Day 1 of an Exciting Journey

Today was the day I had been waiting a long time for: the first day of processing my own research samples in the lab. It feels different to be conducting your own work rather than someone else's, and while all of the work I did in my first year has prepared me to do my own research, I'd much rather spend hours with my samples than anyone else's (no offense, Dr. Ingels). There were a few things today that went really well, and some things that could have gone better, and I'll walk you through all of it.

Things that went well: I stayed organized, thanks to work I put in ahead of time to make sure I had properly labeled everything and the time I spent preparing my research notes so that I had quick access to writing materials to make notes about what was going on and anything that happened that was important; the samples I processed today ran really smoothly and the meiofauna samples do not look very sediment-dense. I was surprised by the processing time, likely because I had recently come from working with mud samples, which can be very tiresome to process. The samples appear to be fine sands, as expected based on some work done by USGS, which makes for an easier time washing the samples through the sieves. You can even see me modeling next to the very first sample I processed from my work today. I also think that my choices for protective gear and clothing were appropriate, though I don't have data to say for certain. Most work in microplastics analysis suggests wearing 100% cotton lab coats and I wasn't certain that we had any in the lab so I purchased 100% cotton shirts. Turns out I was doubly prepared with the shirt and lab coat to protect my samples against fiber contamination.

Things that didn't go well: I am pleased that there were no major mishaps today at the start of my work, but I did have a minor problem. I assumed that I could make the microplastics extraction solution by massing the salts in a 1:1 ratio and dissolving them in water. Turns out, I should have sat down with some notes and a calculator beforehand to do the calculations on how much of each salt and the water I would need. I ended up using all of one of the salts that I had ordered and will need to wait to do plastics extraction. This isn't a major setback, but rather a really important learning step for me on my research journey. The work that I'm doing is an amalgamation of research methods and some of the methods are not explicit in the literature. Therefore, I will make mistakes and take notes on what happened and why the mistake happened so that I can improve my methods as I continue doing my research. My samples weren't affected by my setback today, it just means that I will be working for the next week or more on meiofauna extractions and put the microplastics extractions on hold until I get my new materials. I also have the time to sit down and write out the calculations to make sure that I approach the microplastics extraction properly for the second attempt.

None of this work would be possible without the support of FSU, the FSU Marine Lab faculty and staff, Dr. Ingels and Dr. Miller (my advisor and co-advisor), my committee who has given me really valuable feedback on how I am approaching my research, and my grant funding organizations: the PADI Foundation and the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. I can't wait to update you soon on more of my research endeavors.

---