Glow Sand, Glow

This week has largely been about testing out the fluorescent sand that I made, and I'm happy to report that it worked as I had hoped. The initial sediment that I used for this test came from an area near my apartment, so while not sand, it still was a good enough substitute. Today at the lab, I collected marine sediments (sandy), added some seawater, and added the fluorescent sediment to see how it would look and to make sure that the fluorescence wouldn't leach out from the sediment. In today's picture, you can see that the sediment remained reactive to the light, and you can even spot an area where a polychaete was traveling up and down within the sediment. You may also notice that most of the fluorescent particles are near the very top of the sediment and water. This is because most of the fluorescent sediment seemed less dense than the seawater and it formed a surface layer above the water and over time, some of these particles settled to the sediment-water interface.

In addition, I collected and stained some of the marine sediment to make sure that the initial test wasn't an accident. These particles need to dry before I can test their quality, but it is definitely an exciting step in this research process. These initial tests allow me to problem-solve before conducting the pilot experiment and before conducting the full experiment, which saves me a lot of money and effort in the long run. The next steps will be setting up an aquarium for this pilot experiment and going out to Panama City Beach, where I do all of my field work, to get sediments, staining them, and then running this pilot to make sure that the theory behind the experimental design manifests in quantifiable results.

​Stay tuned for more exciting updates as the summer draws near!

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