Susan takes some time to give us a glimpse into the life of Master’s Student at SIO:

I am currently taking Dr. Jennifer Smith’s Phycology class and learning A LOT about algae taxonomy and identification.  We have taken a couple trips out to the tide pools here at SIO to collect algae  and are working on making our own Herbariums, which is a dried seaweed collection.  Its both a lot of fun and a lot of work because algae is so diverse!

In other lab news, we recently did an overhaul clean of the wetlab and it now looks PRISTINE!  We have been collecting coral larvae from our spawning corals since the summer, but they have now considerably slowed their larvae output.  We also have some corals that we are considering to possibly donate to science or the aquarium, since they are no longer needed for our purposes.

I have been working continuously with Nichole Price (a post-doc in the Smith Lab) to get the CO2 Bubbling System up and running in the wetlab, which will allow us to mimic the effects of ocean acidification and run experiments!  I hope to be able to set up my own experiment and have it running by next quarter.

It’s been a pretty busy quarter thus far, but I am definitely learning a lot and enjoying the experience!