MAY 2022
Kyra's Blog
Kyra Bankhead, undergraduate student
1 May 2022
What an eventful month! Where do I begin? First of all, waiting to get finished on my data analysis has been anxiety ridden to say the least. Grace has been working relentlessly to get my data organized to get it sent off to possible collaborators. Right now, I am sticking with GLMM modeling for my data, despite its lack of time series analysis. I would love to use GAMM instead, but it cannot use zero-inflation on a negative binomial model in R. My hope is to work with an expert on Baysian statistics that has an idea how to accommodate for the lack of time series analysis, and maybe even get some feedback during the Society of Marine Mammalogy conference as well as Scholar’s week. I did however realize how fun it is to build a poster that represents all my work in the lab!
On top of finishing my manuscript and presenting my poster, I have had some difficulty finishing my proposal for graduate school funding. Dr. Cantor and I have already turned in our first draft to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) and have gotten great feedback on the feasibility of the project and possible collaboration. However, it is proving to be a long process and funding deadlines are passing. I am going to meet with Dr. Cantor and members of the SDRP to discuss our options. Fingers crossed because I need to show at least one year of funding before I apply to OSU.
Finally, I am excited to introduce the new project lead of the Bellingham Waterfront project… Holland Conwell!! She has been in the lab for three years now, so she is the perfect choice for this position. She has also worked for my project in the past and was one of the best students I’ve had the pleasure to work with. I am excited to teach her the ropes of Project Lead (which is quite easy with all the knowledge she has already). I am not however excited to leave the lab this quarter, but I am hopeful for the new opportunities ahead.
Kyra Bankhead
Holland's Blog
Holland Conwell, undergraduate student
1 May 2022
Since last month, I’ve definitely had to ramp up the speed at which I’ve been working on my project! Given that the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM) conference is just around the corner, I needed to finish my investigation into predictors of sex ratio and get the information onto a poster ASAP. My initial approach with general linear models fell apart as I started adding more variables and interactions and pondering possible random effects, leading me to use generalized linear mixed models. With this approach, I was able to account for both fixed (site and season) and random (year) effects and even analyze which individual locations/regions are the most significant predictors of the presence of male and female harbor seals at scat collection sites.
I analyzed 2,264 samples from 13 sites collected from 2012 to 2018 and found that site and year were the best predictors of sex ratio. Including site as a fixed effect improved the fit of the models, lowering the AIC values. Site also explained ~13% of the variation in sex ratio, while site and year explained 17%. While this was just a tangent in the grand scheme of my project, I did gather a couple things from this analysis. In the Salish Sea region, there is variation in the sex ratios of harbor seals at haul-out sites; some areas in the Salish Sea have more males or females than others. Additionally, little of the variation in sex ratio is explained by site, season, or year, and some sites explain the variation in sex ratio better than others.
I’m still ironing out a couple of details regarding my poster, but it’s coming together! I’m excited, albeit a little nervous, to get some experience in presenting research findings to others throughout the last week of April. Afterward, I’ll begin my investigation into the diet data, namely whether salmon consumption varies significantly with variables such as sex.
Zoë's Blog
Zoë Lewis, graduate student
1 May 2022
This month has been very busy, with two online conferences, a committee meeting, results starting to take shape, and the finalization of the sexing data of our wild samples. Although I’m not quite as far as I would like to be in my results drafts, I keep reminding myself of the “garbage in, garbage out” mentality. At this point, I know what tests I will be using for statistical comparison, but it’s the data wrangling and the careful consideration of test groups that is most important for running statistics that accurately reflect data. So, most of my efforts in this past month has involved making sure I feel confident in these data.
In the past month, I’ve also met with Dr. Benjamin Nelson twice to discuss modeling inputs and these data. Its been very nice to have an experienced mentor on the biomass modeling aspect of these data, as I know that this is not my area of expertise. I feel confident with some pretty careful limitations, we will have an idea of biomass consumed by these populations during this study period. Further, Dr. Nelson reassured me that once we feel confident in our inputs, the actual model running will be relatively fast. So, its back to carefully thinking about our salmon age data, and seeing how these numbers may be helpful in determining individuals consumed.
After double checking our qPCR methodology, and catching a few more errors in the functioning of the qPCR auto thresholding used to determine presence or absences of DNA, I finally feel confident in all our sexing results. Our qPCR methodology to determine sex is finally working and validated, and was successful for 89% of our collected samples, which is truly exciting for ecology data!
And, after careful consideration of DNA proportions, I have combined these sex data with average DNA proportions to investigate diet trends as reflected by site, season and sex. It is exciting to see all these pieces fit together. I have also finally run some diet diversity indices to look at changes in diet diversity based on sex, site, season, and potentially individual. The more I dive into these statistics, the more I am noticing a disproportionate effect of site on diet composition. I am starting to consider whether I should analyze these groups in two different sections, as it would be easier to look at sex biased tends and season without including the impact of site.
Otherwise, this past week Kathleen and I have been in zoom conference presentation mode. With both the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference and the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society in one week, its been quite busy in our apartment. Between finishing figures, contemplating stats, writing drafts, and presenting from our bedroom-transformed-office spaces, I feel lucky to have such great company(peer editing) despite still having a fair number of virtual events.
