AZ, bullfrog invasions seem to be affecting a vulnerable species of leopard frog. There is a hypothesis about parasite release, but not much support for it. Delaney's hypothesis is that increased complexity of feeding behaviors (coordination among parts) leads to increased flexibility across environments, in turn leading to greater success rates. So her prediction is that bullfrogs are more successful across environments due to greater complexity of their feeding behaviors. Although leopard frogs likely also jump for prey, she predicts the coordination patterns will be different, affecting flexibility and success. To test this, she will use 2 bullfrogs and 2 northern leopard frogs (not the EXACT species, but can provide insight into the vulnerable one) ordered from a vendor, and film them capturing prey by jumping in water and on land without jumping. She will determine success rates from both environments and use the video to quantify timing of the different parts and their movements. Then, with correlations, she will look at which parts are coordinated and how strongly to determine complexity."</span><br />
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Seriously, this was ALL her! I was floored but also really excited because she was thinking the way I was about integration and had come up with what I thought was a pretty good idea! She had also thought it through to what data she would collect to test her idea!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #2: Students can blow your mind!</span><br />
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Although I was technically her thesis advisor, not Cameron, this would require use of Cameron's lab resources, so I wasn't sure how happy he would be about frogs in the guppy room. However, he was 100% supportive and we began writing the necessary protocols to get official approval. We had many detailed conversations with the campus vet, the IACUC liaison, Cameron, and other students using the research space. I forwarded Delaney my approved protocol for my guppy work and asked her to write out the sections requiring descriptions of the project, sample sizes, etc. We had it ready to submit in about 10 days, which I'm pretty sure is a record.<br />
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Meanwhile, Delaney was thinking ahead to what she was going to do after graduation (still hopefully in December) and applied to <a href="http://www.biology.colostate.edu/graduates/pzaasm/" target="_blank">CSU's professional science Master's program</a>. This program let her start her coursework before completing her Bachelor's, so that there is one year of overlap between the two programs. I was a bit concerned about what this would mean for her time, but if we could get the approval through and order frogs quickly, the filming shouldn't take much time at all given my past experience with these animals, and the bulk of her work should be done by the time the Master's would start.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzh1Bjyrv_hNXs04-FAPDZfIkp5YkFqvIJ2HDEQsNjzEFc4ZhLDprYyXh_eLgyQsKSy2kda_ytVJzPuEaoTuS95RKdBVz-wJA8oLBTaBU2WmQBO5YtpsXpy4czB4kVzaJzFf3NhXbIZn4/s1600/DSC_0274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzh1Bjyrv_hNXs04-FAPDZfIkp5YkFqvIJ2HDEQsNjzEFc4ZhLDprYyXh_eLgyQsKSy2kda_ytVJzPuEaoTuS95RKdBVz-wJA8oLBTaBU2WmQBO5YtpsXpy4czB4kVzaJzFf3NhXbIZn4/s320/DSC_0274.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delaney "filming" frogs feeding on land</td></tr>
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Well...it took 2 months to get approval. At this point it was May, so almost a full academic year since we started working together. But we were able to order what we needed from a vendor fairly quickly. They looked great and were eating well and Delaney was practicing using Cameron's high-speed camera to film them...but they wouldn't eat on camera. Typical research animal, right? Then they started to have health issues. We worked very closely with the campus vet and the vendor and tried everything we could think of, but ended up losing the frogs. This was very discouraging for Delaney because it looked like her thesis was crashing hard right in front of her. It was also pretty discouraging for me too because I had basically done this data collection before and didn't have any of these problems, so I was at a loss with ways I could help fix it. We had to have another serious talk about what to do next.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #3: Just because you expect it to work doesn't mean it will.</span><br />
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Our last resort was that maybe there was an issue with the vendor's stock, and that maybe the reason she was having a difficult time getting them to feed was because they were captive, unmotivated frogs. Perhaps wild-caught local frogs would be a better option? Delaney decided that, if this was a viable solution, she would work really hard to get specimens collected and data analyzed, and that although time was again getting tight (now July), she could still make our deadlines. She was even still thinking about trying to present her work at SICB2016 in January! So we decided to work with IACUC to apply for a few more individuals (another 2 months, September now, one full year since we started) and needed to contact CPW again for a scientific collection permit, especially for the leopard frogs since they are protected in Colorado (they essentially thanked us for removing bullfrogs!).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqsHeitXhAw5CfIwAhO6WABb490ZUy-35M1xXRBzHciLfC-PT7XNFttKyYW4X0d4iiQ9waMchtzmMNnV5tv7iJGz3gMAObLPvpbGY-hQ4JumTq3zjqf4tAJrp_eKBURryJSfEj7DgQ04/s1600/2015-08-26+18.32.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqsHeitXhAw5CfIwAhO6WABb490ZUy-35M1xXRBzHciLfC-PT7XNFttKyYW4X0d4iiQ9waMchtzmMNnV5tv7iJGz3gMAObLPvpbGY-hQ4JumTq3zjqf4tAJrp_eKBURryJSfEj7DgQ04/s320/2015-08-26+18.32.10.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first frog Delaney caught</td></tr>
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Although late in the frog season now, we went out to several lakes in Fort Collins and tried our hand at frog collecting. We ended up getting 3 bullfrogs! For the leopard frogs, we called on another student, Travis Klee, whose parents live near Denver and have a large pond in their yard overflowing with leopard frogs. He went home one weekend with empty buckets and came back on Monday with 5 leopard frogs! Finally! We have wild, hopefully motivated, healthy, happy frogs!<br />
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Things were looking up again!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDl8nBldZavQTpK9FFz9fbxr5SvB-t3GRU297JkvDv5tSVyKjArBw0wXqlPKfq8zkf04_wSQScmRjGeYm55_kC9V-duqbHELVenuq6bFgHk51BGFqQN_pYxuPwJrlY-zqPayHcbB8ELP0/s1600/2015-05-12+14.31.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDl8nBldZavQTpK9FFz9fbxr5SvB-t3GRU297JkvDv5tSVyKjArBw0wXqlPKfq8zkf04_wSQScmRjGeYm55_kC9V-duqbHELVenuq6bFgHk51BGFqQN_pYxuPwJrlY-zqPayHcbB8ELP0/s320/2015-05-12+14.31.39.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the leopard frogs</td></tr>
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But...Delaney came in on nights and weekends and still couldn't get them to eat in front of her, despite her best training efforts. And then I broke the high-speed camera. To my credit, it was in heavy use and was about 10 yr. old. It finally just gave up. Not only was Delaney in trouble now, but so was my own research (which was having its own Murphy's law issues)! After a few weeks, I purchased a shiny new <a href="http://edgertronic.com/" target="_blank">Edgertronic</a> camera and had figured out how to use it. But by this time it was almost the end of the semester again and Delaney still wasn't getting the frogs to cooperate in front of her. This meant another tough decision: 1) continue with the project and push back graduation to spring, or 2) Change the project to a literature review to fulfill the thesis requirements.<br />
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Delaney decided to continue by pushing back graduation, taking an incomplete for her thesis course, converting her thesis to a literature review, and abandoning the idea of presenting at SICB. At this point she had also started her Master's program and it was clear that time was a serious constraint. So we had to have another tough conversation about the reality of getting videos from any of the frogs as well as her career goals and what tasks were or weren't most in line with that. She agreed with me that maybe it was best to call it here and abandon the research part of the thesis.<br />
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This was not an easy decision for either of us because the frogs were healthy and it meant either adoption or euthanasia because they couldn't be returned to the wild. This is how I ended up with Lil'Y the leopard frog (originally Lily when I thought it was a female, I have a bad track record for correctly sexing things) as a pet. Most of the frogs were donated to the vet school. This was probably my lowest point and I wondered whether a thesis was even still possible and whether she should drop it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEYjKBkGZcK1aBWv2hgAhl4cvox2-ju20SDWfGSuyparqcEemIATbr4rB-xSnQmlJKmATWvfB5XmVI5w8ckgBTnM4WfhuOl-2n8AZztqC4FPQBYQWADhCpurjegSeKK7-oLF-D6Aaqhk/s1600/DSC_0501.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEYjKBkGZcK1aBWv2hgAhl4cvox2-ju20SDWfGSuyparqcEemIATbr4rB-xSnQmlJKmATWvfB5XmVI5w8ckgBTnM4WfhuOl-2n8AZztqC4FPQBYQWADhCpurjegSeKK7-oLF-D6Aaqhk/s320/DSC_0501.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lil'Y (F.K.A. Lily)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #3, again</span><br />
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<b><u>Project 3: Outreach curricula for the Denver Zoo</u></b><br />
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Now you're thinking "What! Where did this come from?"<i> </i>I had mentioned to Delaney at one point that it would be great if her literature review/thesis was something that could be useful for her Master's coursework so she could essentially double dip. She apparently listened but it meant a slight, ok major, change to her thesis plan. I was under the impression that she was doing a literature review on competition and mechanics in frogs until just this past February (again, holidays, SICB, etc.). She approached me about changing her thesis to utilize work she had done in collaboration with the Denver Zoo during her time as a volunteer. This was also work that satisfied some of the requirements of coursework for her Master's. This sounded like a great idea for ensuring completion after all since the work was already done as was some of the writing.<br />
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My concern at this point was whether I was still the best advisor for her project. When I asked her this, she said the best thing a student could say - I don't want anyone else, I want to work with you.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #4: Your ability to make a difference is not proportional to the success of the project.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPeAJCqeGqWH5AmDi5VIqc5skOBhQT9IenQuWKe57Dnh5NjLXTB_pL79hIifuTyDogPDCmfWb1A_PQhxv67q1r1OiulTLInh3nSbBqKPUNXYGix8s_NmNJit0VNuqdjtHE2akuoZjlQg/s1600/denver-zoo-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPeAJCqeGqWH5AmDi5VIqc5skOBhQT9IenQuWKe57Dnh5NjLXTB_pL79hIifuTyDogPDCmfWb1A_PQhxv67q1r1OiulTLInh3nSbBqKPUNXYGix8s_NmNJit0VNuqdjtHE2akuoZjlQg/s200/denver-zoo-logo.jpg" width="161" /></a></div>
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Again I didn't hear from Delaney for a while, presumably because she was busy writing, and that pretty much brings me to the past few weeks. As you can imagine, by this point I was kind of freaking out because I hadn't seen anything yet and we had only weeks left until it HAD to be done. She brought some paperwork by my office for me to sign with a very basic outline of her project, and this was the first I saw of anything more than just an email. I admit, she floored me again!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #2, again!</span><br />
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I could tell from the way it was written that this really was the project that was going to bring out the best in her. It was what she is passionate about and is clearly more in line with her goals than either of the other two projects proposed. Although I am fully aware that not everyone wants to be an academic, this hasn't really been my experience, so it was eye opening for me to see this so clearly in Delaney's writing. I always said I would support students who want to take other paths, but now I can talk the talk! And now I know what that really means.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #5: Just because you think something will be good for a student doesn't mean it is. Find their passion.</span><br />
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Delaney has done an excellent job so far putting together her thesis, as it turns out, with little help from me in the end except for suggestions on rearrangement of text and building a presentation. Not only did she build two curricula for zoo staff to implement during camps with young children (i.e. 4 years old!), but she wrote up a very thoughtful and well-worded introduction describing the role of education in conservation, an overview of pedagogic techniques, and the role of the Zoo in bridging these ideas. She will defend this work today and in 2 weeks she is off to Kenya to work with a Cheetah rescue to help develop conservation-oriented education programs. We've had some ups and downs, but I am really proud of all the work she has put in and where she has ended up with her thesis.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NROJ6r0LejKm-1tLaCosYFZr2onZnsnjeDpuE1aEY_hdlkB14UrWN5uhe6svgOkhF-W5SMLgMq0O4PV9ObqtLz-pL7IHyRN3N4EX56qIkBQA4du-TAgUcxAULlkDxDscUq_dbN91VGk/s1600/2016-05-12+11.19.12.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NROJ6r0LejKm-1tLaCosYFZr2onZnsnjeDpuE1aEY_hdlkB14UrWN5uhe6svgOkhF-W5SMLgMq0O4PV9ObqtLz-pL7IHyRN3N4EX56qIkBQA4du-TAgUcxAULlkDxDscUq_dbN91VGk/s320/2016-05-12+11.19.12.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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CONGRATULATIONS DELANEY!!!<br />
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Thank you for letting me be a part of this!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">LESSON #6: I can do this.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-30950001145021370552016-05-11T10:50:00.000-06:002016-05-11T10:50:00.135-06:00Dale was on the local radio!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gcY9Kt7kAsMKfOUBmGB_K4rDQGgrQuHQ8u8m3Bzz1ZrJbk3D1xk6W3gVZAh31TDs-XKZG5dY7G7K-UygcVe7sfQNkXkQxkn89FqHVUjOU1PQw7ECpA1U4Gg_yhhrhzQ4FjLuAV1tOWw/s1600/RadioShowbanner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gcY9Kt7kAsMKfOUBmGB_K4rDQGgrQuHQ8u8m3Bzz1ZrJbk3D1xk6W3gVZAh31TDs-XKZG5dY7G7K-UygcVe7sfQNkXkQxkn89FqHVUjOU1PQw7ECpA1U4Gg_yhhrhzQ4FjLuAV1tOWw/s400/RadioShowbanner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://dalebroder.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Dale Broder</a>, one of my collaborators on the <a href="http://emilyakane.blogspot.com/p/guppy-kits.html" target="_blank">Guppy Kit</a> project, was recently interviewed by Adam Dillon, Patricia Salerno, and Travis Gallo for the Sustainability Hour Radio Show on 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins. This program is sponsored by the <a href="http://sustainability.colostate.edu/" target="_blank">CSU School of Global Environmental Sustainability</a>. Dale talks about her research on guppy handedness and her work with local schools developing the projects that we included in the Guppy Kit activities.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha26SsUkLJEsSm6WS-jqg3nTldvtMr2EUAqqtkKVC5dGAZHAtVjTynTH-R0EWw8LwJMcs2bj4z-TeQRguk03_bSqAOFrt56_AFlsJSqnLuaAgLQciDK5vGuLgcd9FkJ6M6Hp9F5aYx4Lk/s1600/2015-09-20+13.05.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha26SsUkLJEsSm6WS-jqg3nTldvtMr2EUAqqtkKVC5dGAZHAtVjTynTH-R0EWw8LwJMcs2bj4z-TeQRguk03_bSqAOFrt56_AFlsJSqnLuaAgLQciDK5vGuLgcd9FkJ6M6Hp9F5aYx4Lk/s200/2015-09-20+13.05.45.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale Broder</td></tr>
