Looking at the invasive mussel populations in Otsego lake, and the temperatures experienced within the water body.
Final Project Outcome
This research poster was presented at SUNY Oneonta’s Student Research and Creative Activity Showcase, Fall 2024
What I did
The primary tasks involved in this project can be separated in two parts – mussel analysis/aging, and heatmap generation.
Mussel aging was done by inspecting the shells of collected mussels under a microscope and trying to identify the rings that indicate annual growth. I also brought a set of shells to SUNY Cobleskill for bisection to check if it was better at identifying the age lines than the surface analysis.
I created heatmaps by organizing spreadsheets of data compiled by temperature loggers and ran the information through an R code function.
What I learned
I learned applicable lab techniques including: dish care, microscope usage, preparing fragile samples for low-speed sawing, and handling fragile samples. I worked on my organization skills; working with a lot of files and items, it's important to develop a system for it. I think my experience has helped with applicable skills, getting access to a lab environment and working on relatively low-volumes of repetitive tasks, it's an introduction to real science work. Otherwise, it provides an appreciation to work that isn't necessarily making headlines.
