Writing in Biology - Section 1

Arthropods are among the most diverse groups in eukaria. However, due to a rise in land-usage globally, arthropod biomass in these ecosystems is currently on the decline. Seibold et al. used anually sampled grasslands to measure biomass, abundance, and number of species of arthropods, discovering that these numbers have declined by 67%, 78%, and 34% respectively¹. These losses are not isolated to grasslands, however, as declines in forests were also observed. According to the study, policy reform regarding land use must be a priority of these losses are to be counteracted.

(1)https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1684-3

Small aquatic ecosystems are critical contributors to freshwater biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem services. Ponds in particular house more rare and unique species than any other small freshwater ecosystem. However, little research has been done into measuring the ecosystem integrity of small aquatic ecosystems due to few evaluations in the effects of anthropogenic activities on these ecosystems. In this proposal, we aim to evaluate the ecosystem integrity of small aquatic ecosystems local to the Amherst, Massachusetts area by (1) determining their flora biodiversity, (2) measuring their quality of the matter economy, and (3) identifying sustainable architecture structures around them. We will use Simpson’s biodiversity index as a simple measure of plant biodiversity, use soil core samples as a timeline of the matter economy, and we will compare the number of current sustainable architecture structures with previous numbers. With this data, we will determine if the priority of green architecture in local construction developments have followed the same upward trend observed on a national scale. Without research into these ecosystems, we risk losing valuable oases of biodiversity and the opportunities to identify anthropogenic factors that may threaten ecosystems on a global scale.

Seaweed aquaculture has increased in popularity and in economic value over the past decade, but still has potential to expand into a worldwide industry. Seaweed aquaculture involves the cultivation of a variety of species, and the popularity and fitness of these species have fluctuated over time as the climate changes. Aquaculture has been greatly developed in Asian and South-east Asian countries where seafood (including macroalgae) contributes to a decent proportion of the local diet. Seaweed farming has since spread south and has developed in the warm rich waters around Australia and the Pacific Islands. A recent evaluation suggests that more than thirty countries have aquaculture, particularly that of seaweed, contributing to their economy. Currently, EU member states, India, and South Africa are leading the world in implementing climate change mitigation procedures while Canada, the US, and Russia are lagging. The most extensive decarbonization efforts were implemented in EU member states, and China (Zheng, Streimikiene, Balezentis, Mardani, Cavallaro, Liao.) Even the countries leading in these aspects could benefit from greater implementation and development of seaweed aquaculture.

There are few memories that have persistently stuck with me from my childhood up until now. One of these profound memories of mine was the day I received a phone call in high school from a physician letting me know my father was in an almost fatal car accident. His left radial nerve was punctured by a Ford F-150, and since that day, he has lost proper function of his left hand. Amongst the chaos of it all, one single question seemed to run through my mind; it was not “what happened?” but “how could I help?” Since that day, I have strived to pursue the medical career path with an interest in neurology. As a child, I was so intrigued as to how he could lose the mind-body connection from his brain to everything attached to his radius. Along with my father’s accident, my teens were filled with doctor appointments, overnight stays at the hospital, and even surgeries. At only 16, I was having two major MPFL (Medial Patella-Femoral Ligament) knee surgeries. My surgeon finished his surgery knowing he will be able to help me swim again. This made me wonder what it might be like to influence someone’s life in a drastic way, perhaps even save them. That doctor made a difference in my life and in many others, which is ultimately a part of my long-term goal. Along with knee surgeries, I even got salmonella, and had to be admitted into the hospital for eight nights. The strain of salmonella I had in my body was a mutant! My doctor told me it was not one of the big five strains and that scientists have not yet discovered it; this made me realize that there is so much more to discover in the medical world, and when scientists of today and tomorrow discover them, they can impact the world. 

It is a well documented phenomena that flowering times of plants have been occurring earlier while global temperatures continue to rise (Bartomeus, Ascher, Wagner, Danforth, Colla, Kornbluth, Winfree, 2011). The New England Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, is not astray to this phenomenon (Ellwood, Playfair, Polgar, et al. Int J Biometeorol 2014). Cranberries in New England have long been important to New England culture, economy, and ecosystems. With cranberries requiring specific cooling hours between the temperatures 32 °F and 45 °F, the climate of southern Massachusetts provides perfect ecological conditions for cranberries. These conditions allowed Massachusetts to be the second largest producer of cranberries in the United States. With global temperatures rising, flowering of cranberries have been occurring earlier (Tikuma, Liepniece  2015). This has proposed issues for cultivators and pollinators alike. Earlier flowering times may be affecting Lycaena epixanthe, the bog copper butterfly (Ellwood, Playfair, Polgar, et al. Int J Biometeorol 2014). A mismatch in flowering times and emergence of the butterflies may have negative impacts on both the livelihood of the butterflies, but also cultivators. After using records of flowering times from the nineteenth and twentieth century, it was found that indeed flowering times occur earlier (Ellwood, Playfair, Polgar, et al. Int J Biometeorol 2014). A total of 43 species were studied to have shown that those species are flowering earlier with warmer temperatures. The cranberry is also flowering earlier with warmer temperatures (Miller-Rushing, Primack 2008). Earlier flowering times have brought on both ecological and economical concerns.