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Hear her story <a href="http://sustainability.colostate.edu/engagement/media-archives" target="_blank">here</a>!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-21458670984897788512016-03-25T14:44:00.000-06:002016-04-07T14:14:52.749-06:00Our first STEM friday using the guppy kitsReady or not (we were definitely ready), today was the day! We had our first run with 24 real, live students from Ms. Jordan's 7th grade class at Wellington Middle School. STEM fridays are an event hosted by the Education and Outreach Center (<a href="http://cns-eoc.colostate.edu/cnseocstemfriday.html" target="_blank">more info here</a>) where local teachers are invited to bring up to 30 students to CSU to participate in their chosen kit activity. It's a chance for students to come to CSU and see what it's like, as well as an opportunity to learn something in the process. I must say, as my first time doing one of these events, and our first time doing it with the guppy kits, it went fantastically! As we expected, there are some changes to be made, but the students were happy, excited, and involved, which is what we were hoping for.<br />
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Here are some highlights:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE33_EdVMc8g8cCA0leZ-TyTcAbFhX4pS5s8uOkW9GstQ2Ri5rLHsdt_8u0q8tDdmwFXnRl6kYUbmro5JZPlg5YAORmKsWAUAo5iHmFapTj9jbZajmB9iGrs2tLowSPDjyb0MReBw-rHs/s1600/DSC_0870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE33_EdVMc8g8cCA0leZ-TyTcAbFhX4pS5s8uOkW9GstQ2Ri5rLHsdt_8u0q8tDdmwFXnRl6kYUbmro5JZPlg5YAORmKsWAUAo5iHmFapTj9jbZajmB9iGrs2tLowSPDjyb0MReBw-rHs/s320/DSC_0870.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All 15 kits ready to go!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOv2dDS4TQ_T0v612sbgPFgo2hTd_b5q9w0dDrSIykTmlZgh7WcXJNPwYu5dzMXhk6Xjp5fe9KlAhr1xkG9SYnSDuZpmDV9-sx3RsmN13-q737J9uUWf_QpzBmR2igM7pNzB7UWhfye-c/s1600/DSC_0866.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOv2dDS4TQ_T0v612sbgPFgo2hTd_b5q9w0dDrSIykTmlZgh7WcXJNPwYu5dzMXhk6Xjp5fe9KlAhr1xkG9SYnSDuZpmDV9-sx3RsmN13-q737J9uUWf_QpzBmR2igM7pNzB7UWhfye-c/s320/DSC_0866.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale ready to scoop up fish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dTzPFXTDQHfh7periqygFYjbcibIHUVXdM-U9w5nXtxYAysiWLdLXXo5w0UDxL8KYpIXJQrwLXM2Syz3DnkmBJ9P3vHWfl1UGB5GPBRz0qinbqVi0oLW36uFKGjyiAbRVnxRv8WIynk/s1600/DSC_0869.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dTzPFXTDQHfh7periqygFYjbcibIHUVXdM-U9w5nXtxYAysiWLdLXXo5w0UDxL8KYpIXJQrwLXM2Syz3DnkmBJ9P3vHWfl1UGB5GPBRz0qinbqVi0oLW36uFKGjyiAbRVnxRv8WIynk/s320/DSC_0869.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew checking the intro video on the projector</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgJHNhy4GdDZfJDZ0E1zsdth9N-nSZAta7zVii0qoyK6b7gPFZuAByyUXM-D6dMtVmXxdZH5-dh_TBOVqNPq94Ia8dn2FuxM8aVTCScf4xB_k0sZv6AkcHPwXPuxgyDxiclf8AOgHrCA/s1600/DSC_0871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgJHNhy4GdDZfJDZ0E1zsdth9N-nSZAta7zVii0qoyK6b7gPFZuAByyUXM-D6dMtVmXxdZH5-dh_TBOVqNPq94Ia8dn2FuxM8aVTCScf4xB_k0sZv6AkcHPwXPuxgyDxiclf8AOgHrCA/s320/DSC_0871.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and they're here! Andrew welcoming everyone</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgoa56Cduvbftpcf4boVm7UA8JNGe_FGKSgyCsunJpvcrnwBZnn0egMpuE0Wga-oLDrMmzhoe_uSrMwzgC_1N0FkKdqkak1RW6GYDycOQwx5MFop4U3HD-3riOW7SCBRlC6jlJcRqdQSg/s1600/DSC_0875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgoa56Cduvbftpcf4boVm7UA8JNGe_FGKSgyCsunJpvcrnwBZnn0egMpuE0Wga-oLDrMmzhoe_uSrMwzgC_1N0FkKdqkak1RW6GYDycOQwx5MFop4U3HD-3riOW7SCBRlC6jlJcRqdQSg/s320/DSC_0875.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching the intro video</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9OpGXjBid-xl2KX4MiV56Is35yRU_0y7r-TqQv4KwECAc_15ckMN-1wCsHXuQ3ABz0KRia6DyMQuYqKfiq7-lXEY9uarUauwHxepoqmfA5ASJeZGQKJ2DpqXUk753s5bTdilxxPW5Tc/s1600/DSC_0876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9OpGXjBid-xl2KX4MiV56Is35yRU_0y7r-TqQv4KwECAc_15ckMN-1wCsHXuQ3ABz0KRia6DyMQuYqKfiq7-lXEY9uarUauwHxepoqmfA5ASJeZGQKJ2DpqXUk753s5bTdilxxPW5Tc/s320/DSC_0876.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And they're off!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTRbdmgTXf6UMx0g5Ua44GpPql-7UXFzvfZmYkO4iSaeruLDplIXScWqQ2Od-d2BwhjsoSuBbcTGF6ozv0FfJ7FF8ptEfE43v1v5v8QruL0tTKxk5FX5IsgKDkn53tJKcLVmVU4Mxuic/s1600/DSC_0884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTRbdmgTXf6UMx0g5Ua44GpPql-7UXFzvfZmYkO4iSaeruLDplIXScWqQ2Od-d2BwhjsoSuBbcTGF6ozv0FfJ7FF8ptEfE43v1v5v8QruL0tTKxk5FX5IsgKDkn53tJKcLVmVU4Mxuic/s320/DSC_0884.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Acquiring guppies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJo2PIDvkwO3RWvq6JF073BCxL4X-uaeOOOQHox58-VzWtnS6wP3UzpNiHyrAGMihocElN0T05CeZ4XVU0Sy90ARLkWYQhPn53dKBTVYzYdl07I35aZec_pyW8-P4y872DtaWkMF1yF4/s1600/DSC_0906.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJo2PIDvkwO3RWvq6JF073BCxL4X-uaeOOOQHox58-VzWtnS6wP3UzpNiHyrAGMihocElN0T05CeZ4XVU0Sy90ARLkWYQhPn53dKBTVYzYdl07I35aZec_pyW8-P4y872DtaWkMF1yF4/s320/DSC_0906.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examining differences between guppies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNId9bmZXYILANcpG5mLWlcZ75POotwQET3535-h0fRIdwJXbLonv9pSW5fnioeOEomByhimCveXriONPVzvAeWEW52UIAArLtYAPkfxTSgxUMX1LFme_I6lEzchb3OxpaD4NAf4ob1s/s1600/DSC_0897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNId9bmZXYILANcpG5mLWlcZ75POotwQET3535-h0fRIdwJXbLonv9pSW5fnioeOEomByhimCveXriONPVzvAeWEW52UIAArLtYAPkfxTSgxUMX1LFme_I6lEzchb3OxpaD4NAf4ob1s/s320/DSC_0897.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comparing colors to a color chart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla5lQPNYb7KKIkIbZFVSIp4DXYiTL7RqP_fVwUZIa5pbzRgJL9LJR5ZpXm8P6qNHZCxb8EPRwu1yVhZ9XecKb8jgCiwJd38faGCw-T9_FjI1HCz4Jt2IlWFsKFuh8rui5GFqXu0kG4_w/s1600/DSC_0917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla5lQPNYb7KKIkIbZFVSIp4DXYiTL7RqP_fVwUZIa5pbzRgJL9LJR5ZpXm8P6qNHZCxb8EPRwu1yVhZ9XecKb8jgCiwJd38faGCw-T9_FjI1HCz4Jt2IlWFsKFuh8rui5GFqXu0kG4_w/s320/DSC_0917.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making a histogram of brightness scores for each population<br />Red is low-predation, blue is high-predation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1AX4V8axAgQuVsJkEu803QsKVqIiK1mL14yIlQD4T87KpM38d3f6OYo0OZVT67nZi4pmZia6VQMhsl3RBAQwEMLfS8hL-DsgjE1u4htS_N5ba0ZBrRR0fUOBatjoWsIUU_jYHNn3ot4/s1600/DSC_0923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1AX4V8axAgQuVsJkEu803QsKVqIiK1mL14yIlQD4T87KpM38d3f6OYo0OZVT67nZi4pmZia6VQMhsl3RBAQwEMLfS8hL-DsgjE1u4htS_N5ba0ZBrRR0fUOBatjoWsIUU_jYHNn3ot4/s320/DSC_0923.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final figure</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOHBzIp1ayuZbc0Fvv81WTBsY85j4JvJCwDAzwSre1nMoyEmHkkXY7vahdcoCzIJ-WveTPFHfpw2HCFGRuZZaVgAHt-qi-DVaRfGhF-fxcSkpV4OiBpyfpDA-BzqYJjuN-eNS1ktQQak/s1600/DSC_0925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOHBzIp1ayuZbc0Fvv81WTBsY85j4JvJCwDAzwSre1nMoyEmHkkXY7vahdcoCzIJ-WveTPFHfpw2HCFGRuZZaVgAHt-qi-DVaRfGhF-fxcSkpV4OiBpyfpDA-BzqYJjuN-eNS1ktQQak/s320/DSC_0925.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making punnet squares</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjKZGVI43UFuZqOhoZJhP2p9VFeVuz6xMHCkp-yhSYfO8RxoQYPg7_3k7WSh1C1a_w3Bm77aDJpMQTlO3sIPyuQwwUDoUqoX9RLI21G6Yk5lgNZ2D4cUUUoqudXtbu50Kk05Az6t98Lw/s1600/DSC_0928.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjKZGVI43UFuZqOhoZJhP2p9VFeVuz6xMHCkp-yhSYfO8RxoQYPg7_3k7WSh1C1a_w3Bm77aDJpMQTlO3sIPyuQwwUDoUqoX9RLI21G6Yk5lgNZ2D4cUUUoqudXtbu50Kk05Az6t98Lw/s320/DSC_0928.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolling the 4-sided die to see which<br />offspring are chosen for the<br />next generation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp25mAhiADKjTM1Cj-PLNUQgEPd0AqbJPkBp03rLcG6lFVRRmeHmvu7GArWTt0IuovNIhmn8-ukkIhsrhGfX8Dk9M8xNEQVOffLPtIheREU9r5mrEAhNEJv8EOcIGoBXyuEHncNjQS5Qo/s1600/DSC_0937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp25mAhiADKjTM1Cj-PLNUQgEPd0AqbJPkBp03rLcG6lFVRRmeHmvu7GArWTt0IuovNIhmn8-ukkIhsrhGfX8Dk9M8xNEQVOffLPtIheREU9r5mrEAhNEJv8EOcIGoBXyuEHncNjQS5Qo/s320/DSC_0937.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using a predator silhouette to predict predator<br />avoidance strategies of each population</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97HQSrNn-W9qv-4dpSqof0zSLL_sU2wZeJ69szPSliB0KpPBxjwGOtX2sTA_8_ZCN50oy_ncuSIzNso-8cIa6D3MGG186v9n4K0i6Eawll1TKrUjJrpDGcxJqTSbNtyupafGFll_TzFM/s1600/DSC_0952.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97HQSrNn-W9qv-4dpSqof0zSLL_sU2wZeJ69szPSliB0KpPBxjwGOtX2sTA_8_ZCN50oy_ncuSIzNso-8cIa6D3MGG186v9n4K0i6Eawll1TKrUjJrpDGcxJqTSbNtyupafGFll_TzFM/s320/DSC_0952.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching predator-prey encounter videos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWeoX8Gq4lo3CgZ6q1D4STEc4xzmqs15zXb5PS0jkUZbDKRY7pyn5EYkDFu8_PhTjd-ibnWrf3iY4fpj9qYnvyfIxUNyutKCdL8Rm8Ksio1hc6pHqoanBnEdaQja9swPkIo7fPeolQ8lg/s1600/DSC_0941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWeoX8Gq4lo3CgZ6q1D4STEc4xzmqs15zXb5PS0jkUZbDKRY7pyn5EYkDFu8_PhTjd-ibnWrf3iY4fpj9qYnvyfIxUNyutKCdL8Rm8Ksio1hc6pHqoanBnEdaQja9swPkIo7fPeolQ8lg/s320/DSC_0941.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing predation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzq3fYmSCnzb_NfhCWS1YtENQC3SDi0XI4bXXZqqjHt3QVTp-VE8_GiXywN0tExc6-dsXJA4306npgzBSImWH9RiKTlTNoB5WEndhEIjzTPTJinVeu3Wr2-FCldR7reAuGs_tmUdhVUqQ/s1600/DSC_0957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzq3fYmSCnzb_NfhCWS1YtENQC3SDi0XI4bXXZqqjHt3QVTp-VE8_GiXywN0tExc6-dsXJA4306npgzBSImWH9RiKTlTNoB5WEndhEIjzTPTJinVeu3Wr2-FCldR7reAuGs_tmUdhVUqQ/s320/DSC_0957.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tally of which guppies were captured</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrYLqmN97KBr38NepnEBIZ7JMmgoNm15dkujpk3mbrGDpE-0f3MquVeFD8WwUY1LcDHNxZIVL7XUTye6ypXCEdYu0kaS810jH1Z9Wbuk5YXOnK6TwTd8v77gMcD30B15jS92Oet4_vj8/s1600/DSC_0954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrYLqmN97KBr38NepnEBIZ7JMmgoNm15dkujpk3mbrGDpE-0f3MquVeFD8WwUY1LcDHNxZIVL7XUTye6ypXCEdYu0kaS810jH1Z9Wbuk5YXOnK6TwTd8v77gMcD30B15jS92Oet4_vj8/s320/DSC_0954.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing which fish is from which population</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-p4k09Sm2QOgg3CTIYt3erONqeXDAFAGhLwClWZzI8W6cL8gEvUYnF6Gs_-8iD_W318cMyHkMinNjx73APyaLmof8Bi4U8LCKXjvQV2WIH9B6tr20zQmAYWEb_oV-S7E1ZADb3930tM/s1600/DSC_0964.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-p4k09Sm2QOgg3CTIYt3erONqeXDAFAGhLwClWZzI8W6cL8gEvUYnF6Gs_-8iD_W318cMyHkMinNjx73APyaLmof8Bi4U8LCKXjvQV2WIH9B6tr20zQmAYWEb_oV-S7E1ZADb3930tM/s320/DSC_0964.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clean-up time</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mrw9SPzKIrRGRsYhVWY8LydAp0G93Az8O7urveUN8tS1HJjnKhJjGITERRjB9ZQFl-lFgB4CDzVegNmiPHjG-eDi1_Tpcs1_6SJ88JjmsxmnoxkWF2xpbOqEjRgcVUJUYYh1WPB9gG4/s1600/DSC_0974.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mrw9SPzKIrRGRsYhVWY8LydAp0G93Az8O7urveUN8tS1HJjnKhJjGITERRjB9ZQFl-lFgB4CDzVegNmiPHjG-eDi1_Tpcs1_6SJ88JjmsxmnoxkWF2xpbOqEjRgcVUJUYYh1WPB9gG4/s320/DSC_0974.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final thoughts in science notebooks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Nr-d7HCOvtlUoThPHaOw4E1zdan2QNiMS_oky-3y310_Kz9-Fi9_HYUXB0RsGz5Zw2-nnl_rpY3rCuTqVTsC7eaM-qpXSs-ErUAh48g2ozfeE-jHdFQgWmhgj0n8DamKsk_3y1cvMUc/s1600/DSC_0984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Nr-d7HCOvtlUoThPHaOw4E1zdan2QNiMS_oky-3y310_Kz9-Fi9_HYUXB0RsGz5Zw2-nnl_rpY3rCuTqVTsC7eaM-qpXSs-ErUAh48g2ozfeE-jHdFQgWmhgj0n8DamKsk_3y1cvMUc/s320/DSC_0984.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Representative evaluations</td></tr>
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Now we are one step closer to being able to share our kit design with everyone!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-2838280042174766862016-03-18T15:27:00.000-06:002016-03-18T15:27:21.277-06:00I got a job!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuroWziFgxuQYsD09NS1ls6-O_ElqOV5Of8yDZYq9PoeArNc21rUfL7LqZbangBgigScvbFRwutFjg2zwev8e-gz6iB7gLCeA7_PYWqUxL8YSRjdLOH2bjt7O0XrMWB_KKurCg8DR9A4g/s1600/georgia-southern.gif" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuroWziFgxuQYsD09NS1ls6-O_ElqOV5Of8yDZYq9PoeArNc21rUfL7LqZbangBgigScvbFRwutFjg2zwev8e-gz6iB7gLCeA7_PYWqUxL8YSRjdLOH2bjt7O0XrMWB_KKurCg8DR9A4g/s320/georgia-southern.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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That's right, I accepted the Assistant Professor in Functional Morphology position in the <a href="http://cosm.georgiasouthern.edu/biology/" target="_blank">Biology Department</a> at Georgia Southern University! I start January 2017. I'm excited to get back to the East Coast and start working with Centrarchids again! Of course, I also have big plans for guppies as well and would like to continue my work in Trinidad. Stay tuned to hear more about the Kane lab at GSU (wow, I have my own lab now)!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-34515151011853731782016-03-10T13:32:00.002-07:002016-03-10T13:55:59.923-07:00Another return from Trinidad<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Rzk7UFo8uKxaYYDNZiS6uu_MWYE4atAHVvnL9r6MG094Lb1fmRt94tx8zx6_C0gumegvl9kl4LEojDSj7mEMpCVpHVtYlXsJSY1odQmyQagn2HX-ZWOZpswfvEmNbf39YjlIkJSpKw/s1600/DSC_0612+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Rzk7UFo8uKxaYYDNZiS6uu_MWYE4atAHVvnL9r6MG094Lb1fmRt94tx8zx6_C0gumegvl9kl4LEojDSj7mEMpCVpHVtYlXsJSY1odQmyQagn2HX-ZWOZpswfvEmNbf39YjlIkJSpKw/s320/DSC_0612+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High-predation male guppy from Trinidad</td></tr>
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For the last week and a half, Craig Marshall and Porsche Robison (graduate students), Travis Klee ("in-between" student), and Richard Evans (undergraduate) have been in Trinidad collecting fishes and working on several research projects. Craig and Richard are staying in Trinidad for long-term experiments, but Porsche and Travis just returned last night. If you follow me on Twitter (@Nautichthys) you may have seen some photos of the fish that returned with them. Though I wasn't able to join them on this trip, I thought I would post some updates on the research since people seem interested.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHUU0SxomS53Mg72ggaZu0wQrlqSdIOwP7FWY-IJICskbuomuG1SlTrgZQQIgLtb5Ivj5ki6UXlUuElUid49vUSLJ-CW2EbaelKzp3UVYqPLSRQAUQ5uCoJPwap4fYueIG7_rMJkdPA0/s1600/2016-03-09+21.48.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHUU0SxomS53Mg72ggaZu0wQrlqSdIOwP7FWY-IJICskbuomuG1SlTrgZQQIgLtb5Ivj5ki6UXlUuElUid49vUSLJ-CW2EbaelKzp3UVYqPLSRQAUQ5uCoJPwap4fYueIG7_rMJkdPA0/s320/2016-03-09+21.48.23.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lab set-up</td></tr>
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For those of you who are probably wondering, "That sounds really cool and now I want to do research on fish in Trinidad, but how do you get all of those things back to Colorado?" You see those white bottles on the bottom shelf? That's how. Each bottle can fit 10-20 guppies (depending on size) or one predator. Then we pack the bottles into coolers, pack the coolers into large military duffel bags (to disguise them so that walking through the airport we are less conspicuous, though that probably doesn't help the "field" look/smell that we always come home with), then check them with our luggage. Then we get to say hi to our friends in US Fish and Wildlife upon re-entering the US. We try to call ahead so they expect us, and at this point, they are pretty used to us coming through a few times/year. Once the fish and researchers get back to Colorado, someone is usually waiting in the (pre-prepared) lab to help get all the fish into quarantine tanks, and if they're lucky, provide some dinner. This year that person was me.<br />
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So why did we need to go to Trinidad in the first place? One of the objectives of the trip was to collect fishes for me, for two projects. First, I have been involved in the <a href="http://emilyakane.blogspot.com/p/guppy-kits.html" target="_blank">guppy kit</a> initiative and we had a recent disaster with water quality at the Education and Outreach Center that required obtaining more guppies. I have since solved that issue, so they brought back males from high and low predation rivers that we can use at the end of the month for our first STEM Friday event! Here are some videos of the two populations. See if you can spot the differences between the males!<br />
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High-predation males</div>
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Low predation males</div>
