End of field experiment (winter)

Today is the last day in NMMBA. I am leaving for Taipei tomorrow to continue the lab work. Yesterday was the last day of my tank experiment, and today is the last day of the field experiment (winter). I would still have to conduct the same field experiment again in the summer (June 2014) to compare the results. After all the hard work in the water, Wei-Jie (dive guide) snapped a few photographs of me working underwater (or rather pretending to work underwater :) ...

Working with the DivingPAM

Working with the DivingPAM 

Clearing the experimental set-ups

Field experiment set-up

It was an awesome or terrible day, depending on how you look at it. We - Xue-Ping (research assistant), Shan-Hua (another PhD student), Wei-Jie (Dive guide) and I went to our field site to set-up the in-situ field experiment.

There are several goals on this trip :

1)  Cover half of each coral colonies (Acropora muricata) with transparent net. There are a total of three colonies. The hope of covering half of the coral colony is to dampen the water flow around it, but not affecting the light intensity too much. Of course, there is always a cut in light intensity when you cover the coral with a net. However, I did a preliminary test in the lab using a light meter, and the light was cut about 10% - 15% on an average, and there are still some peaks which are as high as the normal lighting conditions. Thus, I am willing to accept the small change in light intensity, knowing it shouldn't impact the coral too much with this minimal light intensity change.

Setting up the nets underwater is harder than it looks

2) Collect two samples of coral nubbins from each colonies, and will extract their mucus later in the lab. I am going to analyse the microbial communities in the mucus later on in Academia Sinica, Taipei

3) Collect surrounding reef water for analysing of microbial communities.

4) Get DivingPAM readings for the coral colonies. This reading tells the photosynthetic health of the coral, and I am using it as a indicator for coral stress. I hypotheses that the half of the coral within the net should experience higher stress than the other half which is not covered. This is due to the reduction in water flow (got to do with removal of waste, radical oxygen, transport of nutrients etc).

5) Shan-Hua is going to core a couple of coral colonies for her samples. She is examining the endolithic microbial communities in Isopora sp.

Well, it is a lot of work, but it does sound pretty simple. I mean some hammering, some manoeuvring of the nets around the corals, etc but it shouldn't be hard. I WAS WRONG! Well, Wei-Jie helped with all the hard work..hammering, drilling etc. I have to in charge of the nets, the reading of the DivingPAM etc. I was the only one who knew how to operate the DivingPAM, and thus it is my job. It wasn't a difficult job - point the optic fibre on the coral branch, wait for 5 secs, fired off a light source (from the DivingPAM), and read the value yield. I do not even need to record the values because it is automatically saved in the instrument, which I can retrieve later. However, there are a few "BUTS" -

1) I need to read the dark-adapted values, which means I can only use the DivingPAM during dusk hours. And since this is the first time, I also need to do another set of light-adapted values as a baseline. So I need to go once before the sunset to read the coral colonies. As a result, there was a lot of diving, 2 dives for DivingPAM readings, 2 dives for setting the nets up. And it was a chilling 23degC, and we were shivering!

2) For the reading on the DivingPAM, I need to ensure the values fall within a certain range before I fired off the light in the fibre optics. This means that for 9 readings on a single colony, I was staring at the small screen on the DivingPAM underwater for about 10 - 15mins. So it is like reading a book in a moving car - I got really SICK... and I throw up after every use of the DivingPAM!

Again, harder than it looks...especially when the current is going

Well, first day is over, and I got what I need for my samples...two more collection days to go!

All in a day's work

And now, for some surfing on the web...

Shan-Hua (left), Xue-Ping (right)

Visit to Victoria University DAY 3

Today I got some hands-on practise on the diving PAM. The theory was all nice but using the diving PAM could run into some tricky situations that can only be overcome with experience. Therefore, it was wonderful to get some great tips from Paul Fisher. He also teamed me with another PhD student, Tom who had been using the diving PAM for a long time for his research. We were PAMing some aiptasia anemone. It was great to see how the PAM really works! It is relatively easy to use, when there is no problem! So, keeping my fingers crossed and hope it is as easy PAMing the corals for my own experiment.

We got done by 3pm today, and I took the rest of the day off. I had nothing much to do, and it seemed that I was constantly in the way of the others. They needed to work on their own research, and yet they needed to take care of me. Therefore, I decided to leave the lab at around 3pm, and went around to explore Wellington central. Actually, I just ened up walking around Cuba Street. I went browsing around in this comic shop - brought back memories of when I was collecting comic books (I am sure I still have three boxes of high-value comic books at my mom's place in Singapore!). Had coffee at this cafe, Fidel - which was highly recommended by the staff at the hostel, and on various tourist website. Came back to the hostel at around 6.30pm, prepare the presentation for tomorrow's meeting, relaxed and just surfed the internet.

About 2 more months before I am leaving for Taiwan for my first experiment. Getting more nervous and excited as the dates drew nearer. In the meantime, I am still waiting eagerly for an answer from my Taiwan colleagues for the location of my lab work. Hopefully, Dr. Tang's colleague, Dr. Allen Chen would have some good news for me tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Visit to Victoria University DAY 2

Today was a long day! Started the day discussing about my research with Simon Davy. We talked through the different parts of my research - experiment on bioindicators of stressed corals, lab experiments and field experiments. Overall, Simon was pleased with the experimental design which I came up with, but as with any advisors, he also added in more items to challenge me...more work, more thinking, more researching!

After the meeting, I learned some specific lab techniques on Symbiodinium genotyping, qPCR and DGGE. Shaun Wilkinson is Simon's PhD student, and his focus is coral Symbiodinium molecular work. Thus, he would be the best candidate to go though with me on these techniques. After the sessions with Shaun, I started learning the diving PAM theory with Paul Fisher. He is Simon's Post-doc, and he is very good with using the diving PAM. I was fortunate to learn from him because he is just done with his Pst-doc, and leaving NZ next month! I caught him just in time! I am using the diving PAM as one of my bioindicators for stressed corals, so this session is very important. We only covered the theory today, and tomorrow we would be carrying out some practical exercises.

I did not get out of the lab until about 7pm. While it seemed normal in most universities, it is considered late for New Zealand students to stay this late in universities... I was hungry because I only had a bagel for the whole day. Thus, I went to Subway for a 6-inches sandwich, but I think I got cheated! I am sure it was DEFINITELY less than 6 inches! And the guy/ server/ cashier was in such a lousy mood as well. He was impatient, unclear about his words, and just plain rude!

Looking forward to tomorrow to learn the practical aspect of the diving PAM. Paul had also indicated that we can talk more about my research tomorrow or Friday when we have more time. So far it is a really good experience!