7/16/2020 0 Comments Back to the blog!
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Now that winter is (hopefully) behind us, it's time to start gearing up for summer field sampling. This summer I will be visiting 8 lakes around the state that will be actively treated with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), the herbicide used to treat Eurasian watermilfoil. I will also be visiting and additional 16 lakes to collect water and sediment to use for additional analysis of the bacterial community and photochemical characteristics of the lake water. However, there are a few logistics to figure out before we hit the sampling road. First, we need to collect all the supplies I need. This involved ordering a large amount of glassware- 6 cases to be exact! These 1 gallon bottles will be used to collect water from each lake and stored in a refrigerator on campus until I run my photochemical experiments with it. This also means we need to wash and combust all the bottles I ordered, which is only possible thanks to the outstanding help from my undergrad researcher Ellie. Only 10% of the water I bring back will be stored in these glass containers and used for photochemical experiments. The rest of it will be used for microcosms, which you can think of as "mini-lakes". These "mini-lakes" will have 2,4-D added to them, which I will monitor for concentration changes over the summer. I will set up microcosms in a plastic box called a Cubitainer, which will contain lake water, sediment, and 2,4-D. This also means I need to wash ~100 Cubitainers. The Cubitainers are nice because they can hold a large volume of water (10 liters/2.5 gallons) and are less fragile than glass bottles. However, a major challenge of running microcosms of this size is maintaining a similar temperature to the lake I am taking water from. We don't have temperature controlled room large enough for this, so the best way we could think to do this is by incubating the microcosms in Lake Mendota! I have spent the last week figuring out how to do this, such as what kind of rope to use, how to secure the container to the dock, and alternatives to sticking the containers in the lake (such as setting up an inflatable pool we refill with Lake Mendota water daily). My prototype was launched today, so check back soon for updates on its success/survival. Have any suggestions? Let me know in the comment section below or through the feedback box! |