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The second project that I needed guppies for is my research. For my postdoc I am interested in local adaptation of the feeding and locomotor systems in guppies, and what that means for how they work together during prey capture. Right now I am working on describing the variation in natural high- and low-predation populations to see if there is even a difference between them. I am using live evasive <i>Daphnia</i> as prey currently to encourage the guppies to use suction to capture it because this feeding mode is extremely common in fishes and because I hypothesized that strong suction does not work with fast swimming based on what we know about suction-feeding fishes. At some point I also want to use a prey that they have to scrape because this is more likely what they are doing in the wild. Also, it has been shown by other researchers (for example, <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141117/ncomms6505/full/ncomms6505.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/3/495.long" target="_blank">here</a>) that biting may not be subject to the same constraints on morphology and function. So I would be interested in finding out what integration looks like across the predation gradient with an alternative feeding mode. Here's an example video of what prey capture looks like with <i>Daphnia</i> in guppies:<br />
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To find out what is happening with integration in guppies, we collected guppies from 2 replicate HP/LP sites (4 populations) last summer, brought them back to the lab, and I started filming them. However, several individuals didn't make it and my sample sizes have shrunk considerably. In fact, one population only has 5 fish left! This was due to a combination of a fungus that we think came from one of the sites and likely old age since they were all adult females when we collected them (and it took me so long to figure out the prey that would work for what I needed and I killed the 10 year old high-speed camera and had to figure out how to get another one). So Travis helped replenish the populations to increase my sample sizes back to the numbers I want (20-30 individuals). Here are some examples of those females from one of the population pairs:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghggSICJbhWCwNj7HusfFrXqLku_E1WaNs8iyeuGidChyphenhyphenOdML8YAAL-j68ypIky_tHYr2TsORf6tqBd11CZsEdOByB439PoPhIW9uSD36vC19JttGMN-zy_UGRz6iYzrcGAyI2n2O2oW0/s1600/DSC_0711+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghggSICJbhWCwNj7HusfFrXqLku_E1WaNs8iyeuGidChyphenhyphenOdML8YAAL-j68ypIky_tHYr2TsORf6tqBd11CZsEdOByB439PoPhIW9uSD36vC19JttGMN-zy_UGRz6iYzrcGAyI2n2O2oW0/s320/DSC_0711+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Low-predation guppies collected from the Aripo River<br />
(notice they are large and full of babies)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFuS1NW9I0FoylAAeAQDmdh2LeBWl8E4o57bZMuij0OtBfB7deayh8BfKaQLH0NCxJJ16grQ4ltdDecdHsMdq4FvLPxs_WVMvQWooUssYXX0dey1UG2Aq1jH7p4LcsS_-w8qTjPmp0Chs/s1600/DSC_0751+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFuS1NW9I0FoylAAeAQDmdh2LeBWl8E4o57bZMuij0OtBfB7deayh8BfKaQLH0NCxJJ16grQ4ltdDecdHsMdq4FvLPxs_WVMvQWooUssYXX0dey1UG2Aq1jH7p4LcsS_-w8qTjPmp0Chs/s320/DSC_0751+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High-predation guppies collected from the Caroni River<br />
(smaller but also full of babies, <br />
less willing to come to the front of the tank)</td></tr>
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That will keep me busy for the next several months.<br />
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Another project that is occurring both in Trinidad but also here in Colorado is Porsche's Master's thesis work. She came to us with professional interests in veterinary medicine and personal interests in everything fish, and has designed a project to examine the parasite loads plaguing guppies. This partly stemmed from the troubles we had after the last trip and our interest in learning more about what could go wrong. She is piggy-backing on the sites and species that Craig is utilizing for his study on the effect of salinity on metabolic and growth rates, and has become the local expert in guppy fecal smears. She did much of her work in the field but also brought a small number of guppies back alive to have fresh samples to dissect with the Parasitologists she is working with at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital here at CSU.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBbq42-rux2BnpbNm6zEGP2MC6C7-G55WQARdDFfL7sUwVzjsCyEUq5jK6NH5-Nu4LU1ND4UwFJm7LBsJSCMNhyphenhyphen_FDDD-1W4dd3NnpLmz7X1Ez0qq8SkMNV7Oal388SWe-YWWg79FwLM/s1600/DSC_0568.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmBbq42-rux2BnpbNm6zEGP2MC6C7-G55WQARdDFfL7sUwVzjsCyEUq5jK6NH5-Nu4LU1ND4UwFJm7LBsJSCMNhyphenhyphen_FDDD-1W4dd3NnpLmz7X1Ez0qq8SkMNV7Oal388SWe-YWWg79FwLM/s320/DSC_0568.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Porsche with her newly collected guppies<br />
(also notice our awesome lab phone!)</td></tr>
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Although <i>Poecilia reticulata </i>are the "famous" guppies, there are other species of <i>Poecilia </i>in Trinidad as well but their range is more limited to the brackish water interface closer to the mouth of the river. It will be interesting to know how well each of these species deals with parasites and the "nasties" they encounter. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Cp3rQcmLtWE0AVKzOIpJpsXkEJKnAoMIMOwPWKulU-Y-PSx1U5oSRAAo8AgkqoNzlZh12K-oepY33_WkmKleKThvYRW75gmi7igegnObeAPuDIf0IVtNuVDrEiOKXx8s63CltHrx_fk/s1600/DSC_0685.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Cp3rQcmLtWE0AVKzOIpJpsXkEJKnAoMIMOwPWKulU-Y-PSx1U5oSRAAo8AgkqoNzlZh12K-oepY33_WkmKleKThvYRW75gmi7igegnObeAPuDIf0IVtNuVDrEiOKXx8s63CltHrx_fk/s320/DSC_0685.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Poecilia picta </i>males (left) and females) right<br />
collected from the Caroni swamp (brackish water) -<br />
notice how the males are lined up on one side</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXD6lT3VLrl-qbwl60T0BbIAuclEnGfAouqeeYRircl_8X9K5O0sHnc01FSf3IF1ZLC2hCKl-6JAx92xjgrNLMTX-cArOrM_FCywcbn07wZNXXyfTAtBzA1JkfKj6Z5XB2BkEpoVRL4ZE/s1600/DSC_0693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXD6lT3VLrl-qbwl60T0BbIAuclEnGfAouqeeYRircl_8X9K5O0sHnc01FSf3IF1ZLC2hCKl-6JAx92xjgrNLMTX-cArOrM_FCywcbn07wZNXXyfTAtBzA1JkfKj6Z5XB2BkEpoVRL4ZE/s320/DSC_0693.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Poecilia vivipara</i> males collected<br />
from the Caroni swamp (brackish water)</td></tr>
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<br />That will keep Porsche busy for a while.</div>
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<div>
The last project is one that Travis has undertaken in the past few months since he graduated from CSU. He decided to apply to grad school in the fall and wanted to get some independent research under his belt first. We have no shortage of questions and fish, so I'm helping him with the rest. He became interested in the predators rather than the guppies because guppy researchers always talk about how specialized pike cichlids are, but nobody has (to our knowledge) looked at what that means.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMuOU61B6_kRkOznWNNTYvqVdZ-_8TkWSa08_tyeF6VFcjhCpd896zmdv67dgH-Ptt6NOJpi0XbRsIvqAjAFWQEZZypjTOfBsvmvuE8I_QyMMHBe9xDydSygc3kdYbNndDJNkkrwP8rY/s1600/2015-06-16+10.18.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMuOU61B6_kRkOznWNNTYvqVdZ-_8TkWSa08_tyeF6VFcjhCpd896zmdv67dgH-Ptt6NOJpi0XbRsIvqAjAFWQEZZypjTOfBsvmvuE8I_QyMMHBe9xDydSygc3kdYbNndDJNkkrwP8rY/s320/2015-06-16+10.18.16.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Travis attempting to catch pike cichlids by<br />
hook-and-line from our trip last spring<br />
(these attempts were unsuccessful)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Travis wants to compare several native guppy predators to look at differences in behavior, prey preference, capture success, and predator accuracy (right up my alley!) to get a better understanding of if/why pike cichlids are so formidable. Travis recently presented a poster at the CSU <a href="http://ecosym.ecology.colostate.edu/" target="_blank">Front Range Student Ecology Symposium</a> with some preliminary data and many ideas, and he won first place among undergraduates! Since we only had n=1 of some of the predators he was interested in, this trip to Trinidad was his chance to try to collect more predators to have replicate samples. He became an expert at catching pike cichlids using the butterfly nets that we catch guppies with! He was also successful in catching a few acara (which are also cichlids but probably only eat small guppies) and a small wolffish. I look forward to seeing how Travis' project turns out! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTcOf7Xmj30qf3waL14UzUIK_9tt1Ut4Htdw9F7SYTEgPEDfAlDLQwDbtVuP7uLU6zruslBnmIYIp5-kV5bSDlwhsp6uwlUB3Oy-IXLcVJWAvYIDFf5CvjObJBRShU3rB9VPmlTtMxCI/s1600/DSC_0704+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTcOf7Xmj30qf3waL14UzUIK_9tt1Ut4Htdw9F7SYTEgPEDfAlDLQwDbtVuP7uLU6zruslBnmIYIp5-kV5bSDlwhsp6uwlUB3Oy-IXLcVJWAvYIDFf5CvjObJBRShU3rB9VPmlTtMxCI/s320/DSC_0704+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wolffish (<i>Hoplias malabaricus</i>) - <br />
a guppy (and everything else) predator</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPuTXxvMJCuksV2N6qLboKaSjDD4NJKOhVpcNkmz_dWPGaLpXVrFQHlK088p2bqhigsR9alSUU1mx_JEjCVZsct3qHPDLgfqdHeshqrRkFi1o5VAAKMeQC__t2lXLArwhwI0es4RlEniE/s1600/DSC_0774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPuTXxvMJCuksV2N6qLboKaSjDD4NJKOhVpcNkmz_dWPGaLpXVrFQHlK088p2bqhigsR9alSUU1mx_JEjCVZsct3qHPDLgfqdHeshqrRkFi1o5VAAKMeQC__t2lXLArwhwI0es4RlEniE/s320/DSC_0774.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue acara (<i>Adinoacara pulcher</i>)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrkK-iGSyPyyJepDHLlhLLxjfHGPgHpxR4Clc1A1-gkoYjImKJ8TA9oHWX6Y8fyIpF4Jddro69TeM0Ds63fe1cXRFiVnQ3G_kilHLfG5SFwJl1WtclXL66BCpCUaqoI_i1CGoq7xJGLg/s1600/2016-03-09+21.49.12+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrkK-iGSyPyyJepDHLlhLLxjfHGPgHpxR4Clc1A1-gkoYjImKJ8TA9oHWX6Y8fyIpF4Jddro69TeM0Ds63fe1cXRFiVnQ3G_kilHLfG5SFwJl1WtclXL66BCpCUaqoI_i1CGoq7xJGLg/s320/2016-03-09+21.49.12+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Female (left) and male (right)<br />
pike cichlids (<i>Crenicichla frenata</i>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />That will keep Travis busy for a while.<br />
<br />
By the way, Travis is starting the search for graduate programs, *wink wink*<br />
<br />
So although it was a short trip, I would say it was quite productive! I'll be sure to post updates as we begin to collect and analyze data. For now, I'll leave you with another image of the baby wolffish - just imagine this thing all grown up and <a href="http://www.howtocatchanyfish.com/wolf-fish.html" target="_blank">the size of your arm</a>!<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qc79HLiU3UKvBzqTRDcKWm-5PepNnX5uJM2JkldFMi-5pyNBkebeZ0FvyPf0GOzoBS73HL1UZmMHQ4_evUyzSXpwr9-7XABqUjmpxwsgF_MvoYaO76B3p3bIKp77F_-jNvsfogsLb1s/s1600/DSC_0771+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qc79HLiU3UKvBzqTRDcKWm-5PepNnX5uJM2JkldFMi-5pyNBkebeZ0FvyPf0GOzoBS73HL1UZmMHQ4_evUyzSXpwr9-7XABqUjmpxwsgF_MvoYaO76B3p3bIKp77F_-jNvsfogsLb1s/s320/DSC_0771+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">They're cute when they're babies and<br />
can't bite your fingers off!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-56787561954535163022015-09-17T13:09:00.000-06:002016-01-12T15:25:48.600-07:00Small fish, big questions - using self-guided guppy kits to teach evolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAg8Asqt2kGZIdDFtYLr8y7AfZVJxLfeT3D-C1FHpc4JCerV-kmpaz1S9SKs72a45UPKUlm_8g7DUZUEc94rOSqZ8AekIGX_iGy9b2R2zvxtmtStDRMBpZumCOHQRgAQZoQWgK9IzQiYQ/s1600/2015-07-27+14.49.40+annotated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAg8Asqt2kGZIdDFtYLr8y7AfZVJxLfeT3D-C1FHpc4JCerV-kmpaz1S9SKs72a45UPKUlm_8g7DUZUEc94rOSqZ8AekIGX_iGy9b2R2zvxtmtStDRMBpZumCOHQRgAQZoQWgK9IzQiYQ/s320/2015-07-27+14.49.40+annotated.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Observing how predators preferentially chose <br />guppies </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">from certain environments<br />(guess which ones?)</span></td></tr>
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<br />
I have been involved with a major outreach project to create self-guided kits for teaching evolution in K-12 classrooms. This project is a collaboration between me (as part of my broadening participation efforts on my NSF grant), <a href="https://dalebroder.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Dale Broder</a> (a senior graduate student whose work we are building off of), <a href="http://sites.biology.colostate.edu/ghalamborlab/Ghalambor_Lab/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Dr. Cameron Ghalambor</a> (who has helped Dale implement a similar program with local 7th grade classrooms), <a href="http://rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/angelonilab/Site/Home.html" target="_blank">Dr. Lisa Angeloni</a> (who has helped with several other similar outreach projects), and the <a href="http://www.cns-eoc.colostate.edu/" target="_blank">CSU College of Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center </a>(yes, we have one of those!). The goal for these kits is three-fold: 1) to be able to expand our program beyond what we can reach ourselves (this is where the EOC comes in!), 2) to increase classroom engagement by using live animals, and 3) to use an authentic science approach to increase scientific self-efficacy (help students realize they CAN actually do science) and learn about evolution the same way scientists have done. We are particularly interested in implementing this program in schools that serve low-income and underrepresented students. To address potential psychological barriers these students may have (which they may not even realize), we have made a significant effort to include scientists representing several aspects of diversity, both in an introductory video the students will watch prior to starting the activity, as well as with an interview included in the final pages of the instruction booklet. These kits will be directed toward middle and high school students initially, but could also be adapted for other age or ability levels as well.<br />
<br />
Follow along here as I post updates on how these kits are coming along!<br />
<br />
UPDATE 9/17/15<br />
Well, as far as an update goes, this is a little late as we have made significant progress on the kits since we first met with the EOC back in May. We have also submitted an abstract for a poster at the upcoming Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Portland, OR (see my previous post).<br />
<br />
The activities for the kits include:<br />
1) Observe the variation in physical differences between males from three populations of guppies (pet store, wild low predation, wild high predation).<br />
2) Understand how color patterns are passed on between parents and offspring using punnett squares.<br />
3) Observe guppy predator avoidance behaviors and quantify survival when exposed to predators (this will be done using pre-recorded high-speed videos).<br />
4) A thought exercise to address how color patterns change over time due to various types of selection.<br />
<br />
In the last few weeks, Dale and I have figured out how to assemble small acrylic tanks that don't leak (not a minor task). These will be used as small observation tanks.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgE_vp6ZoI78x_3M-nabTqiHTtGNSTVMBa7OxUdp7Px8KK-qOZu9tuBv2X03eun86vwanTTp-PWRm33I6breHhk5LsolDl6tYpsefoldHHR-WIKz58aTcIgyNrOfEEY6fsDp0Z9HxZ6HA/s1600/2015-09-09+11.03.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgE_vp6ZoI78x_3M-nabTqiHTtGNSTVMBa7OxUdp7Px8KK-qOZu9tuBv2X03eun86vwanTTp-PWRm33I6breHhk5LsolDl6tYpsefoldHHR-WIKz58aTcIgyNrOfEEY6fsDp0Z9HxZ6HA/s320/2015-09-09+11.03.06.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale gluing a tank</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMWGqVRgn2suM6gxdByHTbIQ3K-DvDY3M2ffKA1KSe0PHmyEphTPkuJ798PWXoPmetkCpkXHXJt6eKvUJtEx5uuLoqkfcL0NAX1fq8xhd6-SDwCxZ12bBqk802I_PGWxP_5pCopznPb0/s1600/2015-09-09+11.19.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMWGqVRgn2suM6gxdByHTbIQ3K-DvDY3M2ffKA1KSe0PHmyEphTPkuJ798PWXoPmetkCpkXHXJt6eKvUJtEx5uuLoqkfcL0NAX1fq8xhd6-SDwCxZ12bBqk802I_PGWxP_5pCopznPb0/s320/2015-09-09+11.19.22.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished product!</td></tr>
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I have also been filming Catalina, one of our pike cichlid predators, capturing guppies. She has a choice between representative males from each of the populations. I used a go-pro to film at 120 fps but the video below is from my Nikon DSLR (not high speed).<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sKajK8gvHkI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sKajK8gvHkI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
