Mud from marsh to incubation

These past two weeks have been a hectic time in my world of research! I've been doing soil incubations. I'm using soil incubations to examine the effect of belowground bacteria on overall methane production. To perform this task I take soil samples from different depths (0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80cm belowground), remove the roots and place 6g of soil in labelled jars in the anerobic chamber (a no oxygen bubble), add 5mL of water to create a slurry, then take methane gas samples over time to see the methane gas production by the bacteria in the soil.

Here's the step by step process of what I've been up to for the past two weeks:

1) I put all my incubation jars through the dishwasher and labeled them with my color coded labels for each depth. On each different color tray is my two sample sites of GCREW and Fox Point.

2) I went to the store to buy lots of ziplock bags. I needed a bag for each sample. That's 104 ziplock bags! And yes, there's also ice cream in that purchase although it wasn't made with petty cash and a tax exemption card from SERC.

3) At both sites I extracted soil cores (with lots of help from Fred, Tom, and Josh since I don't weigh enough to use the big Russian peat corer by myself) to down to a 1m in depth.

4) Once the core was extracted, I cut out 5cm sections at each depth, and placed each sample into its own color coded ziplock bag.

5) Back in the lab, the soil core samples sat in the 4C freezer until I was ready to extract the roots. The cold stops the processes occurring in the soil, so it remains in the state at which the core was taken.

6) I removed the roots in the anerobic chamber. Anerobic means all the oxygen is vacuumed out. The bubble is instead filled with a nitrogen and hydrogen mixture.  This step takes a long time with each sample taking about 30-40 minutes depending on what the soil to root ratio is, since I only want to 6g of soil and not the roots.

7) I created a slurry by adding 5mL of water to the vial. The jars are then sealed within the anerobic chamber to endure no oxygen entered the vial.

8) I took a sample of the gas within the anerobic chamber to record my time zero of carbon dioxide and methane levels from the headspace within the vials. Then for each vial every other day I take the carbon dioxide and methane levels as the bacteria do their thing within the vials.

So that's been my life for the past two weeks. It's had its ups and downs. But it's all been a learning experience for which I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of.

A Run Full of Bunnies and Natural Charm

I've been quite busy with research (both in the lab and in the field) recently. Today the realisation of how fast this summer is going came into view as today marks exactly one month left here at SERC. I even tentatively scheduled the day of my intern presentation with my PI this morning. That action made me realise how little time I have to do so much more research! My other realisation today definitely put a smile on my face - I will see my family in one month and a day from today!

 

This weekend I went for a run. Something I haven't had time to do as much as I would have liked recently. I ran down to the fish weir. Stopping for a moment to walk along it with the sun setting on one side, while the other was already cast in shadow - it was beautiful! The water was so calm, with just the slightest ripples. While the sky had a blue-pink tint on the one side, which had transitioned on the other side. I wish I had taken a panorama shot of the weir, it's a bit hard to put merging colors into words. I hope the pictures help you understand the majestic view I stood there witnessing. 

The rest of the run brought me down Fox Point Road to the turn and back up again, then down Transition Trail. It was along Fox Point Road that I saw the first two bunnies of my run. Little did I know then that these cute creatures were to become the theme of my run! With their fluffy white bobtails teasing me from the bushes, occasionally coming out to say hello by darting out in front of me or sitting by the wayside watching me go by.

What I love about going down Transition Trail towards the Java Trail is the steep hill with the view of the bridge. Sometimes I go up the hill, but the view of hill just extending above you is not quite the same as sprinting down towards the bridge over the patch of marsh on the outskirts of the marsh.

I had no set direction for this run, instead I let my feet guide me to the most interesting trails at the time. Crossing over the bridge, Java Trail twisted around to the dock, then back up towards the old tobacco farm. Along the road there were several more bunnies. I managed to capture these two on camera before they darted back to the safety of the bushes and long grasses. At the tobacco barn, I met back up with the Java Trail, forgetting about the low hanging branch on my way down the hill. That branch has been there since the beginning of the summer, so I'm not sure why I forgot it was there just on this run. The bunnies and gorgeous nature definitely made up for that branch, the humidity, and the bugs! 

Some feisty cannibalistic crabs!

One of the interns is doing their summer research project on blue crab cannibalism. Last weekend on our way to the dock to sunbathe, we stopped by the wet lab of the Fish and Invertebrate Lab (otherwise known as the Crab Lab) In several large tanks there's a juvenile and an adult crab together, in many cases the larger, more feisty crab eats the younger juvenile. You can see a video of this cannibalism occurring below - that SERC posted last week!

While we were there last weekend, some of the crabs got really feisty when we agitated them. They were defending their territory - the big blue crabs defending their big plastic tub at SERC's wet lab!

