Pilot Over!

No fancy title or flashy pictures for this week, because this week I finished the pilot experiment. I am very happy with how it went and I still can't believe that a few months ago I had no understanding of how aquarium systems worked or what went into maintaining tanks and seawater systems. Additionally, for anyone worried, the table survived, which is remarkable. While the results from the pilot won't go beyond the pictures I have saved on my hard drive, they set the tone for the full experiment, which will be about four times larger. 

For the next month, I will be working on ways to improve the experiment, including an altered photography setup, redesigning the aquarium setup itself, and rethinking some of the sediment collection aspects. Additionally, I get to help out around the lab with additional projects and educational outreach opportunities since I have some available time. In a few weeks, I will meet with our team in Sweden to go over the results from this pilot, confirm the design and plan for the full experiment, and then get all the materials ready for my final project for my dissertation.

Stay tuned for next week's update.