Thesis Page

<--Doubtful Sound, it's so beautiful there!  Want to see more pics of Doubtful Sound? click here.

Right, so this is my thesis page.  So the official title of my project is, get ready for it, "Possible effects of low salinity on Evechinus chloroticus larvae: vertical distribution, growth, and egg and larval survival."  The title actually was longer at one stage, but I had to pare it down.  So E. chloroticus is the common New Zealand purple sea urchin.  Read my proposal here.

Huh?  Why this?

So why am I doing this?  Well, I'm interested in large-scale problems, population scale problems.  I worked at a great place at UW-Madison, the Center for Limnology, where they work on freshwater science.  When I came to Otago, I didn't know what I was going to be studying (the rumor among my family was that I was going to study penguins :)~) but that didn't happen so much.  Instead I learned about the New Zealand fiords on the West Coast of the South Island, how they have a layer of fresher water floating over seawater.  This could have effects on populations if offspring cannot survive in the fresher water.  Anyway, without getting too complicated, I decided to work on sea urchin larvae and eggs, chucking them in experiments at the Portobello Marine Lab and trecking out to Doubtful Sound to collect samples in the field.  Hopefully I'll get some good results so I get a good grade on my thesis, publish some papers (fingers crossed), and get a job.  Maybe get a job...perhaps I'll be a professional research assistant...I worked for a really great grad student at UW-Madison in the summer of 2001.  Check out her work here.

Anyway, check out my proposal if you'd like to learn more about what I'll be doing..  Also, take a look at my photos of Doubtful Sound, and check out my supervisor, Dr. Miles Lamare's web page.

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