Kathleen's Blog
Kathleen McKeegan, graduate student
1 May 2022
A busy end to a busy month! This past week, I presented at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (SSEC), and Kate and I co-presented at the Northwest Student Chapter for the Society of Marine Mammalogy (NWSSMM). Both presentations went well, and it was great to share our research with professionals and students in the field. I also found it very helpful to receive feedback and questions from participants and presenters at the SSEC and NWSSMM. While presenting can be nerve-racking at times, I was able to build connections, learn from others, and get ideas on how to approach my analyses. Looking forward, Kate and I will be presenting a poster at Scholar’s Week in May, and then I have another talk at the North American Conference for Conservation Biology in July.
Beyond presentations, I have been focusing primarily on data wrangling and data analysis. Throughout this month, I have produced two drafts of my results section, which is coming along but I still have more analyses to include. Kate and I finished up the photo-IDing for Fall 2021, so I have been able to integrate that data into the long-term analysis. Adrianne Akmajian, the marine ecologist for the Makah Tribe (and Zoë’s committee member), provided helpful suggestions after listening to my talk for the SSEC. I have been struggling to compare 2019-2021 with regards to the impact of TAST, but per Adrianne’s recommendation, I’m going to look at seal fidelity to site within season and between years. That analysis is still in progress, but more recently, I decided to group individuals based on TAST exposure in 2020 and determine if that impacted the likelihood of an individual returning in 2021. Based on some simple chi-square tests, it’s looking like there’s a relationship between exposure and returns, so I want to explore that further.
For Fall 2020 specifically, I have been exploring presence and duration of individuals using multivariate statistics, which has been a useful approach and has shown that TAST influences the IDs that are present and how long they stick around. But I want to incorporate GLMMs into this analysis as well so we can get a sense of direction of the influence (i.e. do seals spend significantly less time in the creek when TAST was on?). To assess foraging success, I’ve been using GLMMs with ID as a random intercept. I have a model that seems to explain the data well, but I’m having some issues with the residuals that I still need to address. Long story short, I’m close to wrapping up my analysis, which is exciting! There is still a lot I want to do, but I’m in the home stretch! Once I finalize these elements of my analysis, I can focus on my discussion section, which is a little intimidating but exciting nonetheless! Only four months left!
Kate's Blog
Kate Clayton, undergraduate student
1 May 2022
Happy Spring!
This April has been jam packed with presentation prep, trainings, and getting the lab prepped for next fall. Kathleen and I just presented at the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy Conference along with Zoe, Maddie, Holland, and Kyra. I think everything went pretty well, and I am glad to have that checked off the to-do list. We have also been spending a lot of time putting together the poster we are going to be presenting for Scholar’s Week. We are having some trouble deciding which graphs to use that will be the best visual representations of our data, but I am sure we will get it figured out soon. We are scheduled to present our poster May 18th in Carver Gym.
Shifting to managerial tasks, Kathleen and I have been training a lovely student in our lab (Brianna Hull) to help manage the lab next fall. We have been introducing her into the observation schedule making process and she is doing a great job! We are lucky to have her on our team! Speaking of managing the lab next year, Kathleen will be completing her thesis this summer (woohoo!) and I will be graduating in the fall, so we are going to have another new manager to take over the Whatcom Creek project, Victoria Vinecke. Victoria will be Alejandro’s next grad student who will be taking over for us alongside Brianna. Kathleen, Brianna, and I had the pleasure of meeting with her for a quick Zoom call which was wonderful! We are excited to work with and get to know her!
Kathleen, Brianna, and I are about to begin interviewing students for positions in our lab for next year. We have had ~18 people apply so it is going to be a busy couple of weeks! It is always a hard process, especially the rejections, but I think we have learned a lot from last year’s interviews about the interview process and what makes a good research assistant. Hopefully our experience will help us in the next couple of weeks!
Kathleen and I have also been working on a small side project. We are curious if we can ID any hauled-out seals based on the photos we use to ID at our creek. To test this, Kyra was kind enough to take Kathleen and I out to her site by the waterfront where she observes hauled-out seals. Sadly, no seals were present at the time we went, but we are hoping to try again this summer when it is warmer and hauling out is more common. If we are able to get close enough to ID any seals, someone may be able to turn this into a research project determining where the Whatcom Creek seals haul out which would be awesome!
Other than that, everything has been the same as usual in the lab. We are continuing to conduct observations despite the low seal activity. Our students have been doing a great job with photo cropping and we are slowly making our way through 2021 data. We are so grateful for their hard work!
Hopefully by this time next month, we will have made some more progress with the 2021 cropping, we will have our new team for next year decided, and we will be close to getting our 2021 stats wrapped up. Wish us luck!
Until then,
Kate
Madison's Blog
Madison Gard, undergraduate student
1 May 2022
April really flew by! This quarter has shaped up to be pretty hectic between courses, jobs, and research. In my on-campus jobs, I coordinated and managed three more successful Discovery Day events for admitted students through the Office of Admissions and drafted several press releases for various Outreach and Continuing Education programs. Courses are going great so far. I've been loving my Honors Temperate Lake Ecosystems course with Dr. Leo Bodensteiner.
In the lab, Zoë and I completed the qPCR processing for all the wild Steller sea lion samples. Aside from rerunning a few plates, this means we are finished with sample processing! I feel motivated to move into the data analysis portion of the manuscript and have more time dedicated towards writing.
This month I assembled my poster to present in the NWSSMM conference on April 29th. It was neat to learn about what other students in the PNW are working on and interact with so many marine mammal researchers. I was especially excited to meet Dr. Andrew Trites because I’ve read a few of his publications as they relate to the manuscript. Everyone from our WWU Marine Mammal lab did an incredible job in their presentations, it’s an honor to work with so many brilliant scientists! In these next few weeks, I anticipate working on a lot of the data analysis to have more complete results to present at Scholars Week later this month.