A Behind the Scenes Look

While nematode identifications have been the focus of my summer thus far, I am starting the next part of my research and overlapping it with the nematode work. This week I'm giving you a behind the scenes tour of what is happening in this new research phase, and while I can't disclose everything, I will show you as much as possible.

From the start of my time at FSU, I have been interested in understanding how microplastics pollution affects the ecosystem. However, unlike other researchers who focus on mortality, reproductive effects, or transfer of plastics in the food web (trophic transfer), I have wanted to focus on how microplastics affect nutrient dynamics in marine ecosystems. Nematodes make for great study organisms for this type of research because they facilitate aspects of the nitrogen cycle by supporting specific marine bacteria in sediments. As these bacteria consume oxygen to maintain their metabolisms, nematodes also may indirectly alter oxygen cycling in sediment systems.

How do nematodes facilitate these denitrifying bacteria? Nematodes may selectively consume bacteria that outcompete these amazing microbes, and therefore promote systems that do not limit the growth and success of the denitrifyers. Nematodes also burrow through marine sediments in a process known as bioturbation. While digging, nematodes release a mucous trail full of nutrients that bacteria can use to sustain their metabolic functions. The nutrient dynamics and nematode behaviors that facilitate these dynamics is the focus of the final part of my research (next summer), but this summer--and into the fall--I need to first understand why nematodes are eating microplastics.

Rather than start the experiment immediately and hope it works, I am taking some precautions to test some of the methods, because some of these methods are brand new. To run this experiment, I am using an environmental chamber, pictured here, to keep the water at the temperature of the ecosystem from which it came, and the current test you can see is to ensure that the environmental conditions remain relatively stable and that the conditions are ideal for the rest of the experiment.

Tune in next week. I may have results from the second test by then if everything goes without a hitch!

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