Reaching the End of the Nematode Identifications

Although I don't have a flashy title this week nor a great picture, thanks to my forgetfulness, I am excited to be nearly done with the nematode identifications for the portion of my research regarding the differences in nematode community structures at wastewater treatment plants compared to areas devoid of waste treatment. While I have provided previous updates announcing that I finished the 2,400 nematode identifications, I have spent the past week-or-so going back to the identification sheets to assign names to unidentified individuals. There will likely be between 60 and 70 that I cannot name, and I will wait for Dr. Ingels to check those specific individuals. This way, I am maximizing our collaboration time by checking only the most difficult specimens, which are often individuals I have not seen before. During this time, we also check on specimens that are exceptionally abundant throughout samples, which provides maximum return on effort, since some of these taxa are present 20-30 times.

What happens when I finish these nematode identifications? I think the fun starts then, because the data analysis will provide information regarding the community structures at the research stations and provide insight into what is happening in the system. With my previous research on microplastic abundances, it was easy to see some large trends prior to analyzing the data, but a combination of factors makes it hard for me to see trends in the nematode data: First, I am not a nematologist, and while I have learned a lot to get up to speed in our lab, I still don't know much information about the life histories of the majority of taxa Dr. Ingels and I have identified. There are a few taxa that really stand out because of their incredible tolerance for pollution or their absence with even the slightest disturbance, but many taxa fall in the intermediate range. Second, the numbers of nematodes are not equivalent in all samples. Some of the samples have 100 nematodes, and others have 92, which adds a step before comparison. Furthermore, the larger samples that I took these subsamples are also not equivalent, so another step. Finally, abundances (the number of individuals in the sample) are often not the most valuable data point for assessing a community. The proportions of each taxa present in the sample better help explain some of the subtleties in the communities between sand grains that raw values cannot.

Over the next few weeks, Dr. Ingels and I will check the remaining nematodes and I will start assessing all the data from this system, providing a narrative that may support our findings on the microplastics pollution going on in St. Andrew Bay. At the same time, I will hopefully start the next section of my research on nematode responses to microplastics, which I am super excited to get started.

Tune in next week for more updates on the world of marine ecology and ecotoxicology.