We have also been working hard on assembling the introductory video, with the help of a local videographer. This included recording an interview with each of our scientists using some local news crew equipment that Dale borrowed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1c7Kmou0LYfqkp_dmIqyco3LCsTEqwqEM2v2yNEJiw-Afs39nKEt4IOMBsLXkqxs38OFjusLafhg4Z3tF7YWSR-Vj87zjHn_23bDyVtpAD32vp1kMd5hawHklOXdcriGqJqk38Q6k3s0/s1600/2015-09-10+20.49.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1c7Kmou0LYfqkp_dmIqyco3LCsTEqwqEM2v2yNEJiw-Afs39nKEt4IOMBsLXkqxs38OFjusLafhg4Z3tF7YWSR-Vj87zjHn_23bDyVtpAD32vp1kMd5hawHklOXdcriGqJqk38Q6k3s0/s320/2015-09-10+20.49.37.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interviewing Cameron in the breeding lab</td></tr>
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<br />
If that wasn't enough, we recruited an undergrad, Ty Fiero, to help with 3D printing some guppy stencils, so the students can draw a fish that they can then add fins to and color in.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYetE64UYAJywmNZN9TR4zdpjOoZcOVG6yLxXOpvtslh0ui3DoLtWoxeo9uw-oMDYIJQXNLhsuusnTNgS0Lo6N9-sfjwcNoMzO6MNHe5CXuICGwR-ARMRDoQckcSzHC0r9KsaniB7Ze0/s1600/2015-09-10+17.41.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYetE64UYAJywmNZN9TR4zdpjOoZcOVG6yLxXOpvtslh0ui3DoLtWoxeo9uw-oMDYIJQXNLhsuusnTNgS0Lo6N9-sfjwcNoMzO6MNHe5CXuICGwR-ARMRDoQckcSzHC0r9KsaniB7Ze0/s320/2015-09-10+17.41.16.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, those are glow-in-the-dark!<br />
I drew them myself!</td></tr>
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<br />
We have also been working closely with Andrew Warnock, from the EOC, to compile the instruction booklet that the students will use. This included coming up with a name for our kits.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUwWda6OPRuWuipiJHLRkMsbl9R5kE0mFEJ_mtBA2CM3qNiH3If6jDgCtIj7IDqp0DkjA9HAQHm0eq1JFB1CH7-lqXPojSaWqMMrxs0PKVZnMuTHxNN4AZoY0N4dPNL_6ayqQ1_7JSzkk/s1600/Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUwWda6OPRuWuipiJHLRkMsbl9R5kE0mFEJ_mtBA2CM3qNiH3If6jDgCtIj7IDqp0DkjA9HAQHm0eq1JFB1CH7-lqXPojSaWqMMrxs0PKVZnMuTHxNN4AZoY0N4dPNL_6ayqQ1_7JSzkk/s320/Title.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's coming together! Our goal is to be finished in time for a teacher workshop in October.<br />
<br />
UPDATE 09/18/15<br />
<br />
We now have predator silhouettes for students to test how each guppy might respond to predators. They will then make predictions about what they think will happen with real predators. I made a range of sizes to figure out which one works best.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWW_S-rWaz_8KHgtN2h3iSBsI1qEvqqoJXyW_RMKSfkqNDS86YrGdz2vsw0ZT07yovyWa_A-c0Gm21O7T9HseXFGT67U9yvmRkCK2bxUlpVFUtjVjjEEltnURaRxxdc_CGmf6EHEC-mU/s1600/Crenicichla-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWW_S-rWaz_8KHgtN2h3iSBsI1qEvqqoJXyW_RMKSfkqNDS86YrGdz2vsw0ZT07yovyWa_A-c0Gm21O7T9HseXFGT67U9yvmRkCK2bxUlpVFUtjVjjEEltnURaRxxdc_CGmf6EHEC-mU/s400/Crenicichla-02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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UPDATE 10/29/15<br />
<br />
So we didn't make our October deadline...<br />
<br />
We ran into some hurdles with IACUC approval as well as trying to figure out better options for the observation tanks. We've decided to change the teacher workshop to January, which will actually work out better for when they will teach evolution in their classes. Plus it gives us a little more time to make everything just right.<br />
<br />
Today we were finally approved to move fish to the Education and Outreach Center! We had to set up the tanks first without fish so they could inspect the room. Now that we're approved, I added some living things today - some nerite snails and some aquatic plants, Vallisneria and Ludwigia. Next comes guppies...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5J3_UGYN4x0ir2mot1E7TPRdr55bHdNEdmGB8UjOU-F3-VdIra-ry5ZU3dEp0JHV_oJkkHWPdhhkxPjVDbepGIhNzfZSu46rR8VrU6jGQBUwdMkvwxn-R5PCvdpJ2lkkBnVH_HuJcTSI/s1600/2015-10-29+14.55.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5J3_UGYN4x0ir2mot1E7TPRdr55bHdNEdmGB8UjOU-F3-VdIra-ry5ZU3dEp0JHV_oJkkHWPdhhkxPjVDbepGIhNzfZSu46rR8VrU6jGQBUwdMkvwxn-R5PCvdpJ2lkkBnVH_HuJcTSI/s320/2015-10-29+14.55.06.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20g tank for petstore guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6W39SkdBvDA6s0EW0jM6-5nOGOp86sPDwOEiTSnk7gm8bpgs_BOpXoRRV8PMQNqk17NPGsmkyhI2vuhHoCxDwkkVXn1wvTgxegQI0yRgerSZNl8Ek4Wu_hZNMyy4pZPi2857oF15swlM/s1600/2015-10-29+14.55.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6W39SkdBvDA6s0EW0jM6-5nOGOp86sPDwOEiTSnk7gm8bpgs_BOpXoRRV8PMQNqk17NPGsmkyhI2vuhHoCxDwkkVXn1wvTgxegQI0yRgerSZNl8Ek4Wu_hZNMyy4pZPi2857oF15swlM/s320/2015-10-29+14.55.46.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10g tanks for wild guppies</td></tr>
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<br />
UPDATE 12/10/15<br />
<br />
We're making the final push for our guppy kits! Dale and I have put a lot of work into the instruction booklet, and just wrote the final pages outlining the 4 components of Evolution the students worked through (Variation, Inheritance, Selection, and Time). We also provided some FAQs in case students have more questions about the projects they do.<br />
<br />
We also finalized our introductory video that the students will watch before they start. This will be used to introduce the guppy system and let them hear from real scientists.<br />
<br />
We encountered a hurdle recently regarding the observation tanks in the kits - do we ask the students to observe one guppy at a time and rotate, or do we ask the students to observe multiple guppies at a time, and if so, how do we facilitate that? Since variation is an integral concept for students to understand, we decided we wanted the later option, so then the question became do we put multiple fish in one tank or do we include multiple tanks. One of our collaborators had the idea to make nesting tanks, so we gave that a shot! They turned out well, so I think this is what we will go with.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNOkYbuHwRdKkhb3mn1VlL-6Smw1kXrVVNtnh6GSm1hGFnobFcGbxdnN4pfygPXVHyEUPqMUXRlm9A13ca0kbAtl2L7t52VQB4siRWI1E5ZZvZKXJj1gpshnPADN4qumCr_0P4QX9OCwo/s1600/2015-12-10+13.14.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNOkYbuHwRdKkhb3mn1VlL-6Smw1kXrVVNtnh6GSm1hGFnobFcGbxdnN4pfygPXVHyEUPqMUXRlm9A13ca0kbAtl2L7t52VQB4siRWI1E5ZZvZKXJj1gpshnPADN4qumCr_0P4QX9OCwo/s320/2015-12-10+13.14.09.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two nested observation tanks</td></tr>
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We also encountered a problem with the most recent set of 3D printed stencils - that a pencil wouldn't fit in the lines. So we asked Ty to print it one more time, hopefully for good this time. As of 10am this is what they looked like:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSb8FAUIpe9u1PE8Xr2X_WLF9va-SFBFMOUm2iVY_RvqOUpf3tMPmPcJl7UtzVeZpuz3HZyTf96Y6XGC2KCi9tucinR9DkClpxz-RIE-ZKF1mYiqUJ-pGqOD6TO2KA2TLmxdqYt-lVB4M/s1600/3D++printed+stencils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSb8FAUIpe9u1PE8Xr2X_WLF9va-SFBFMOUm2iVY_RvqOUpf3tMPmPcJl7UtzVeZpuz3HZyTf96Y6XGC2KCi9tucinR9DkClpxz-RIE-ZKF1mYiqUJ-pGqOD6TO2KA2TLmxdqYt-lVB4M/s320/3D++printed+stencils.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3D printing guppy stencils (Photo by Ty Fiero)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Here are the completed stencils, and what the traces look like:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg9nBZylyIj-sn3Fl7JfsVYHkRwYRuJaA3_UYWVztZzkj8_mIJFdOZrONCZNkmDMGXsZtS5w8IjQo44cZu-wXU4vwkDihwcx-g15jmINrXmBNuto4UArJcQIzPGsuPUybVF3afmWYHMsI/s1600/2015-12-10+12.58.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg9nBZylyIj-sn3Fl7JfsVYHkRwYRuJaA3_UYWVztZzkj8_mIJFdOZrONCZNkmDMGXsZtS5w8IjQo44cZu-wXU4vwkDihwcx-g15jmINrXmBNuto4UArJcQIzPGsuPUybVF3afmWYHMsI/s320/2015-12-10+12.58.23.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The guppy stencil finished product!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is going to be AWESOME!<br />
<br />
The last piece of this puzzle that I have been working on is the poster that I will present at SICB this January. Dale and I will be co-presenting our poster (abstract #<a href="http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2016/schedule/abstractdetails.php?id=236" target="_blank">P1-7</a>) on<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Monday Jan. 4 from 3:30pm-5:30pm in Exhibit Hall A</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Also, if you're interested in hearing about the work that led up to the projects we included in the kits, Dale is presenting a talk (abstract #<a href="http://www.sicb.org/meetings/2016/schedule/abstractdetails.php?id=102" target="_blank">110-3</a>) on<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Thursday Jan. 7 at 9am in room B115</b></span> </div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
UPDATE 12/18/15<br />
The first full draft of the instruction booklets have been printed!<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX-BJybfi-yLGJHhpYEoH4kpN56GtvS2XQ4QilgkbBm0QCjhjuQg7dL2VjaZt9ea1mp05waaKCOZzLkM5SRrWDhk4BwMn6dxGpAf6_xwuHP8Rq-6uqFtJ9ZU4Vdt8cCTvKoGGvUk0_RrM/s1600/2015-12-18+11.18.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX-BJybfi-yLGJHhpYEoH4kpN56GtvS2XQ4QilgkbBm0QCjhjuQg7dL2VjaZt9ea1mp05waaKCOZzLkM5SRrWDhk4BwMn6dxGpAf6_xwuHP8Rq-6uqFtJ9ZU4Vdt8cCTvKoGGvUk0_RrM/s320/2015-12-18+11.18.42.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew did the illustrations!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We also now have an "official" kit pelican case! Blue is the perfect color for something with fish!<br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yGiRKePEOCoyaEGp42-pLOmKC2oYA9WwPR79fPT6xWuM5Z6maKdlkLVYBUwYgMVOd2y-4UNpFr-8eduWSCiAXkwe8m83ufQQ1U8q2XvEacTBEI-8Gz8hpic8nMauvu4HGzQ6bchgKow/s1600/2015-12-18+11.47.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yGiRKePEOCoyaEGp42-pLOmKC2oYA9WwPR79fPT6xWuM5Z6maKdlkLVYBUwYgMVOd2y-4UNpFr-8eduWSCiAXkwe8m83ufQQ1U8q2XvEacTBEI-8Gz8hpic8nMauvu4HGzQ6bchgKow/s320/2015-12-18+11.47.18.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It looks like a kit now!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_dz4ZeO7TQiSHyRAHfDBssuyqPEimZZvYT56_AgAtqjTrmTO517zBNKYKbDN4wLkZomBHK-FLiDk5yutestMIkP9jWiKSWspp98bvu_mydltgp86SlBdRH3dSqwXLILkEUXXpyAQLaaA/s1600/2015-12-18+11.47.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_dz4ZeO7TQiSHyRAHfDBssuyqPEimZZvYT56_AgAtqjTrmTO517zBNKYKbDN4wLkZomBHK-FLiDk5yutestMIkP9jWiKSWspp98bvu_mydltgp86SlBdRH3dSqwXLILkEUXXpyAQLaaA/s320/2015-12-18+11.47.42.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everything fits inside!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
AND...the poster is finished! SICB 2016: ready or not, here we come!</div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPBySHnl7ilJzA3Xyf2xP9rwUcg_zV-xccHl2aRt8TnGj4LcASNkG_uspR21imjO22EU-FYudYk6R3DZgGd3wL-SHSHdtnnOGI99qgbalelZ1lJE7uQu6N6qypExwYTKf5I1yfy6c0jr8/s1600/Kane+et+al.%252C+2016+guppy+outreach+v4+EMBARGO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPBySHnl7ilJzA3Xyf2xP9rwUcg_zV-xccHl2aRt8TnGj4LcASNkG_uspR21imjO22EU-FYudYk6R3DZgGd3wL-SHSHdtnnOGI99qgbalelZ1lJE7uQu6N6qypExwYTKf5I1yfy6c0jr8/s400/Kane+et+al.%252C+2016+guppy+outreach+v4+EMBARGO.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well I guess you'll just have to come see our poster!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">Updates have been moved to a permanent page, which can be accessed here:</span> <a href="http://emilyakane.blogspot.com/p/guppy-kits.html" target="_blank">http://emilyakane.blogspot.com/p/guppy-kits.html</a></div>
<div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-63678945398621420372015-09-02T20:48:00.000-06:002015-12-02T20:00:06.179-07:00SICB 2016 Portland, OR<span style="font-family: inherit;">I will be contributing to two abstracts at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting this January in Portland, OR. Both are less traditional for me, so I look forward to hearing feedback/comments. Here are the abstracts (dates/times will be updated when they are available):</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUiNStE9SRq-xhcjDUyfb8ozQfj3zmltdGeZRfqjWrtASdtw4n147NF8f6qStNEsRhezZOLDoq5D8ngW1QaCi8eusb43GOR80_nODiRKLKseOPRETE5kyOMu-wQQhm1EE9PPz1m8x7lU/s1600/2015-08-31+18.54.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUiNStE9SRq-xhcjDUyfb8ozQfj3zmltdGeZRfqjWrtASdtw4n147NF8f6qStNEsRhezZOLDoq5D8ngW1QaCi8eusb43GOR80_nODiRKLKseOPRETE5kyOMu-wQQhm1EE9PPz1m8x7lU/s400/2015-08-31+18.54.56.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dale presenting about guppy outreach<br />at "Science on Tap" Fort Collins</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">First, Dale Broder and I will be presenting a poster in an undergraduate biology education session describing our most recent endeavor with guppy outreach:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Using self-guided “guppy
kits” to teach adaptation and evolution with authentic science<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Emily A. Kane<sup>1</sup>,
E. Dale Broder<sup>1</sup>, Andrew C. Warnock<sup>2</sup>, Courtney M. Butler<sup>2</sup>,
A. Lynne Judish<sup>2</sup>, Lisa M. Angeloni<sup>1</sup>, Cameron K. Ghalambor<sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>1</sup>Department of Biology, Colorado State University<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>2</sup>College of Natural Sciences Education and Outreach
Center, Colorado State University</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">The concept of evolution is central to our understanding of organismal biology, but the United States has a poor understanding and acceptance of evolution compared to other countries, which is potentially influenced by the limited availability of evolutionary biologists that can assist teachers when covering this subject. We want to fill this gap by making our knowledge and resources easily accessible to teachers. Additionally, we want to use authentic science and hands-on experimentation to reach students who are not comfortable with the concept of evolution. We have designed a self-guided activity that utilizes live Trinidadian guppies (</span><i style="background-color: white;">Poecilia reticulata</i><span style="background-color: white;">) to explore adaptation, selection, and evolution. These “kits” include a video introduction by the researchers, activities observing differences in color and survival between 3 populations (domesticated and wild caught low- or high-predation), and a booklet providing guidance on the formation of hypotheses and conclusions. These kits can be used by the researchers for outreach events sponsored by the university, but can also be borrowed by local K-12 teachers to be performed independently, thereby enhancing the ability to reach a greater number of students while maintaining the benefits of a small-scale program. Similar activities performed previously demonstrate an increased retention compared to traditional lessons. Therefore, our goal is to use these kits to supplement local K-12 education, particularly at schools with under-represented populations. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">***UPDATE: Our poster will be on display Monday 1/4 from 3:30-5:30pm***</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9lOu4gwwSadlwfdMr0h6v0nM3mNWVnTCUPPSfwQ2NQ3dIFxQhmR0hfkXcAfGhq7NtbDpadGrvWciEQqG2C-dByeqYkIwUxRc-LV2DsV4W25TDrR5_xuPHrxbSjlLgwxzVQGS0SM9jsL4/s1600/2015-08-26+18.32.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9lOu4gwwSadlwfdMr0h6v0nM3mNWVnTCUPPSfwQ2NQ3dIFxQhmR0hfkXcAfGhq7NtbDpadGrvWciEQqG2C-dByeqYkIwUxRc-LV2DsV4W25TDrR5_xuPHrxbSjlLgwxzVQGS0SM9jsL4/s400/2015-08-26+18.32.10.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Delaney posing with the first bullfrog<br />she ever caught in the wild</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, I have been working with an undergrad honors student, Delaney Laughlin, who will be presenting a poster of her honors thesis work:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Complexity, flexibility, and success: The role of feeding
behavior on competition between native leopard frogs and invasive bullfrogs<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Delaney N. Laughlin<sup>1 </sup>and Emily A. Kane<sup>1</sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>1</sup>Department of Biology, Colorado State University<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Invasive species are a global epidemic that has a
significant impact on the survival of native species. Bullfrogs are native in
much of the United States, however, they have been introduced in a variety of
habitats both west of the Rocky Mountains as well as on other continents. We
seek to understand one potential mechanism by which they are able to succeed in
these variable habitats, specifically how foraging success is influenced by the
coordination and flexibility of feeding.
