Week 2: Gaining Independence

In my second week in lab, I began to perform some of the procedures by myself, rather than shadowing Kiley or doing htem with her assistance, as I did in my first week. My first challenge was gaining confidence with sediment coring, which is crucial to my project. Sediment coring isn't a formal lab procedure, but is rather a method Kiley has developed during her time at CMOP to help with her project. Sediment samples are taken in 50ml tubes from strategic sites out on the coast, near Astoria, where the P. antipodarum are known to exist. They are immediately frozen in order to preserve the DNA within the sediment that we want to analyze later. I essentially have to disect the frozen sediment samples in order to take smaller samples for DNA extraction, as well as to search for snails. 

This initially proved easier said than done, as sediment core dissections requires standing in a climate controlled "cold room" and attempting to push 5mm-sections of frozen sediment out of a plastic tube with a stopper, cutting it with a razor and depositing it into the appropriate petri dish, all before the sample gets overly thawed. Out of the cold room, I examined the individual sections for the presence of snails. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of snails so far, but as the summer goes on I suspect we will find more.