ALASKA: Lena’s Labors Logged
University of Alaska Southeast
Alaska EPSCoR Fire & Ice Coastal Margins researchers have been collecting and sorting samples of marine life from Juneau and Kachemak Bay since 2019. But what happens to the samples once they make it into the lab? On a rainy day in June, members of the Fire & Ice comms team paid a visit to the Lena Point Fisheries facility in Juneau, where University of Alaska Southeast undergraduates Preslee Chase, Grace Ham (pictured), and Mali Tamone were hard at work turning samples into science.
Ham’s project takes advantage of samples collected from Fire & Ice research sites in Juneau and Kachemak bay. The UAS sophomore-to-be who is examining the shell strength and attachment strength of Pacific blue mussels from in each area. When the mussel samples were collected, a force gauge was used to measure the amount of upward force required to remove them. In the lab, Ham is using the same tool to apply downward pressure against the mussel and measure the force required to break through the shell. She’s tracking how these numbers differ across research sites with different levels of glacial coverage, to test the hypothesis that the amount of freshwater input will affect shell strength and adhesion for creatures that rely on the chemistry of the ocean to build their shells and adhere to rocks.