We predict that there will be a
greater difference in success rate between bullfrogs and leopard frogs when
capturing prey from variable substrates. These differences between species
might be because bullfrogs exhibit a greater complexity and coordination in
movement, and this specialized prey capture behavior may increase success
across multiple habitats. Alternatively, reduced complexity and coordination of
movement could lead to increased success in bullfrogs because this generalized
prey capture behavior permits flexibility. To test this idea, we will
use high-speed video to record foraging behaviors of leopard frogs and
bullfrogs from a terrestrial and aquatic substrate as they capture a suspended
live cricket. Coordination will be calculated as the correlation among timing
variables describing movement of body parts (i.e. hindlimbs, forelimbs, mouth,
tongue, etc.). Success rates between the two environments will indicate the
flexibility of each species. This
information could be vital for providing ecologists and conservationists a new
perspective of the mechanism contributing to how invasive species are able to
persist in novel environments.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">***UPDATE: This second poster has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances***</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-27988933458889492262015-07-07T16:30:00.000-06:002015-07-07T16:30:48.057-06:00Society for Experimental Biology meeting, Prague, Czech Republic<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUKUGu05PzvbWcd9oLjWuaxCGI63tWLdE9uj0B4eBwypcZgjjQ0Yo4NnVy7HyRyrdkV9InQXRPNMd1eIMuoLeg61AZrWlclJQABmrcxz7f_2FuFEs5qu9Rlxq2CPt2ZT4ZBaOWDTnOT8/s1600/DSC_0230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUKUGu05PzvbWcd9oLjWuaxCGI63tWLdE9uj0B4eBwypcZgjjQ0Yo4NnVy7HyRyrdkV9InQXRPNMd1eIMuoLeg61AZrWlclJQABmrcxz7f_2FuFEs5qu9Rlxq2CPt2ZT4ZBaOWDTnOT8/s320/DSC_0230.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's Prague Castle in the distant left</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I have just returned from Prague, where I presented my research on modulation of integration in bluegill sunfish. I have been told that SEB is "the European SICB", and I wanted to go to this meeting because there are lots of researchers in Europe that never make it to the meetings in the US, so I wanted to learn more about what's going on over there.<br />
<br />
The first thing I noticed about Europe was from the air - there are lots of farms, but none of them are squares/circles like in the US. It was interesting arriving in Prague, where the Czech language was so different from most of the ones I am familiar with. However, some words were still recognizable, like "toalety", which, based on it's location, I assumed meant "toilet". There were also other things that seemed strange to me, like how the bed covers didn't span the entire bed, and how the shower only had a partial glass door so water got all over the floor. However, some things were still quite familiar, like the american pop music playing in the driver's car on the way to the hotel from the airport. In terms of food, the one thing I noticed was that Czech food = meat, potatoes, and cabbage. There is little in the way of vegetables, especially the leafy kind. I found myself craving a salad when I got home.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFNHQB0o_iqmOG81qwV7VnruvzcNnz8QdnDTnaVjyMdMw11dxTyI9Hw1EACYYZp0FEQfJ132Wf2Odzgepwm6_4RNAhLnhfewoFX4z4p6sF8MlyVOAzA77z23hoI8g4Kht8ksGKkz9tes/s1600/DSC_0160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFNHQB0o_iqmOG81qwV7VnruvzcNnz8QdnDTnaVjyMdMw11dxTyI9Hw1EACYYZp0FEQfJ132Wf2Odzgepwm6_4RNAhLnhfewoFX4z4p6sF8MlyVOAzA77z23hoI8g4Kht8ksGKkz9tes/s320/DSC_0160.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flight over Czech Republic, nothing is square</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBO75zcrb3nvHei8GdJHk7Xl2BUHABCADXkhGKLaOpcbcyvNj1ujGwncpoinX9gbQEAZnRerFC7fs8VGToV6i4hyphenhyphen4filq03wrxr7Zjv6wQ6y_RI2LZPuQMlYQznIuMboYzeM0O-yoCmKo/s1600/2015-06-17+19.11.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBO75zcrb3nvHei8GdJHk7Xl2BUHABCADXkhGKLaOpcbcyvNj1ujGwncpoinX9gbQEAZnRerFC7fs8VGToV6i4hyphenhyphen4filq03wrxr7Zjv6wQ6y_RI2LZPuQMlYQznIuMboYzeM0O-yoCmKo/s320/2015-06-17+19.11.12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flight over Colorado a week earlier,<br />everything is square/circle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_ZvbZcTDuegeAOP9DP0iGaHO8jZRF6v-Efs-u3bKJfc6IFSHdFVoZ8O9_l3YOS4_LfSjZ0kU9E2G4py9nQf9vOmlhlidXi1RCoPwNH4Z3J09SPzaQAsAzwF3TkVN1qfOFCMmM3KRAp8/s1600/2015-06-30+03.27.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_ZvbZcTDuegeAOP9DP0iGaHO8jZRF6v-Efs-u3bKJfc6IFSHdFVoZ8O9_l3YOS4_LfSjZ0kU9E2G4py9nQf9vOmlhlidXi1RCoPwNH4Z3J09SPzaQAsAzwF3TkVN1qfOFCMmM3KRAp8/s320/2015-06-30+03.27.22.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, that comforter is the only bed covering,<br />and it's too small</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DqtQQjWLPWoc7Njil0CDlaSVuVTwn6YOxyf1hyLXYqUc0h4LIm6MOQ8epsJAf9Lwn9XAHhgv3XGGS65dgcprNCYWZcVD5GdlKI-vAr_UZ3KOrd8uQtzuDG99gBbAHxOmJy8WY5imgjE/s1600/2015-06-30+03.27.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5DqtQQjWLPWoc7Njil0CDlaSVuVTwn6YOxyf1hyLXYqUc0h4LIm6MOQ8epsJAf9Lwn9XAHhgv3XGGS65dgcprNCYWZcVD5GdlKI-vAr_UZ3KOrd8uQtzuDG99gBbAHxOmJy8WY5imgjE/s320/2015-06-30+03.27.46.jpg" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shower with only a small,<br />partial glass door</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The conference lasted 4 days, and included events like the "Women in Science Dinner" and several keynote lectures. There was a large Biomechanics presence, and each day had a fair number of talks. I was really proud of my former labmate and current friend Kathleen, who gave a stellar talk on modulation of muscle mechanics in anoles! I also gave my talk, which received some interest on Twitter, mostly because people liked my cool high-speed videos. There were also some interesting talks in other sessions about things I didn't know I would like, including icefish genetics as it relates to anti-freeze proteins.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqM2wX0S46JJ8hSr6P1SiVuEgiU-aB1SaJ9VqAVmIragbt2BDwqknjNGgqX4w6nmfeQ704i32_DKPXI90D2xKbGqzrrtudsoQ6arn2hk1SlGipu9GAOyru2y1hGmA2wsqliqE7PJTL1g/s1600/2015-07-01+10.34.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqM2wX0S46JJ8hSr6P1SiVuEgiU-aB1SaJ9VqAVmIragbt2BDwqknjNGgqX4w6nmfeQ704i32_DKPXI90D2xKbGqzrrtudsoQ6arn2hk1SlGipu9GAOyru2y1hGmA2wsqliqE7PJTL1g/s320/2015-07-01+10.34.30.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathleen Foster, presenting at SEB</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wQd4XiPB3snm-8BEtaihhAsM65owFri7NafgSfJ5luQzwNqcehQ9G8nRUDJJeeOA90yxLe99IpN6i_UeQDOb5tBhQccrhtbIF2DT2tFDeJv8fT0z8T7jlAor-QHyQKWDHPa5OrWz-LI/s1600/Emily+talk+tweet.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wQd4XiPB3snm-8BEtaihhAsM65owFri7NafgSfJ5luQzwNqcehQ9G8nRUDJJeeOA90yxLe99IpN6i_UeQDOb5tBhQccrhtbIF2DT2tFDeJv8fT0z8T7jlAor-QHyQKWDHPa5OrWz-LI/s320/Emily+talk+tweet.tiff" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tweet about my talk</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Another great thing about the SEB meeting is that I met so many people from so many different countries, including Australia, France, England, Scotland, Portugal, Lebanon, Canada (including Quebec, which is still Canada), South Africa, Germany, and Poland. I was joking that I was going to leave Prague with an accent, but I wasn't sure which one. It was really interesting hearing everyone else's perspective on challenges that women (and others!) face in academia, as well as other aspects of academia.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgDLpIjRMg6RY8Pph8ZMzADK7fpCLeYASFY9qsnHhLB4-7aFNBwesgIoGrnVL6EzFwup-fY1ylIacH2UkZxJCJ26j_8YRlFQdZorUOB5I3qY09ScrN6tR6rCOCfWsf5CiusvPSTzvY_QE/s1600/Women+in+science+dinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgDLpIjRMg6RY8Pph8ZMzADK7fpCLeYASFY9qsnHhLB4-7aFNBwesgIoGrnVL6EzFwup-fY1ylIacH2UkZxJCJ26j_8YRlFQdZorUOB5I3qY09ScrN6tR6rCOCfWsf5CiusvPSTzvY_QE/s320/Women+in+science+dinner.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great group of scientists chatting over dinner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The conference kept me extremely busy, and it wasn't until the third night that I actually made it out of the hotel. Since breakfast was served at the hotel, and the conference served lunch and several dinners, there was no reason to leave. It was nice to finally get out and explore the city a bit with Ola, Kathleen, and some students from Cambridge and the RVC. We grabbed some dinner at a place that served local cuisine and then wandered down to the Charles Bridge (after acquiring some ice cream, of course!).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Hrz3ZV9Z7NFIUh5JnBb1q3mltTy2jmHR9memxjuKis2I5cuzCFdy7NndEA-AvmVHHMC-9BOko3AmoNN8W1kvCd2oeS6IaExjwMvxU2SonqtM4_fIE0bH2jmKne6qoJlE3v7mnRDlSwY/s1600/2015-07-02+19.59.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Hrz3ZV9Z7NFIUh5JnBb1q3mltTy2jmHR9memxjuKis2I5cuzCFdy7NndEA-AvmVHHMC-9BOko3AmoNN8W1kvCd2oeS6IaExjwMvxU2SonqtM4_fIE0bH2jmKne6qoJlE3v7mnRDlSwY/s320/2015-07-02+19.59.47.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Prague metro</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6bEuE5gMk0mH62Q1aR_PfjeTJbZT92tYJNed7IiFXL8jBsU5Xqi9DlRO9GuVPVE1Ig42lJDb_E-8OTL8ESYyX9DOujj5xr7lwbW0pD6TW-6BVx7YnONXyr073GcXIiEsaDpbXgb2UEQ/s1600/2015-07-02+21.25.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6bEuE5gMk0mH62Q1aR_PfjeTJbZT92tYJNed7IiFXL8jBsU5Xqi9DlRO9GuVPVE1Ig42lJDb_E-8OTL8ESYyX9DOujj5xr7lwbW0pD6TW-6BVx7YnONXyr073GcXIiEsaDpbXgb2UEQ/s320/2015-07-02+21.25.01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imagine that, meat and potatoes</td></tr>
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<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w6loJfgaiDrIQWjKe7s3SI0-eJLaYDtIdjUF06xC4Cz7kN3cwOOr7maKmXEl6e4fFUXUWoLa7dWO8EUgFiLATGlPEx-zUM2QsHA8zQaS7fI5IDY62qhmXuzEBb-_xxSBfuXMe5kEwfs/s1600/2015-07-02+21.09.07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w6loJfgaiDrIQWjKe7s3SI0-eJLaYDtIdjUF06xC4Cz7kN3cwOOr7maKmXEl6e4fFUXUWoLa7dWO8EUgFiLATGlPEx-zUM2QsHA8zQaS7fI5IDY62qhmXuzEBb-_xxSBfuXMe5kEwfs/s320/2015-07-02+21.09.07.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having some ciders, <br />that's right, out of a straw</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD68IO4PTn-osbHNhAOA5cBI4k5RjMvuMrlouf1hxRv4mAsa2x_HB3SDWKGIha_niEQu3ex82lH4N9OcJfjJuAKcOPZUpkP7SQKekS0qddLg22m96sQWni20rvaf5GgsDGDHOXQ5XCzjE/s1600/2015-07-02+22.21.28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD68IO4PTn-osbHNhAOA5cBI4k5RjMvuMrlouf1hxRv4mAsa2x_HB3SDWKGIha_niEQu3ex82lH4N9OcJfjJuAKcOPZUpkP7SQKekS0qddLg22m96sQWni20rvaf5GgsDGDHOXQ5XCzjE/s320/2015-07-02+22.21.28.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Atomic Clock</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
On Friday, Ola, Kathleen, and I decided to skip the morning talks to have some catching up time for the three of us, since we hadn't seen each other in almost a year. We headed back downtown and spent several hours walking around the main part of the city. I couldn't believe what amazing architecture there was! It felt like I was in a movie, but I knew this was actually what it looked like here, cobblestone streets and all. This was also my first chance to try the Trdelnik, a traditional cinnamon/sugar (+ other tasty bits like chocolate upon request!) pastry that is wrapped around and cooked on a wooden spit. I was not disappointed!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Tim Burton" castle, as it was dubbed</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gateway to the Charles Bridge,<br />over the Vltava River</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of Prague</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathedral at the Prague Castle</td></tr>
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The conference ended on Friday, and the conclusion was dinner at a local restaurant. A map was provided, but it took 30 minutes and running into a friend I met previously (who was also lost) to finally find it. It was in the basement of one of the municipal buildings, and there were almost 0 signs for it. The streets are also terrible to navigate, as they seem to belong in Willy Wonka's factory - just when you think you know which direction you're headed, you end up somewhere else.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conference dinner</td></tr>
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It was fortuitous running into Suzanne at the dinner, because we soon learned that both of us had late flights the next day, and coordinated a trip on Saturday to see more of Prague than either of us had time for earlier. I was really glad she let me tag along because she knew of some places to see that I wasn't aware of, including the old castle where some famous composers are buried, and Emauzy which is a 16th century church with original paintings on the walls. We also stopped at a riverside farmers market and got some strawberries to munch on as well as another local restaurant, this one cafeteria-style.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathedral at the Old Castle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farmer's market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emauzy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original painting</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the hallways in Emauzy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More meat and potatoes</td></tr>
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I am so thankful for my NSF funding which allowed me to finally attend this meeting. I had a great time meeting new people, learning about new science, and exploring a new part of Europe I had never been to. However, jet lag has not treated me well and now I will spend a few days recovering...<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-71293831028281017972015-06-20T16:29:00.001-06:002015-06-20T17:08:12.856-06:00Another trip to Trinidad<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scarlet Ibis returning from Venezuela</td></tr>
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I have just returned from Trinidad (the country, not the city in Colorado) with Cameron Ghalambor, Craig Marshall (a new PhD student), and Travis Klee (a new Bachelor of Science). Unfortunately, we didn't have internet so I couldn't post about the trip as it happened, so instead, I will have try my best to recall the details and events. <br />
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Cameron and Craig arrived in Trinidad on June 10, after almost missing their flight from Denver, being delayed in Houston for about 4 hours, and arriving in Trinidad after the rental car place had closed. The next day, the plan was for them to obtain permits, scope out field sites, and purchase some groceries before Travis and I arrived in the evening. They were mostly successful except in regards to the permits (they arrived at the permit office at 3:40 only to be told they closed at 4 and were currently closed, welcome to "Trini time"). At least they managed to track down a rental car by the time Travis and I arrived at 10:30. We also had delays in Houston because the pilot couldn't get one of the engines to start (kind of a big deal!), but we did manage to get upgraded to the front bulkhead row and got free TV. Other than the delay, we made it to the field station with relatively little trouble.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-LJZZ13dMedWu9NQfFmy9A_kIKWLQtupiU1AXhg-dq5uhWrqXa9SzVl1HYP1La3XG60ptPPA6MX_NiztbumeuC46b0agvVn4zcqSk4FSghhE5Nd6Ntwp5cbjjq5Kzjs-vatNoOpgmPw/s1600/2015-06-14+11.07.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-LJZZ13dMedWu9NQfFmy9A_kIKWLQtupiU1AXhg-dq5uhWrqXa9SzVl1HYP1La3XG60ptPPA6MX_NiztbumeuC46b0agvVn4zcqSk4FSghhE5Nd6Ntwp5cbjjq5Kzjs-vatNoOpgmPw/s320/2015-06-14+11.07.31.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Reznick guppy facility near Arima, Trinidad</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVKyhn5Tfu6HoFWhiaGtX9K7Fx5nONHIcVUo8toWWX1GCGsvyEZs1od3pu5JqVNT3ay-KtdEMtsrsrBxNqFQeVxPWvXIcCPfshzdaLgbh6ZP4G_rLbcbT5L7kcTMD_BUJ_ZAY_MzHgbE/s1600/Photo+Jun+13%252C+2+40+51+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVKyhn5Tfu6HoFWhiaGtX9K7Fx5nONHIcVUo8toWWX1GCGsvyEZs1od3pu5JqVNT3ay-KtdEMtsrsrBxNqFQeVxPWvXIcCPfshzdaLgbh6ZP4G_rLbcbT5L7kcTMD_BUJ_ZAY_MzHgbE/s200/Photo+Jun+13%252C+2+40+51+PM.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhovIeL-PzWaMDXpZoMp5iBsNi5xcX0e51WE2xT3phKkI1EHc9urgY6dqrXPyoBbIctyWOI1HLPcOqwyobnm1Grm4mzAKGtOxXduLbywMduBJMtPMCEihCinX1Fq9h1sDW6yb5bb4u4hhQ/s1600/Photo+Jun+11%252C+9+37+40+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhovIeL-PzWaMDXpZoMp5iBsNi5xcX0e51WE2xT3phKkI1EHc9urgY6dqrXPyoBbIctyWOI1HLPcOqwyobnm1Grm4mzAKGtOxXduLbywMduBJMtPMCEihCinX1Fq9h1sDW6yb5bb4u4hhQ/s200/Photo+Jun+11%252C+9+37+40+AM.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