Creamy Chocolaty Vegan Peppermint Patties

This post is my 100th post on my blog! *cue fanfare* I'm unsure if I would still be writing this blog more than a year after I started it, if it wasn't for my amazing family and friends who read it! So thank you all! Y'all are the reason I have caught the blogging bug!

This blog post is about a delicious dessert. Now before you start judging it because of the word "vegan", don't! I'll be honest with you and admit I had a few doubts about it too, but once I tried one, I was smitten. The blended cashews and coconut makes the most delicious filling I have ever had! It is so creamy and smooth!


Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 4 tablespoons agave nectar
- 2 tablespoons almond milk
- 1 teaspooon peppermint extract
- 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil


Directions: 
1) Place cashews in a bowl and cover with water. Let soak overnight, or for at least 2-3 hours. If your blender isn't great at blending things smooth, I suggest soaking overnight for the best results.
2) Drain and rinse the cashews after soaking.
3) Add the cashews, melted coconut oil, agave, milk, and peppermint extract into a high-speed blender. Blend on the highest speed until completely smooth. This can take a couple minutes.
4) After freezing, quickly pop the patties out of the cupcake liners and set each on top of their respective liner. Return to the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up even more.
5) Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small pot over the lowest heat. When half of the chips have melted, remove it from the heat and stir until all the chips are melted. Allow the chocolate to cool slightly for a few minutes before dunking the patties.
6) Remove the patties from the freezer and dunk them into the melted chocolate with a fork. Tap the side to shake off excess chocolate and place on parchment paper. Do this step as quickly as possible so the patties don't melt.
7) Return the patties to the freezer until set, for about 10 minutes, until the chocolate coating is firm. Store leftover patties in the freezer/fridge until ready to enjoy!

This recipe proved to me (and a lot of the other interns in the house at SERC) that vegan desserts can be delicious! I am amazed at the power of cashews. A few intern, Ben made a yummy vegan fruit tart with a cashew center earlier this weekend for the 4th! I honestly think these peppermint patties are better than the York ones!
I encourage everyone who does not have a nut or coconut allergy to try these out! You will not be disappointed!

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

These past two weeks was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which is held each summer. It's only open to the public on the weekends, but one Tuesday over the two weeks it is open to Smithsonian staff for the annual Smithsonian Institution picnic. I went last year too (you can read that post here), and had a fun time, so I decided to take half a day off to go into DC and explore the festival again this year. 

Each year two countries are chosen to be represented; this summer the two countries were Kenya and China! The festival on the National Mall comprises of culture and food from these two nations. The majority of the cultural tents are not open during the SI picnic, but the food and drink definitely is. I had a Kenyan chicken dish and a Kenyan beer with interesting undertones, both of which were really good!

 At the SI picnic bands from throughout the Smithsonian Institution put on a performance. We watched a band from the anthropology department at the Museum of Natural History. They were good! Unfortunately, we misjudged the time and where the SERC band was playing. But we did get to see these children who were brought by their counsellors to run around to the music - basically get all their energy out so they would be calmer, I understand that situation! On the China side of the mall, there was this Flower Plaque tent - a really vibrant wooden structure! There was also this casual little man structure. His name is Tian Tian, though we never could figure out who he is or why he was there. I had a fun half day in DC before heading into work for a good several hours! 

Time spent at the beach is never wasted

Summertime is beach time! Whether with family or friends, the beach is a place to relax with toes in the water sitting on the sand. So last weekend, a few of us went down to the beach for some relaxing time. We'd heard that the only beach around here was Sandy Point, and locals didn't have great things to say about it. But dying for some sun and sand, we went to investigate anyways. And yes, it was not a pristine beach, but it was nice enough and much better than how the locals described it.

Sandy Point State Park is the last exit before the Bay Bridge on the Western Shore side, right on Chesapeake Bay. In fact, the beach looks out onto the Bay Bridge. We saw several large shipping barges shuttling cargo back and forth to the Port of Baltimore while we chilled on the sand. Even though as SERC interns, we know too much about the Chesapeake Bay water to get in it, we did anyways! We even went all the way under just for fun! The bottom was rocky near the shore, but got sandy further out. When the bottom got sandy, one of my friends went down and got a handful of sand to look for some benthic creatures. That's how we do it! Because science is everywhere, even on vacation at the beach!

I want to end this post with this cute picture I found on Pinterest - which is an online pinboard site, where people "pin" interesting pictures onto virtual pinboards. Even though I don't personally have a Pinterest, I have definitely found myself perusing the site for baking ideas and good quotes. Especially when I want a good quote for a specific purpose. Like here on this blog. So here's a little bit of life advice from the ocean!