Dr. Sarah Krejci & the Aquatic Research Lab

We are coming up on a deadline to get posters done for FURC in about a week. Tonight was getting our graphs on the posters and cleaning up the writing on our seahorse and zooplankton posters. It’s very serious late night science work. Absolutely no shenanigans happened.

Dr. Krejci, Dr. Juan Calderon, and Dr. Hyun Cho collaborated on a submission for FL Seagrant to develop a Swarm Robotic Ocean Monitoring System for chlorophyll a analysis of algal blooms in Florida. Fingers crossed for an accepted letter and a chance to write a full proposal!

It was Florida cold today!!! New lab researcher, Lauren Albury, had her first research field day sampling for zooplankton. We conducted over 20 vertical tows today 😱 at 7 research sites.

Spent the day collecting pre restoration samples of zooplankton with Ms. Alyssa Stubbs and Chris Schlageter. I’ll be back out again with one of our new researchers to finish up the pre samples and then the next few months will be microscope work! Yay (haha).

Four accepted abstracts to the Florida 🎉🎉🎉Undergraduate Research Conference! Now to get four posters in tip top shape!

Feeding Selectivity of Juvenile Seahorses on Wild Zooplankton During Early Development. Authors: Alyssa Stubbs, Vikash Bisram, Sarah Krejci

Determining Spatial and Temporal Water Quality Changes in the Halifax River Lagoon (HRL), FL Authors: Jehmia Williams, Danithza S. Rojas-Torres, Juan Calderon, Sarah Krejci

Effects of Superbloom Conditions on Zooplankton Density in the Indian River Lagoon, FL. Authors: Jonathan Johnson, Sarah Krejci

Examining Zooplankton Density Related to Seasonal and Water Quality Conditions in the Halifax River Lagoon, FL. Authors: Lakean McGregor and Sarah Krejci

 

We had an exciting day with Jonathan’s discovery of cladocerans in our samples taken from the Banana River near the Pineda Causeway back in November. These small crustaceans are known as water fleas and females will brood their babies in a pouch before they hatch. There’s no larval planktonic form and what you’re looking at are the adults. After years of studying zooplankton in the Indian River and the Halifax, I have never observed one and these particular samples have tons!

I had the pleasure of hosting students and faculty from Union University, TN on B-CU’s campus for a zooplankton workshop and campus tour.

We collected zooplankton from the Halifax and observed them under our digital compound scopes with help from lab researchers Alyssa and Xavier .

We also received a tour of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s home which was very special!

The seahorse babies turned 2 months old yesterday! Students are beginning to return to campus for Spring semester and I’m looking forward to having someone else deal with water changes and Artemia culture!!

 

Took undergraduate researchers Lakean and Vikash our for a manatee snorkel at Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River. One of the first things Lakean said when I asked him to join the lab last year was “It’s my dream to swim with a manatee!” Well, yesterday dreams came true and it was his birthday!

I have updated and added photos and videos to several locations on the site:

B-CU Programs

Aquatic Research Laboratory

C.U.R.E. Mentor

Research Experience for Undergraduates-REU

BI 141-Principles of Biology I Lecture and Lab

BI 440- Research

BI 355- Introduction to Marine Biology Lecture & Lab

Open Education Resources (OER) Affordable Learning Solutions Pilot

Guest Lectures

PSTEM

ATP Mentor Coordinator