The plan for collections was to get three guppy species from a range of salinities for Cameron and Craig (<i>Poecilia vivipara</i> brackish, <i>P. picta</i> brackish, <i>P. picta</i> fresh, <i>P. reticulata</i> fresh) and 2 high predation/low predation pairs of <i>P. reticulata</i> for me. We started by collecting the brackish fish at a boat dock in the Caroni Swamp on the western side of the island. We were very successful at collecting fish, but the <i>vivipara</i> turned out to be more difficult to catch with our butterfly nets than we anticipated. We also tried seining but our net was small and we didn't catch any guppies (though we did catch other things, like eel/leptocephalus larvae). We also managed to find a site close to the boat ramp that was freshwater and were able to sample the freshwater <i>picta</i>. They were densely concentrated under the vegetation along the shore, which made sampling go very quickly. This is ideal since we don't like keeping the guppies in the transport bottles longer than necessary.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HgRsaLdBy2pcB13amODMolHkRWlBQFwJJu_B82kfSjhsb4K6P6jNdf_65lIGf6uEFAjWEXhDmCjpJQKOcPfqBM9sLwzuILtO937EIjVkdkPxZOnqFG6y7g1JPpfzzi_uwmnVC7m6U7k/s1600/2015-06-12+10.46.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HgRsaLdBy2pcB13amODMolHkRWlBQFwJJu_B82kfSjhsb4K6P6jNdf_65lIGf6uEFAjWEXhDmCjpJQKOcPfqBM9sLwzuILtO937EIjVkdkPxZOnqFG6y7g1JPpfzzi_uwmnVC7m6U7k/s320/2015-06-12+10.46.11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The boat canal in the Caroni Swamp</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGEP7tTzrVWsN2lk8O0OpcKycJDfB3jg7sbbUlxOprvWFlNfy4LLkWce43Riq4iEdtmkeZAehL8N0fRKN_vn2z5PsAG4xyfHRqbRDiADXXyCXkJ5rcrfevT7ePGSVqc-mkhksSOmjyss/s1600/2015-06-12+10.26.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGEP7tTzrVWsN2lk8O0OpcKycJDfB3jg7sbbUlxOprvWFlNfy4LLkWce43Riq4iEdtmkeZAehL8N0fRKN_vn2z5PsAG4xyfHRqbRDiADXXyCXkJ5rcrfevT7ePGSVqc-mkhksSOmjyss/s320/2015-06-12+10.26.46.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cameron (left) and Craig (right) catching guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIJ21RGAd0wM0PIoaaJl7SpZW3O7Muo_-FOJZeyM1jirm3n5y1q82UDR15QOrrb5nDSpZsN1xRvjUCLhFCuWXC1i6qiOd1Ndom848_xBZOEgbwitozCXKapnSuOg7PHaU1KShOq2UhEI/s1600/DSC_0023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIJ21RGAd0wM0PIoaaJl7SpZW3O7Muo_-FOJZeyM1jirm3n5y1q82UDR15QOrrb5nDSpZsN1xRvjUCLhFCuWXC1i6qiOd1Ndom848_xBZOEgbwitozCXKapnSuOg7PHaU1KShOq2UhEI/s320/DSC_0023.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cameron sorting guppies into bottles to be<br />
transported back to the lab</td></tr>
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<br />
The swamp is about an hour drive from the lab, so unfortunately we had some mortality when we got back. But being scientists, we took this as a learning opportunity to try to verify the species we caught and distinguish <i>vivipara </i>and <i>picta </i>females. Because guppies are small, sometimes it is easier to tell these differences on a fish that isn't swimming around.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2wi9_wIEjdh3mdKDRZmi_c4UTzNjklfZhB_KkPU5141BUlv_5ioVSDIMigsmwZWjkv9RwFgryxhKQXGSsj1S0gXwS8b_EksJ1J7EhLELtkfZRllg_lVlWRB9y3PvadHAvONfLUPBKU8/s1600/2015-06-14+17.09.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2wi9_wIEjdh3mdKDRZmi_c4UTzNjklfZhB_KkPU5141BUlv_5ioVSDIMigsmwZWjkv9RwFgryxhKQXGSsj1S0gXwS8b_EksJ1J7EhLELtkfZRllg_lVlWRB9y3PvadHAvONfLUPBKU8/s320/2015-06-14+17.09.55.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Craig and Cameron sorting guppies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOO42cMqk7vUKQCxG6WB7NYTYupoPpC724aewzXHJWIi6dRITN2jLOPM0pua5AF0RzKvH6eG8mMlI3qCOar-8f9zJnG_90FkuvjOWPMmH5UkJWo3CYaUMDTfJQ1uMfThb9WzbECqhOT1U/s1600/2015-06-12+14.47.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOO42cMqk7vUKQCxG6WB7NYTYupoPpC724aewzXHJWIi6dRITN2jLOPM0pua5AF0RzKvH6eG8mMlI3qCOar-8f9zJnG_90FkuvjOWPMmH5UkJWo3CYaUMDTfJQ1uMfThb9WzbECqhOT1U/s320/2015-06-12+14.47.36.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examples of some of the fish from the Caroni swamp.<br />
Male <i>picta </i>were obvious and are grouped on the right.<br />
The middle column is most likely <i>picta </i>females, with the<br />
exception of the first two, which are <i>vivipara</i>female and male.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The next day we headed to the north slope of the mountain range to collect some freshwater <i>reticulata </i>from HP and LP sites. We stopped quickly at one of the beaches along the Caribbean Sea then headed to our sites on the Yarra River. We sampled the HP site first, and saw lots of other cool fauna, including a large cichlid guarding its young, shrimp, and schools of characins (look like large tetras). Then we headed back up the Blanchisseuse Road (not for those with sensitive stomachs) to the Yarra LP site, which took some exploring to find the dirt road leading down to the river. When we got there, we were greeted by a group of about 5 guys with a dead goat tied to a tree that was in the process of being butchered. I couldn't make this up if I tried. They were very cordial though and had no problem with us collecting guppies upstream from them. They did try to help by telling Cameron about some "big fish" near where they were working, and when Cameron asked if there was blood in the water, the response was "I just killed a goat". We did not sample there.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwlQyikhQLH3TaUWuJXxumtdWC-Cqax1m8KLn3VKXbNW8aGscYWimYA_XRfbIHSIJ9vvVf6050enRYoGOBFQZbWU6jGkxJsY8XLygYhyphenhyphenZu4McUS58778Q6Y7H6VQEIwWqFTV1t3gPI-0/s1600/2015-06-13+10.27.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwlQyikhQLH3TaUWuJXxumtdWC-Cqax1m8KLn3VKXbNW8aGscYWimYA_XRfbIHSIJ9vvVf6050enRYoGOBFQZbWU6jGkxJsY8XLygYhyphenhyphenZu4McUS58778Q6Y7H6VQEIwWqFTV1t3gPI-0/s320/2015-06-13+10.27.43.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Las Cuevas Beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNZe1elQqgXiyiiBbO0RbHO3DaWoC3WnNjis_cDANRcFFBVLUWuWaUWlCM4iWhSuiUyxo4BWTCTXeant4XivsgTWdAZEoFc6He5sSZPczUA-x0pu9phzHzJxQH4uEbRohEyQK3htrAWE/s1600/2015-06-13+11.46.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNZe1elQqgXiyiiBbO0RbHO3DaWoC3WnNjis_cDANRcFFBVLUWuWaUWlCM4iWhSuiUyxo4BWTCTXeant4XivsgTWdAZEoFc6He5sSZPczUA-x0pu9phzHzJxQH4uEbRohEyQK3htrAWE/s320/2015-06-13+11.46.53.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sampling the Yarra HP site</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2_26gM1wAUBnaYdEWHoLFAD5AM_19ftRbvW9HyO4GgLCZyqlYCZZa7lXqRgMXLIyuIea8ishUpS3IRA_WBKBkcN7Z7L4v4rJXVhdFMkG5uWHa_AGB9doVoKSjoiEMBSviwb8TNEUrG5o/s1600/2015-06-13+13.19.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2_26gM1wAUBnaYdEWHoLFAD5AM_19ftRbvW9HyO4GgLCZyqlYCZZa7lXqRgMXLIyuIea8ishUpS3IRA_WBKBkcN7Z7L4v4rJXVhdFMkG5uWHa_AGB9doVoKSjoiEMBSviwb8TNEUrG5o/s320/2015-06-13+13.19.19.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sampling the Yarra LP site</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We were very fortunate in that the rain held out most of the time we were sampling, so the next day we headed to the Aripo River on the south slope, which drains into the Caroni Swamp eventually. We sampled a LP site that is also referred to as the Naranjo River. Though this site has traditionally been sampled extensively, we found a healthy population. However, we did make sure to only remove a small number of individuals from each pool. We found a lot of killifish (<i>Rivulus/Anablepsoides hartii</i>) at this site as well, which only prey on juvenile guppies and are considered a minor predator. On the way home, we also stopped by the site of the Endler LP introduction about 40 years ago. Again we found a healthy population that could potentially be a site for future studies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb7B3bpZ66ouNLZUO_M96YjPnSyRPXQWKmk0_8Uy_EkNdJ4eBMh7ssH7nzktRewsZnEgaxNU1AVKDP3IN63SNKxvomH6BK74hrvwhBIp-7h1Wk5m6nGOyIJRR1lHoUfkXKhP8hGkakn8/s1600/2015-06-14+09.26.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb7B3bpZ66ouNLZUO_M96YjPnSyRPXQWKmk0_8Uy_EkNdJ4eBMh7ssH7nzktRewsZnEgaxNU1AVKDP3IN63SNKxvomH6BK74hrvwhBIp-7h1Wk5m6nGOyIJRR1lHoUfkXKhP8hGkakn8/s320/2015-06-14+09.26.46.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Naranjo/Aripo River LP site</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZjHUip98_GwwDmzv7XuFT0mNqwnDCzd4tvbc-Typd7QeozpudqsdeCHQ-xdqObv78jREVmzdeYg91NBsue1889Yj_stzC-RysM2hZf9p0-ENQUHX6oqZBiKNzTKJCOp3-uzDz7MWPHzk/s1600/2015-06-14+09.27.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZjHUip98_GwwDmzv7XuFT0mNqwnDCzd4tvbc-Typd7QeozpudqsdeCHQ-xdqObv78jREVmzdeYg91NBsue1889Yj_stzC-RysM2hZf9p0-ENQUHX6oqZBiKNzTKJCOp3-uzDz7MWPHzk/s320/2015-06-14+09.27.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking upstream</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnyBRUjmeHg5f04i_jKtlutvejAsEqJXbXx64OsHfOnbQQNQidn-dr9ELUMlrF-IPYVrdmHp8FTHMOLKBNczWbXCM6RTVOQTsvpXV6GjO5z81qRRxsRGmoBzajWbKPI_uBTAWF7Y_XKQ/s1600/DSC_0040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnyBRUjmeHg5f04i_jKtlutvejAsEqJXbXx64OsHfOnbQQNQidn-dr9ELUMlrF-IPYVrdmHp8FTHMOLKBNczWbXCM6RTVOQTsvpXV6GjO5z81qRRxsRGmoBzajWbKPI_uBTAWF7Y_XKQ/s320/DSC_0040.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Killifish, <i>Rivulus/Anablepsoides hartii </i>back at the lab</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
After taking the fish back to the lab, we headed back out to the Caroni River again, this time further upstream so I could catch some freshwater <i>reticulata </i>from an HP site to pair with the Aripo LP site. We checked a site that I had sampled the last time we were in Trinidad. However, that time was in the wet season and the river was difficult to sample so we were left with sampling one of the drainage ditches nearby. These fish ended up being very unhealthy so not many survived when we returned to Colorado. This time, however, we were able to sample the river. The population wasn't as high density as the one near the swamp that we sampled a few days previously, so it ended up being the site that took the longest amount of time to finish, but it was still only about an hour. We had to be quick because just upstream someone was cutting down bamboo stands and were getting closer and closer to us and we didn't want them to fall on us.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgvi1pAVjfoumxIWtI40MomI-ebtKQwYut_2G0Vbl_nQHrGr0w-PDxEJb0NGB3jfjFirQ6U9qwIi1U3pMumEV_na_9JykZ3hGNChJuWfCQ3QWWDU8couIfdqu_Co40OPprHXo-izIOtk/s1600/2015-06-14+12.29.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgvi1pAVjfoumxIWtI40MomI-ebtKQwYut_2G0Vbl_nQHrGr0w-PDxEJb0NGB3jfjFirQ6U9qwIi1U3pMumEV_na_9JykZ3hGNChJuWfCQ3QWWDU8couIfdqu_Co40OPprHXo-izIOtk/s320/2015-06-14+12.29.49.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cameron looking for guppies in the Caroni River</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Cameron and Craig also needed some freshwater <i>reticulata </i>since their previous freshwater site ended up being about 90% <i>picta</i>, so we went searching for a nearby site they could use. We ended up near a road crossing in a popular spot for "liming" (aka, partying). Once we located a good vegetation patch with lots of adults hiding in it, it only took a few tries to get all the guppies we needed. However, in the meantime, Cameron managed to find a fire ant colony that apparently he was sitting on. He was a trooper because he brushed them off and continued sampling guppies. At this point, we had now collected everything we were targeting, which is pretty good for only 3 days!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpDQZRUkIbVJlQo0UyDftoQXGsLDRD2r9_KXXjqM6pFBV0GnnS3nOsX9Xv0_q6irYHK3FEkmLyCc7BjepudVljr-aD0vtXgW4usRXUojTkp7EUGhh3SrXN9lp-8Dk19lMabab3SZai84/s1600/2015-06-14+15.40.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpDQZRUkIbVJlQo0UyDftoQXGsLDRD2r9_KXXjqM6pFBV0GnnS3nOsX9Xv0_q6irYHK3FEkmLyCc7BjepudVljr-aD0vtXgW4usRXUojTkp7EUGhh3SrXN9lp-8Dk19lMabab3SZai84/s320/2015-06-14+15.40.44.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorting guppies on the Caroni River (post fire ant attack)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjY9vI34RxAqXdc4xwGwifrU5ZMnm06cegfDLmmX-eaGMo_23qQNJ5fCbUxQWk76tAGYfBudF9EA-nck44i8dqYtSOxW4AJpnS39KtR5M5IqmSThbJhsZD6NxsZGVjiqfB6JY1RVI-mdU/s1600/2015-06-14+17.21.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjY9vI34RxAqXdc4xwGwifrU5ZMnm06cegfDLmmX-eaGMo_23qQNJ5fCbUxQWk76tAGYfBudF9EA-nck44i8dqYtSOxW4AJpnS39KtR5M5IqmSThbJhsZD6NxsZGVjiqfB6JY1RVI-mdU/s320/2015-06-14+17.21.39.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Travis and some guppies caught at the Caroni HP sites</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
After a hard day of exploring, collecting, and fire ant attacks, we decided not to cook dinner, but to instead go out for some Trini street food called doubles. They're sort of like a taco, with two pieces of bread overlapped on the bottom, then doused with a chickpea sauce and potentially other sauces. If you're brave, you can ask for "plenty peppa". I was not brave but the guys were. Each doubles stand is unique and we found some that serve them with other ingredients like ground chicken or a mango sauce. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-XsYaZOLa2X0Kz7t689U4CS7-SpZSXH0yFbFEpUK8c6R3udXpvD19LMXy_hjlLm_RhKJARC_YQM7NNCftsN9FsiZO7cWQuTAC6Cy6D8d5_QcKxnHrSKDbSYspALGM_jVxCFujy7xckw/s1600/2015-06-14+20.12.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-XsYaZOLa2X0Kz7t689U4CS7-SpZSXH0yFbFEpUK8c6R3udXpvD19LMXy_hjlLm_RhKJARC_YQM7NNCftsN9FsiZO7cWQuTAC6Cy6D8d5_QcKxnHrSKDbSYspALGM_jVxCFujy7xckw/s320/2015-06-14+20.12.13.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eating doubles</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4mAqlBWcbrjZGh06j6WN9QuNYbYTQGAKDoYV-070PnBnjwIyjYO-F7dRvTxb5oAPx9a1dxiTgfe4ozSCPuRMHmdnh0SdzT5jepTeeURtSnclg9F4CFYK9VYk8_NwJ5HncPk5EA4b-P8/s1600/Photo+Jun+14%252C+6+06+56+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4mAqlBWcbrjZGh06j6WN9QuNYbYTQGAKDoYV-070PnBnjwIyjYO-F7dRvTxb5oAPx9a1dxiTgfe4ozSCPuRMHmdnh0SdzT5jepTeeURtSnclg9F4CFYK9VYk8_NwJ5HncPk5EA4b-P8/s200/Photo+Jun+14%252C+6+06+56+PM.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like what you might<br />
see in a baby diaper</td></tr>
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<br />
Cameron had to head back to Colorado the next morning but the rest of us stayed another 2 days. We used this time to try to catch some pike cichlids (<i>Crenicichla frenata</i>). These fish are piscivorous and are one of the main predators of guppies in the HP sites. We needed to catch a few to bring back to Colorado so we can use them for a "predator" treatment in the flow-through systems. We were told the best way to catch these is using hook and line with guppies as bait, so we headed to a few HP stream sites to see what we could do. <br />
<br />
The morning started with a downpour and was the official start of the rainy season. We weren't able to get out for the first few hours, but once it cleared up we headed out to the El Cedro River. We got (vague) directions to the site from a few people, with the warning "DO NOT go to the dump". Apparently this is where very desperate people live and will attack people looking for anything they think will be valuable to them. We thought we were going the right way, then saw a man in an orange vest that looked like he was checking in cars at a gate. Immediately I realized it was the dump, so we had to turn around quickly and head back. We eventually found the river in what looked like someone's driveway, but after poking around for about 20 minutes, we didn't see much of anything, including guppies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUA9IT8Cj4E4DfkiucJ9I27Pp9Y0gNLpVHqB8LrG-m9K-fAsQLQH9qPb4qqVtqsYp8JhVmWh5ygv_kN-QfDr-lpxwMUIepe5MjXxOQhtIgY8b3RgW0WCfISuKFnGICDMX9vx0L-00pvs/s1600/2015-06-15+13.43.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUA9IT8Cj4E4DfkiucJ9I27Pp9Y0gNLpVHqB8LrG-m9K-fAsQLQH9qPb4qqVtqsYp8JhVmWh5ygv_kN-QfDr-lpxwMUIepe5MjXxOQhtIgY8b3RgW0WCfISuKFnGICDMX9vx0L-00pvs/s320/2015-06-15+13.43.34.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The El Cedro River</td></tr>
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Next, we headed to an Aripo HP site to try again for pikes. We had to do a little more exploring to find the trail leading down to the river, but eventually found it. It was kind of fun to actually do more of a hike to get to a site, rather than just pulling over on the side of the road. This was the first site where I expected to see a fer-de-lance or bushmaster, the two venomous snakes found on the island, but we didn't see any. I guess that's actually a good thing. The river was beautiful when we got to it, and we had a clear view of the waterfall separating the HP and LP sites (predators have a difficult time scaling these, but somehow guppies and killifish can do it). Not long after we arrived at the site, we were overtaken by some kind of flying insect. They didn't bite, but it was annoying because it made it difficult to concentrate on trying to fish. I even had one fly into my eye. When we got back to the house that evening, we learned that the rain earlier in the morning caused the termites to emerge. We did see a lot of other fish at the site, mostly the larger Characins, but were unsuccessful at catching a pike.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nl_3MXuyv4MsY7gsXf0RbDbm6SJ6ir4lnQ7azOp1ZxCPGbIoqYJvuO4QV0RsgWCh2Gnu25vQI4So2S0p4rTIAKOlpZTJtnIGeFKc-qzHyjIfkJHZh8LLf-DC3XRALOssFu2eukKn2dQ/s1600/2015-06-15+15.14.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nl_3MXuyv4MsY7gsXf0RbDbm6SJ6ir4lnQ7azOp1ZxCPGbIoqYJvuO4QV0RsgWCh2Gnu25vQI4So2S0p4rTIAKOlpZTJtnIGeFKc-qzHyjIfkJHZh8LLf-DC3XRALOssFu2eukKn2dQ/s320/2015-06-15+15.14.44.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aripo River and waterfall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The rains brought out a lot of amphibians, and we decided that evening to go on a herp walk to see what we could find. We probably saw at least 5 species, including ones that were inflated floating in a puddle. We also saw some cane toads and some other frogs that we weren't sure exactly what they were.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7UjFIj0FmP4BEjSZi9T5ToCWDm-9zRCfqu4QK2e2Rp_jAqwAG0rWkbeyb2iDmKzTyW4thNmtHWah1WmYuViqdp24U7Hu9UbdCTcdM-9QjOsTEWdd_0tBB7jbv0vojA3vU2iwwiSmxFQ/s1600/2015-06-15+20.52.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7UjFIj0FmP4BEjSZi9T5ToCWDm-9zRCfqu4QK2e2Rp_jAqwAG0rWkbeyb2iDmKzTyW4thNmtHWah1WmYuViqdp24U7Hu9UbdCTcdM-9QjOsTEWdd_0tBB7jbv0vojA3vU2iwwiSmxFQ/s320/2015-06-15+20.52.09.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-dXAzCTVT_KqU4GM563q0vFXQkZj1rgAZsW804pigtWvFPAudpwp7kYmExU4IIwJYLMDbJ0O7R-pofJKTdIIpNCO34eonlW-hKIYc_x8UD_UXCBUc33ZuWgHTFwAILSa6siTuQ71lAY/s1600/2015-06-15+21.31.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-dXAzCTVT_KqU4GM563q0vFXQkZj1rgAZsW804pigtWvFPAudpwp7kYmExU4IIwJYLMDbJ0O7R-pofJKTdIIpNCO34eonlW-hKIYc_x8UD_UXCBUc33ZuWgHTFwAILSa6siTuQ71lAY/s320/2015-06-15+21.31.00.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
