A happy first week of school to everyone at NIU and beyond. The Aquatic Microbiology Lab wants to welcome our newest members Axel Leòn-Rodriguez (Ph.D. Student) and Shelby Huffington (UG). We can wait for everyone to get started and grow the lab!
New Paper out with Dr. JC Thrash (@Thrash_Lab)
The estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico are diverse and critical to the organisms and people that call them home. We feel so lucky to be able to play a small role in better understanding the planktonic microbial communities that inhabit them and help contribute to their overall health. We found continued evidence of a globally distributed, core brackish microbiome, while also showing that the core group should be expanded to include taxa from groups such as acI Actinobacteria, MWH-UniP1 Betaproteobacteria, SAR324, and SAR11 subclade II.
Back in the field collecting samples!
Science is about collaboration! And the Aquatic Microbiology lab is lucky to have amazing collaborators. This June we were back in the field collecting samples with the CORNELL MARINE MASS MORTALITY LABORATORY (Dr. Ian Hewson, Cornell University). Our project is learning how microbes adapt and acclimate to thermal stress and its impacts on the ecosystem. We have been sampling since August of 2023 during the marine heatwave that hit the Southern US and Caribbean Sea.
Undergraduate Student and Research Rookie Daisy Mendez presented at the Conference for Undergraduate Research and Engagement
Collecting comparative samples for our August trip looking at heatwave impacts on bacterioplankton and animal microbiome (November 17-20)
This summer, aquatic environments around the Southeastern US and the Caribbean experienced an unprecedented heatwave, with one site in coastal Florida (Manatee Bay, FL) surpassing 38 °C. Fueled by climate change, temperature anomalies, such as the heatwave this summer, are expected to be exacerbated by El Niño. In collaboration with the Cornell Marine Mass Mortality Laboratory (Dr. Ian Hewson).
PI Henson collect data from YSI during August trip to the Fl Keys.
Water filtration set-up at the Marathon site during the August trip to the keys. Peak heatwave.
Collecting the first sample in August during the unprecedented heatwave in the southeast.
Collect water in Florida Bay using our niskin.
Water filtration set-up at the Key Largo site in August.
Collecting sponge samples off of Conch Reef during the summer heatwave.
Coral bleaching at Sombrero Reef during the unprecedented heatwave in August.
Returning home
PI Henson hand sampling after the troubles with the pump (Marathon Site, November).
PI Henson with a Niskin full of water (Marathon Site, November).
Sombrero Reef (November)
