Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Characterize Tomales Bay Intertidal Communities

It was a great summer of interns! I got to work with Kian, Kellie, and Jean in the lab to help them investigate Tomales Bay. Anna mentored Michael in eDNA research for the National Park Service. Suzanne worked with Kathryn to collect and isolate eDNA from dung beetle experiments to ask about carbon cycling with microbes. Below is a blog post from Team Tomales. Check out the link to their presentation!

Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Characterize Tomales Bay Intertidal Communities: Kian Kafaie (Brown University ‘23), Kellie Navarro (Bowdoin College ‘23), and Jean Clemente (Bowdoin College ‘23)

In a collaborative project hosted by the Kroeker and Meyer Labs at UCSC, Doris Duke Conservation Scholars sampled aquaculture, mudflat, and seagrass habitats in Tomales Bay to assess differences in their community composition. The undergraduates extracted and processed eDNA from sediment samples in addition to conducting traditional habitat surveys. They compared the roles of structured seagrass beds and aquaculture gear as habitat for fish, assessed patterns in the occurrence of parasitic protists, and analyzed microbial community differences across habitats. They presented their results at the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program’s 6th Annual Summer Research Symposium. Photos courtesy of Kristy Kroeker, Jean Clemente, Kian Kafaie, and Kellie Navarro.