The next (and last) day we tried for pikes again in the Oropuche River. In contrast to all the other sites we had been to, this river drains to the Niriva Swamp in the east. We tried for a while and were unsuccessful at catching anything using our guppy bait. This site is also a popular liming spot, so one of the locals came over to help us. He suggested using some crackers (which he donated to us) to draw the small fish in, and the big fish will follow. While this seemed like a great suggestion, the river was flowing a little too fast for this to work well. However, Travis managed to figure out a way to bait the smaller characins and scoop them up with one of the butterfly nets. Then we were able to use these for bait, which were much bigger than the guppies. After about 2 hours of trying, we had several bites, but were unsuccessful at catching anything. Then we met another local who actually collects fish and works for the zoo in Port of Spain. He told us they catch them using a seine that spans the width of the river. We didn't have one that big, but we did try walking upstream a bit to find one of the spots he suggested. We never did catch any pikes. Fortunately, one of the other researchers went out to El Cedro for killifish that night and was able to net one for us while it was sleeping, so we were able to bring one back in the end.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2D_AsODPc6BWR8007iPlWgjcreBONBYkdu3cd3Cbb5rA80ucFizKsL5Q4hEMszZ643LjoV0hAZbcCawpxuzQB7ylaG7_hpRkvTbyA4BkrrXbG1t6QcjcuBG_eMkm0ZI8hFUBT2cmDxzU/s1600/2015-06-16+10.20.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2D_AsODPc6BWR8007iPlWgjcreBONBYkdu3cd3Cbb5rA80ucFizKsL5Q4hEMszZ643LjoV0hAZbcCawpxuzQB7ylaG7_hpRkvTbyA4BkrrXbG1t6QcjcuBG_eMkm0ZI8hFUBT2cmDxzU/s320/2015-06-16+10.20.58.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Travis and Craig fishing for Pike</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me fishing for pike</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marianne, the pike cichlid</td></tr>
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We wanted to make sure we did one thing for fun while we were in Trinidad, so the last evening we took a boat tour of the Caroni Swamp to watch the scarlet ibis return to their roost after foraging in Venezuela for the day. We saw lots of other wildlife too! I'm really glad we had a chance to get out in the swamp a bit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVfutFjqeJPeJVNxYiUZ86aQPN3llDv6lr6t4bTSlLIQ-djS9hHfZAr_wvyawlMHVhNC-15F8z3pnKHBjoAHx2Xsq5IWckgD7u1qLObX3wKvveBdRTEB3dXZxgoo94FZ4pWuA9eWYc_E/s1600/2015-06-16+17.17.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVfutFjqeJPeJVNxYiUZ86aQPN3llDv6lr6t4bTSlLIQ-djS9hHfZAr_wvyawlMHVhNC-15F8z3pnKHBjoAHx2Xsq5IWckgD7u1qLObX3wKvveBdRTEB3dXZxgoo94FZ4pWuA9eWYc_E/s320/2015-06-16+17.17.51.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me, Travis, and Craig</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VQFHE5rBSEWqsFEd2nX6dvk5cBJ-bSqmuTeuadHARlbldODy6ar9d-4HTvjyALbdoTP7iog19YtPFBddKFN9MgD9BOOVYHAefzQkx_b8IfvzXPy5FuBqWfHE1Wy8upCY779j-SFyRuQ/s1600/DSC_0053+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VQFHE5rBSEWqsFEd2nX6dvk5cBJ-bSqmuTeuadHARlbldODy6ar9d-4HTvjyALbdoTP7iog19YtPFBddKFN9MgD9BOOVYHAefzQkx_b8IfvzXPy5FuBqWfHE1Wy8upCY779j-SFyRuQ/s320/DSC_0053+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Four-eyed fish, <i>Anableps</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypoD_aBIYJeUUf265UAbMwoIrA_scDsd7nk4aufVMHvtur6PYWbi1e4VamogNlfHwPlqYd5OfpWIryMyPdPd6kvnUzTed7g9RTJRMt2jTlKhLRuqNeqnVp149UbyRqt7wLVfNfKNCp-Y/s1600/DSC_0119+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypoD_aBIYJeUUf265UAbMwoIrA_scDsd7nk4aufVMHvtur6PYWbi1e4VamogNlfHwPlqYd5OfpWIryMyPdPd6kvnUzTed7g9RTJRMt2jTlKhLRuqNeqnVp149UbyRqt7wLVfNfKNCp-Y/s320/DSC_0119+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tree boa</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRJdwn7jUaTg2ngD7fokcyQxBJXtweNx7CfjsyCEnzao4FF1MgIfR4TSjihu5TrXLjZLSWo3dUj9t9sWw0eFqAJWiMJE_MPqNQ2fyBBlPrYe9doWoyG5c3d3OxzAoOySwePeS9np_bQU/s1600/DSC_0065+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRJdwn7jUaTg2ngD7fokcyQxBJXtweNx7CfjsyCEnzao4FF1MgIfR4TSjihu5TrXLjZLSWo3dUj9t9sWw0eFqAJWiMJE_MPqNQ2fyBBlPrYe9doWoyG5c3d3OxzAoOySwePeS9np_bQU/s320/DSC_0065+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silky anteater</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3hqrDcCOE0qwyV8lMwNGwKRls4lY1UNxf8dTI2a2BLhCJAuqQ5vktwLtrFjB813uamrRR0-PrELEPD3iZfEgy0zQPMoZackMKlFnSfKxj5AdBZ9LnO5kMD9aL3EzrXphDl6ChVQqY1I/s1600/DSC_0103+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis3hqrDcCOE0qwyV8lMwNGwKRls4lY1UNxf8dTI2a2BLhCJAuqQ5vktwLtrFjB813uamrRR0-PrELEPD3iZfEgy0zQPMoZackMKlFnSfKxj5AdBZ9LnO5kMD9aL3EzrXphDl6ChVQqY1I/s320/DSC_0103+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scarlet ibis</td></tr>
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So in all, I would say it was a very productive trip. Only about 5% of our fish died on the flight back to Colorado, and all are looking healthy and happy in the lab. Now I have no excuses, time to collect some data!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-61009573215175009472015-05-05T15:43:00.002-06:002015-05-05T15:48:06.099-06:00Finally! An evasive prey for guppies!Finding a challenging prey type for the guppies has posed quite a challenge for me! I have spent the past few months trying to work out the kinks in my data collection, and a big one was finding a prey that guppies like, that is relatively evasive, but that I can also successfully culture in the lab. To determine differences in feeding between populations of guppies, the prey need to be challenging to capture so that each fish has to work to catch them. Alternatively, I also want to film them with a prey type that requires a completely different type of capture, so will also be using frozen flake paste spread onto a die that they have to scrape to remove. But this second prey type was easier to figure out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbehX_rMrbkj9FGa7SIu70GVvNXBf-eu1zo7lXgmsTVFfrEduzTx3RrZPCnHYuqkrEg_qaSq0q60tQVVWuC2MXP5NG6UkRA2zZn_7MIIwAhmIKtWYw-mRnuJl5_815S0j7ary__vQprg/s1600/guppy+frames+OFA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbehX_rMrbkj9FGa7SIu70GVvNXBf-eu1zo7lXgmsTVFfrEduzTx3RrZPCnHYuqkrEg_qaSq0q60tQVVWuC2MXP5NG6UkRA2zZn_7MIIwAhmIKtWYw-mRnuJl5_815S0j7ary__vQprg/s1600/guppy+frames+OFA.jpg" height="165" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early trial of a guppy capturing brine shrimp nauplii (way too easy!)</td></tr>
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In terms of an evasive prey, I have used other, smaller fish as prey in the past, but this doesn't work with guppies since they're not piscivorous. At SICB I was listening intently to Jeannette Yen's talk on copepod evasive behaviors, and was convinced this is what I needed. However, at this time all the lakes in N. CO were still frozen, so it was not really possible to check out the local stocks. So I tried my hand at both freshwater (ordered online) and saltwater (bought locally) copepods, but couldn't get those cultures to last more than a week for some reason. I needed to try something else.<br />
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By this time the lakes had thawed, so my next tactic, because why not, was to gather my undergraduate helper Travis, some plankton sieves, and my kayaks and spend the day at Riverbend Ponds Natural Area to see what we could catch. Fortunately, we did come back with some plankton (though the water was FREEZING!), and upon inspection under the microscope, saw that indeed it was mostly copepods! It also had lots of rotifers and daphnia but we tried to sieve out what we could to keep the copepods. So we put them in our culture bucket, fed them some phytoplankton paste, and let them "soak" for about a week. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95TFatrFV6dBaMWO_O-xNy3j6c4rS_HzlS2Jqkh9ArcI9BfCcBdedr5PhAkv1Uk4W9U_u6S-jdatxWokaOuPLjUarlYbVIXLsvfx8GfiDZ6893QBmKXLrmuRt24UckksqdbvR7Pig8oU/s1600/2015-03-21+16.14.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95TFatrFV6dBaMWO_O-xNy3j6c4rS_HzlS2Jqkh9ArcI9BfCcBdedr5PhAkv1Uk4W9U_u6S-jdatxWokaOuPLjUarlYbVIXLsvfx8GfiDZ6893QBmKXLrmuRt24UckksqdbvR7Pig8oU/s1600/2015-03-21+16.14.44.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riverbend Ponds Natural Area, Long's peak in the distance</td></tr>
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To our surprise, what was a culture of copepods a week earlier was now a culture of Daphnia! Since it seems to be the only zooplankton I can keep alive, we decided to go with it. The Daphnia are also larger than the copepods, so they show up on the camera more easily (a plus!). However, I was worried that they would be too easy for the guppies to catch. So I gave Travis the task of filming some guppies to see what would happen. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjQ0mmB50FB1Ua5_wwLR-jjEReTs__ihTC8Ifdjz7PPNuF7JL5K-RhqABw5qspseuBS8jI0XUwpv1b9mYTX9dxM1wiyXkU_-T383Hu_AH98OUiYwNs5nHGcOpFFDORgsZd2zTYIM8Bd74/s1600/DSC_0901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjQ0mmB50FB1Ua5_wwLR-jjEReTs__ihTC8Ifdjz7PPNuF7JL5K-RhqABw5qspseuBS8jI0XUwpv1b9mYTX9dxM1wiyXkU_-T383Hu_AH98OUiYwNs5nHGcOpFFDORgsZd2zTYIM8Bd74/s1600/DSC_0901.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Travis doing some filming<br />
(note the foil to keep the camera from melting!)</td></tr>
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To our surprise, the guppies loved to eat them, and appeared calm and willing to eat for us, which was a first! Even more of a surprise was that, when we examined the video, it looks like Daphnia can evade guppies from a good distance, and so are a relatively evasive prey. Here's a video (Daphnia at the bottom left):<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ng50iwFyGWA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ng50iwFyGWA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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... and a close-up of the predator-prey interaction:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QNRdMssEUlE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QNRdMssEUlE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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I'm also working on digitizing a few trials to get some preliminary data. Here are the locomotor data for the trial in the videos above:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMixqDbowhRRHXhakE1aYko2j5D7azR9M1gY0n9UTDkk9R8wJTGxPlwG9Hwr0ew-j9C3WZ-VLMOSFybuxpqKYYWl3RZFBlZqolB0llBonACrkgY7tt-ykjhzXhLLXITUYc2iJYTuiK09A/s1600/OR001+trial+03+DAP+locomotionfig.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMixqDbowhRRHXhakE1aYko2j5D7azR9M1gY0n9UTDkk9R8wJTGxPlwG9Hwr0ew-j9C3WZ-VLMOSFybuxpqKYYWl3RZFBlZqolB0llBonACrkgY7tt-ykjhzXhLLXITUYc2iJYTuiK09A/s1600/OR001+trial+03+DAP+locomotionfig.tif" height="226" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prey velocity, prey acceleration, predator velocity, and predator acceleration</td></tr>
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It's pretty clear from this figure that the Daphnia actually does 3 escape responses, and that the guppy steadily approaches its prey and rapidly decelerates during capture. I only digitized the first capture attempt so the successful one isn't shown on the graphs above.</div>
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Long story short: Daphnia single-handedly rescue my post-doc!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-59138295316810858732015-04-13T14:51:00.004-06:002015-04-13T14:51:49.224-06:00Nature vs. Nurture - 7th graders visit CSUToday I hosted 22 7th graders from Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton, CO (over an hour from here). Their teacher, Ashley Luythe, asked those of us in the biology department if we could help her teach a unit on heredity and genetics. I thought the guppy work was perfect since much of our work uses common-garden style experiments to test whether phenotypes are driven by genetic or environmental influences. So I helped them arrange a trip up to CSU to learn about what we do.<br />
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We started the day by talking about genotypes and phenotypes, environmental and genetic influences (with an example using handedness), and why we use guppies to address our questions. Then we had a lot of fun modeling the effects of color on predation risk using skittles as our prey. We put them on colored backgroundsto see how many of which colors were "captured". Once the students generated histograms of their data, we found out that the skittles that matched the background were "captured" less often! <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9rEE0WB3IkYbniSblFFD1DrrlyZcycDms1rWX-UMoS8Y0jWSWYAGiY5qwNddnUdxiZsMFnfBdeba3DF5FtIj563wLSI6aT87dgoJVFm6zQsfixJnHawCyrClhEHfnLvmvwrA4AWj3NQ/s1600/DSC_0842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9rEE0WB3IkYbniSblFFD1DrrlyZcycDms1rWX-UMoS8Y0jWSWYAGiY5qwNddnUdxiZsMFnfBdeba3DF5FtIj563wLSI6aT87dgoJVFm6zQsfixJnHawCyrClhEHfnLvmvwrA4AWj3NQ/s1600/DSC_0842.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing to "capture" skittles</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbwyuQnWDMKgYxwnNVFdnHxFe5AALQsMHYI1KYhgpjdzT9_PLi62tt9eN9nftrITBY43c5Lc4fl-sz8A4OpZ-HdEsPDT5jk_EYkhKG8KRs8miIgq0C5ZMzT1KWOg7I5_FSFmsTV0KcQc8/s1600/DSC_0848.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbwyuQnWDMKgYxwnNVFdnHxFe5AALQsMHYI1KYhgpjdzT9_PLi62tt9eN9nftrITBY43c5Lc4fl-sz8A4OpZ-HdEsPDT5jk_EYkhKG8KRs8miIgq0C5ZMzT1KWOg7I5_FSFmsTV0KcQc8/s1600/DSC_0848.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making histograms</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJVr3X66d97CXxYt0NXrvxc5nPsy3AsXfRySWufv2WLOpMPHSyRKgssywhlGGJWC9KdBJeziRuQOea4LbC647y6duYPk5JI0-OKMEYpzIZYa49hmmRATV_DJ46E6QfNkHyJOv4Zuea1q8/s1600/DSC_0875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJVr3X66d97CXxYt0NXrvxc5nPsy3AsXfRySWufv2WLOpMPHSyRKgssywhlGGJWC9KdBJeziRuQOea4LbC647y6duYPk5JI0-OKMEYpzIZYa49hmmRATV_DJ46E6QfNkHyJOv4Zuea1q8/s1600/DSC_0875.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing the role of color in survival</td></tr>
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We also looked at 4 guppies and compared their color. Two guppies were low predation brothers that were raised in two environments, and the other two were high predation brothers raised in two environments. By knowing the genetic background as well as the rearing history, we determined that color brightness in guppies was primarily determined by environmental changes! The students also had a chance to tour our guppy rearing facility at the end of their visit.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpT65nu45yNLnHbqHBol2Pb_Z08hKJgtAE2wcPJ_UGZFco2g08bsZx7dFpZt9TuwMTsxkQ7wjS41RV5brYSdocCABxjtpnCUVrwZyFdp_YanNyJ_JMcOCrehEavZRiGUlNYA8lyrRtVEM/s1600/DSC_0856.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpT65nu45yNLnHbqHBol2Pb_Z08hKJgtAE2wcPJ_UGZFco2g08bsZx7dFpZt9TuwMTsxkQ7wjS41RV5brYSdocCABxjtpnCUVrwZyFdp_YanNyJ_JMcOCrehEavZRiGUlNYA8lyrRtVEM/s1600/DSC_0856.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examining guppy coloration</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtxduO4vOgjnogdebxXdMkoq4zq7hK5SBsvQInSz63r3neTTA9_nQExIEOlTE-whQei-5nBWivCZ-k1oN4UoJ2zlbpEzwWML9t4KnHHmEr_-l6ZvBE2uCMr4wyoS2bcODjWjKFmMY1bI/s1600/DSC_0864.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtxduO4vOgjnogdebxXdMkoq4zq7hK5SBsvQInSz63r3neTTA9_nQExIEOlTE-whQei-5nBWivCZ-k1oN4UoJ2zlbpEzwWML9t4KnHHmEr_-l6ZvBE2uCMr4wyoS2bcODjWjKFmMY1bI/s1600/DSC_0864.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comparing guppies raised in different environments</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhuSqCpX8ld_D86GxvdPeFsaFHELy66c0DVTjO35Z320Aj9GWAcmLj0OkznOIY813D8Nb6gv9UsRR9Dta0Zxey85zyMDyiWu3MTmDa-htyDuZJlHNMRAzblO_ZIBQvXmwk24obQARQ54/s1600/DSC_0868.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhuSqCpX8ld_D86GxvdPeFsaFHELy66c0DVTjO35Z320Aj9GWAcmLj0OkznOIY813D8Nb6gv9UsRR9Dta0Zxey85zyMDyiWu3MTmDa-htyDuZJlHNMRAzblO_ZIBQvXmwk24obQARQ54/s1600/DSC_0868.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing genetic and environmental influences</td></tr>
