Tuesday, August 2, 2011

MSI: Working with Kascia

This afternoon, the MSI's met with Ms. Kascia White, who is a fifth-year veteran of the Bermuda Program at the Biological Station. She is currently working on her senior thesis at Saint Mary's University in Canada with Dr. Sam dePutron, studying the effects of carbon dioxide, temperature and food-source on coral recruitment and growth. Kascia's project focuses on the effects of carbon dioxide and temperature across three different reef systems including Bailey's Bay Flatts, Tynes Bay and Hogbreaker. Kascia will be looking at the growth of favia recruits under the different variables already outlined: location, pressure and carbon dioxide concentration. The MSI's helped Kascia settle porites larvae by placing two conditioned teracotta tiles in a settlement chamber, adding calcareous algae, and pipetting 60 larvae into the settlement chamber. Settlement checks will be preformed in 48 hours to determine whether the larvae have recruited to the tiles.

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