Alyssa: Character traits & feeding assays

Hey everyone!

I have been hard at work the past few weeks trying to complete the character trait assays on the new seaweeds from Fiji and California. So far I have finished determining the protein concentrations, ash-free dry mass (which relates to organic content), and percent calcium carbonate in the seaweeds. We are seeing some latitudinal patterns (with the polar seaweeds being more nutritious)! We are also seeing differences between red (Rhodophyta) and brown (Phaeophyta) seaweeds, although I am still working through the analysis for confirmation on everything. Hopefully, I will be able to get you some figures (graphs and tables) soon!

I have also been continuing on with my feeding assays and am more than halfway through. We just got some more emerald crabs (Mithraculus sculptus) into the lab so we can do multiple feeding assays at once which should speed things up quite a bit. Moving forward, I am still going to be doing the feeding assays and am getting back into the molecular side of things trying to extract DNA from all my new seaweeds this week.