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After talking about guppies, they also heard from Molly Womack, who talked about her research on earless toads! She brought cleared and stained toads, a fish embedded for histological sectioning, and live eared and earless toads for everyone to see! She also gave the students a chance to ask those burning questions about her life as a graduate student. They had great questions!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXAaR8FU3WY8-E5lknn5QTVnlRpiviZpc2u4GUmaXnmugNzrBVTLb4__F0rJbV-Zj14xUpFhlNkAQ9M9q2b3gA6A5mKbPAM0YgVajGvYULNWcRbxB7hAIGX8_vZ55DO7v5PoPJY4T8oU/s1600/DSC_0886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXAaR8FU3WY8-E5lknn5QTVnlRpiviZpc2u4GUmaXnmugNzrBVTLb4__F0rJbV-Zj14xUpFhlNkAQ9M9q2b3gA6A5mKbPAM0YgVajGvYULNWcRbxB7hAIGX8_vZ55DO7v5PoPJY4T8oU/s1600/DSC_0886.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examining two species of toads</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgtXKwHz_hYlEEyGsKNidyRl1LyKjhgjaT8VHh6apMidnCSdbckg0bbIbRIGsYLWsrScYhfLizIdYUE2_nvs3K6eJU4o6mPjpFXcTWjzIKvAGqGLV-QdKkmZcxd2cqUjsrab-eFe3x4Fs/s1600/DSC_0884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgtXKwHz_hYlEEyGsKNidyRl1LyKjhgjaT8VHh6apMidnCSdbckg0bbIbRIGsYLWsrScYhfLizIdYUE2_nvs3K6eJU4o6mPjpFXcTWjzIKvAGqGLV-QdKkmZcxd2cqUjsrab-eFe3x4Fs/s1600/DSC_0884.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This looks like a fishing story..."it was THIS big!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOmgw9lsr3DPphy1roAtJyZIdvoy3-ZF6MCKG2Ea58KbX7rvHRALobr0NI8W-a8Wkptb4z7wDgCSvvN8uR3D4co4dYuy1w-lfvUuKKgrjguejekKykY-A2-mGTOhsG1wzxYHuNDCrpaA/s1600/DSC_0883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOmgw9lsr3DPphy1roAtJyZIdvoy3-ZF6MCKG2Ea58KbX7rvHRALobr0NI8W-a8Wkptb4z7wDgCSvvN8uR3D4co4dYuy1w-lfvUuKKgrjguejekKykY-A2-mGTOhsG1wzxYHuNDCrpaA/s1600/DSC_0883.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cleared and stained toad</td></tr>
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Thanks to several graduate and undergraduate students for helping with this activity: Rachel Bockrath, Dale Broder, Francis Commercon, Travis Klee, Mitchell Leroy, and Molly Womack! Hopefully their trip to CSU inspired the 7th graders to learn more about genetics and heredity.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-62735140858831971352015-04-08T09:40:00.000-06:002015-05-15T09:12:36.680-06:00ICB manuscript accepted!Look for my manuscript in <i>Integrative and Comparative Biology </i>soon (Update 5/15/15: it's out now here http://bit.ly/1L6KIzE)! This is a compliment to what I presented at SICB in West Palm Beach at the symposium "New Insights into Suction Feeding Biomechanics and Evolution" organized by my PhD advisor, <a href="http://www.biomechanics.ucr.edu/" target="_blank">Tim Higham</a>, and his PhD advisor, <a href="http://fishlab.ucdavis.edu/" target="_blank">Peter Wainwright</a>. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibXgTCOJ4YtDeQ1TGlCmW_matA7iwhES6wOzQjwI1ISf4J-1vk573gzYxUZFKZqG1EE4lbOZnv3xnQTn1VZcgryig4zZfBTXHtiiwZbHDPWMzllHsCsfQio57Dwey0gkgWxXKoT-HGjGU/s1600/Integration+space+website.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibXgTCOJ4YtDeQ1TGlCmW_matA7iwhES6wOzQjwI1ISf4J-1vk573gzYxUZFKZqG1EE4lbOZnv3xnQTn1VZcgryig4zZfBTXHtiiwZbHDPWMzllHsCsfQio57Dwey0gkgWxXKoT-HGjGU/s1600/Integration+space+website.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What are our predictions of how an "integration space" <br />
explains fish diversity? Read the paper to find out!</td></tr>
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In summary, we were interested in increasing awareness and providing methods and a context for thinking about complex behaviors and how multiple functional systems can be coordinated and integrated when they work together to accomplish a common task. We use prey capture in fishes as the common task involving both locomotor and feeding functional systems as an example of this idea because of the extensive background on each system in this group. We aim to do 4 things in this paper: 1) discuss complexity and integration and what they mean to biomechanics, 2) discuss the importance of integration for understanding patterns of diversity (here we hypothesize the integration space above), 3) provide empirical demonstrations of integration using a meta-analysis of ram and gape from several species found in the literature as well as a multivariate re-analysis of previously published sculpin data, and 4) discuss how this approach adds novel insights into organism function and diversity as well as outline future questions related to these ideas. We hope this work can be used to drive the future of study on complex functional behaviors, and that future work on fish feeding acknowledges the potentially significant role that other systems, such as locomotion, can play in diversification patterns. <br />
<br />
For fun, here are some videos of black crappie (<i>Pomoxis nigromaculatus</i>) capturing two prey types. Notice the very interesting locomotor strategy of crappie when capturing evasive fish prey - a roll behavior, coupled with a slow stalk and quick burst of acceleration. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4MpLz0vRJDg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4MpLz0vRJDg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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This is not observed when capturing other types of prey such as frozen bloodworms.<br />
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Interesting examples of the importance of locomotion during prey capture!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-24200175610788159672015-03-11T20:42:00.000-06:002015-03-11T20:55:18.883-06:00Biomechanics: Using physics to understand animalsI am developing an outreach activity that will bridge the gap between math and biology that I can perform for elementary and high school students, either when they come to visit the CSU guppy lab or for external events. After discussing Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion, I talk about how we can use motion, specifically speed/velocity and acceleration, to understand differences between animals. I then show them drawings of a largemouth bass and a bluegill sunfish and help them predict differences in swimming performance based on body shape. To test those predictions, we analyze two high speed videos of these fish capturing prey. Then we discuss our results and talk about how differences in swimming might contribute to differences in ecology and survival in different habitats (i.e. evolution). I relate this to the current work here at CSU by talking about how guppies fit into this idea. I have done this so far with high school juniors/seniors and 8th graders. Special thanks to Dale Broder for inspiring me to create this activity using authentic science!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ENpuNZdijinGFAhGbYQEaVzLuDMSEUGwwMxwqwgR22CCa9Rc7i3ij1QvrKohv4fAb8tvwe1Q8MRSX1KrFzevMYpfHheKsfdikpYJGWiHMmnQMCVdEVsSvwOIeCvjIKh_94FGCTEDELc/s1600/IMG_5244.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ENpuNZdijinGFAhGbYQEaVzLuDMSEUGwwMxwqwgR22CCa9Rc7i3ij1QvrKohv4fAb8tvwe1Q8MRSX1KrFzevMYpfHheKsfdikpYJGWiHMmnQMCVdEVsSvwOIeCvjIKh_94FGCTEDELc/s1600/IMG_5244.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing Newton's laws of motion</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO84tiI2XJbstub0HBvejr-OA-46l5bskLVyH2cxiRNlo6PATLC0O7RP631Y2Zf1NVGrJCqeFznT7Cw2dTifk-PQRw9nilynqN2w_a5KZtGfKyn810Q50eacpj4eBSOGkn3LjsYilwwyo/s1600/IMG_5245.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO84tiI2XJbstub0HBvejr-OA-46l5bskLVyH2cxiRNlo6PATLC0O7RP631Y2Zf1NVGrJCqeFznT7Cw2dTifk-PQRw9nilynqN2w_a5KZtGfKyn810Q50eacpj4eBSOGkn3LjsYilwwyo/s1600/IMG_5245.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Forces acting on a fish (for some reason the camera made the image a rainbow)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9l-ahv0A8PbcrBWHYdkTk4Xgh8EU7SZZqX_TRWksPfhvbTKEecyIInrqA6UpglGe6shxP2lkW-LDIP237qsOduZjYyqIiHBp1lAbQJzYId4ktTALT71Oesf-ZuUUR1HPk5s39GU80aM4/s1600/IMG_5251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9l-ahv0A8PbcrBWHYdkTk4Xgh8EU7SZZqX_TRWksPfhvbTKEecyIInrqA6UpglGe6shxP2lkW-LDIP237qsOduZjYyqIiHBp1lAbQJzYId4ktTALT71Oesf-ZuUUR1HPk5s39GU80aM4/s1600/IMG_5251.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morphological differences between species</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOqdZTIQCfCUAomFJH5BAk9CzswOLJdhGoTlhdgfsKXF8jJI7o8C08rSv76p_YP7TmjPFccLiUW7MkBKLbwHhZUzrLSV-otIIkSvPYVzhOmms-igDyMA19RaEvz4qzjQ9wHi8JGwCsnw/s1600/IMG_5254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOqdZTIQCfCUAomFJH5BAk9CzswOLJdhGoTlhdgfsKXF8jJI7o8C08rSv76p_YP7TmjPFccLiUW7MkBKLbwHhZUzrLSV-otIIkSvPYVzhOmms-igDyMA19RaEvz4qzjQ9wHi8JGwCsnw/s1600/IMG_5254.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Students calculating velocity from still frames</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvq4ZA_0kneZsbHuFDEeC7w3mlf7hcdRw0QieEk92x1Q_KRmD7Ji0_YFXjJ3aVqm-bo2A-uT0cDMk0mnu-Vco6vKZsVnDORLZj8GlbhcBCbIqpvawNvKPUX-_iVYrNW1vkRVK_ACZ2e4/s1600/IMG_5253.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvq4ZA_0kneZsbHuFDEeC7w3mlf7hcdRw0QieEk92x1Q_KRmD7Ji0_YFXjJ3aVqm-bo2A-uT0cDMk0mnu-Vco6vKZsVnDORLZj8GlbhcBCbIqpvawNvKPUX-_iVYrNW1vkRVK_ACZ2e4/s1600/IMG_5253.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Students calculating velocity</td></tr>
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<br />Thanks to Dale Broder and Katie Guilbert for photos!<br /><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-73411243114145674342015-01-30T13:37:00.004-07:002015-01-30T13:37:45.357-07:00Guppy videosHere are some high-speed videos I have taken recently of guppies feeding on two prey types: relatively easy to catch brine shrimp nauplii, and very difficult to catch freshwater copepods. The copepod trial just happened today, and I am excited that I have found an evasive prey to challenge these guppies. Since I want to look at differences between populations, I need a prey that's going to make them work. Otherwise, those differences might be hard to find.<br />
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Without further ado...<br />
A guppy capturing brine shrimp:<br />
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimkkrNHSro&list=UULvFDv9IahzX1Qum8N3mD-Q<br />
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and a guppy capturing (or rather not capturing!) a copepod:<br />
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9YvZJc0jhs&list=UULvFDv9IahzX1Qum8N3mD-Q<br />
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**All procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Colorado State University**Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-26721774149492623222015-01-10T17:00:00.000-07:002015-01-10T17:00:30.058-07:00Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!Since January 2014, I have completed my dissertation, graduated, moved to Colorado, started a postdoc position, and participated in a symposium at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. These are no small tasks, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the support of my family, friends, and advisors. Participating in the symposium was actually a really nice way to conclude my life as a student and stand on my own two feet as an independent researcher. The talk went extremely well and I could tell it got at least a few people thinking. Thanks to everyone for their supportive comments! I will be sure to post as soon as the <i>ICB </i>paper is available online. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-LRdrjJuuuESrSrqXIWoTMMlKOwOxVWmB_LpltBtJ1pIYsYFt7RhkUieIE5thLE0kHgCTGpEnQUH_zWtXEr8uthzowUkFs3oB0PTRZdhzwEG7zZzu4oqzwyOza1QG-eSAMwLMre4pkUg/s1600/SICB+Palm+Beach+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-LRdrjJuuuESrSrqXIWoTMMlKOwOxVWmB_LpltBtJ1pIYsYFt7RhkUieIE5thLE0kHgCTGpEnQUH_zWtXEr8uthzowUkFs3oB0PTRZdhzwEG7zZzu4oqzwyOza1QG-eSAMwLMre4pkUg/s1600/SICB+Palm+Beach+2015.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SICB 2015: Sandy Kawano (NIMBioS, Knoxville, TN), Me, Kathleen Foster <br />(UCR, Riverside, CA), and Jeff Olberding (USF, Tampa, FL)</td></tr>
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<br />
Looking forward to 2015, I have lots of plans, though they don't seem as defining and conclusive as those of 2014. Some of my major tasks for this year include:<br />
<br />
1. Developing my outreach program in Fort Collins, CO<br />
2. Collecting feeding video for up to 20 individual guppies from 4 populations to describe feeding kinematics and differences with integration along environmental gradients<br />
3. Automating as much of my video analysis as possible (yes, I will share if it works!)<br />
4. Publishing guppy results<br />
5. Polishing up the data from the last chapter of my dissertation (bluegill) and finish analyzing two additional species not included in my dissertation (bass and green sunfish)<br />
6. Publishing final dissertation results<br />
7. Presenting final dissertation results at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Prague, Czech Republic this summer<br />
8. Another trip to Trinidad to collect guppies and start on breeding design for common garden experiment to test for genetic and environmental effects on performance integration<br />
9. Guest lecture/help develop content for Kim Hoke's "biological basis of behavior" class this spring<br />
<br />
By making this list, I am hoping it will keep me accountable! At any rate, completing just a handful of these tasks is a big accomplishment!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-82642020089350991652014-12-17T20:20:00.000-07:002014-12-17T20:20:50.755-07:00SICB 2015 approaching fast!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2Zd7iVB5RMfT4zOpAN11ZST9EKC3KApf0dg6yQ3vi6Hm1Y0bamc8cYvwhypCVYabOmA2jUAD5yCJ0SwiftI2FQQayd5TKhlGtkjkNovQlH7hzDD8OrzlmSk7XMB6Y8ZwQXneIOHEycY/s1600/ventral+kinematics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2Zd7iVB5RMfT4zOpAN11ZST9EKC3KApf0dg6yQ3vi6Hm1Y0bamc8cYvwhypCVYabOmA2jUAD5yCJ0SwiftI2FQQayd5TKhlGtkjkNovQlH7hzDD8OrzlmSk7XMB6Y8ZwQXneIOHEycY/s1600/ventral+kinematics.jpg" height="155" width="400" /></a></div>
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I've been busily working on my symposia talk for SICB 2015 in West Palm Beach, FL. I'm excited to talk about performance integration in the context of suction feeding in fishes! I will present some ideas I have been working on in my dissertation, like a multivariate method for quantifying performance integration, as well as some new ideas about how integration can contribute to patterns of diversity in fish feeding. If that isn't enticing enough, there are also 7 high speed videos of animals catching (or attempting to catch) prey! <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Come see my talk!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Wednesday Jan. 7, 1:30pm</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-13694801900139877832014-11-14T15:28:00.001-07:002014-11-17T11:10:02.566-07:00Call for data!If you or anyone you know has the following data, can you pass it along? I need predator swimming velocity and predator gape during prey capture. Also if you happen to have performed a correlation between the two, include that. Thanks!<br />
<br />
Please update my <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=14KnNehibm2RtYDeanUebNs0mpBhyf0hGqTA_a49Efko&authuser=0" target="_blank">Google spreadsheet</a><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="font-size: 0px; line-height: 0px;">https://drive.google.com/open?id=14KnNehibm2RtYDeanUebNs0mpBhyf0hGqTA_a49Efko&authuser=0</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-92161434815664026262014-10-08T20:53:00.000-06:002014-10-08T20:53:32.408-06:00Math, Science, Tech Day at CSUThe CSU Guppy Group volunteered for <a href="http://mst-day.colostate.edu/index.html" target="_blank">CSU Math, Science, Tech Day</a>, where local 4th grade students from primarily underrepresented communities were invited to CSU to experience the campus and learn about research, in an effort to demonstrate that a college education is attainable and exciting. We again used our guppies to teach about adaptation and natural/artificial selection. One student even told me ours was the best demonstration all day, so they seemed to have enjoyed it! Thanks to Dale and Lisa for organizing, and John, Sarah, and Austin for helping run the event!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Observing the colors on a low predation guppy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloring a pet store guppy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dale discussing how environment shapes a guppy's traits</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3101203481751682473.post-62221792330051010102014-10-08T20:52:00.001-06:002014-10-08T20:52:26.382-06:00First trip to Trinidad!Last week I took my first trip to Trinidad. Even though it was the wet season, we needed to get fish to start a breeding experiment, so we took our chances. Unfortunately, it poured down rain most of the time we were there, turning small creeks into raging rivers. It started raining on our way home from the site we sampled on the second day, and the hour drive down the the windy, bumpy, mountain road we came up on turned into a dangerous, flooded, muddy mess, consequently causing the rental car agent to scowl at Cam when he returned the car. Fortunately, we made it back and waited the rain out for the next 2 days by checking out sites and visiting the <a href="http://asawright.org/" target="_blank">Asa Wright Nature Center</a>, a renowned birder's paradise. On our last day, we made up for lost time and sampled 3 sites in one day, and another team of researchers sampled a 4th site for us! So in all, it was a successful trip, but hopefully next time it will be the dry season, and we will have more time to explore more of Trinidad. I feel like this was my first "real" field experience, where we were basically camping at the field station - I had to sleep in a mosquito net - and I got more dirty and wet in one day than I have in an entire week! Now I am officially a field biologist and I love it!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using butterfly nets to catch guppies in Trinidadian streams</td></tr>
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More photos <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105473869439686399823/albums/6068011748027187457" target="_blank">here</a>!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07560311534270518218noreply@blogger.com0