Caffeine is a well known stimulant, and an ingredient in some of the world's most popular beverages. Coffee, tea, and soda are some of the most well known sources of caffeine, beverages that are consumed by people every day all over the world. Caffeine can also be found in chocolate and other foods. Over recent years, I have come across many articles claiming the negative health effects of caffeine, while also seeing other articles claiming the benefits of caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, and in general stimulants increase heart rate, blood pressure, and cause the person who has ingested it to be more alert. I'm inclined to believe that too much caffeine is not good for you. Just like anything else, take it in moderation. Continuously increasing your heart rate/blood pressure by the use of anything is not good for the cardiovascular system, and caffeine can have adverse effects on sleep schedule/sleeping in general so it is important to know when caffeine intake is affecting your sleep habits, as bad sleep habits can have many negative effects. That being said, don't think caffeine should be dropped completely from your diet, just remember to take everything in moderation and be smart with your choices.

Today, in my neurobiology and physiology lab, we dissected zebrafish brains that were treated with 0.5 mM PTU and 300 nM T4. Drug treatment with PTU induces hypothyroidism, while treatment with T4 induces hyperproliferation. We are measuring how the different levels of thyroid hormone affects neural stem cell proliferaation. After dissection of the brain, we will mount themn and look under a fluorescent microscope to count indivial cells in the posterior recess and later recess. These two regions make up the hypothalamus which is where neural cell proliferation occurs. 

Foraging has long been studied with the underlying assumption of optimal foraging theory, which states that a foraging animal will try to maximize its energy intake. Thus, foraging behaviour can be described using two simple models: the prey choice model, and the marginal value theorem. The prey choice model has three elements: caloric value of a prey item (E), handling time (h), and search time (S). Profitability is the rate of energy intake for a prey item: Eh. There are two canonical prey item types, prey type 1 and prey type 2, the former has the highest profitability and the latter has the lowest profitability such that: 

E₁/h₁>E2/h₂

Therefore, the only time a predator should eat prey type 2 is when:

E2/h₂>E1/(h₁+S₁)

This yields three predictions: the animal will always try to maximize caloric intake; the animal will instantly shift to the less profitable prey type once the inequality is met; and S2 will not affect the animal’s choice to eat prey type 2. The marginal value theorem is a description of the movement of an animal from one patch to the next. This is a graphical model that describes the optimal amount of time the animal will spend in a patch. The cumulative energy gain in a given patch will increase rapidly and then level off, the tangent to that curve from the point indicating the animal’s travel time gives an optimal point at which the animal should leave the patch to maximize caloric intake.

In a 25 mL Erlenmeyer flask, add benzoin (0.5 g) and ethanol (4 mL) and gently swirl the contents for several minutes at room temperature.  Even if not all the benzoin dissolves, add sodium borohydride (0.1 g) using the microspatula in small increments over the span of five minutes.  For 20 min, swirl the mixture at rt.  In an ice water bath, cool the mixture.  To the flask, add distilled water (5 mL) and HCl (.3 mL, 6 M).  After 15 min in the ice bath, add more water (2.5 mL) to the mixture.  To collect the product, vacuum filter the mixture using the Hirsch funnel and wash the solution with a small amount of ice-cold water.  After the solution dries on the filter for 15 min, determine the crude mass and percent yield (0.544 g, 107.8%) of the product and save some of the crude product (~1-2m g) for thin layer chromatography analysis and melting point determination (134-135 °C).  Using acetone (~2 mL), recrystallize the crude product in a 25 mL Erlenmeyer flask.  Erlenmeyer flask is removed to the heat, add an equal portion of room temperature hexanes (~2 mL) to the solution.  When the white crystals are dry are dry, determine the mass and percent yield (0.278 g, 55.1%) melting point of the pure product (136-137 °C).  For thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis, dissolve a small amount of benzoin (starting material), reserved crude product, and recrystallized pure product (~1-2 mg) in ethyl acetate (~2 mL).  On one silica gel plate on a line 1 cm from the bottom of the plate, spot the starting material in lane 1, crude product in lane 2 and co-spot the starting material and crude product in lane 3.  On the second plate one a line 1 cm from the bottom of the plate, spot the starting material in lane 1, in lane 2 spot the recrystallized product, and in the third lane co-spot both the starting material and recrystallized product.  The solvent used to run the TLC of each plate is a 9:1 CH2Cl2 solution.  To view the results of the TLC, view them under shortwave UV light.