Research project

[Perthegallon]

Hello guys I was starting a research project for my college. I had a few questions if anyone can give out suggestions or advice would be great and help a lot. I believe I’m going to go with how temperatures can affect corals and at what point it starts causing bleaching and makes them acceptable to death. I was trying to think of people who could help donate with the project I’m going to start calling companys like reef roids and see if they offer anything.
So if anyone has any suggestions,information or anything else that could help with this project or even a change of topic I would love to read about it.

 

[Fishbird]

Can you be more specific about what your actual research question is?

Also, can you say your experimental design?

There is a huge body of literature already out there about how temperature and changing pH is impacting coral reefs.

 

[Peace River]

I suggest that you have a solid written research plan that you can share before you start reaching out to companies as well as a letter of support from an advisor. I may or may not get you the items that you need for the project, but it will increase your odds.

 

[Perthegallon]

Can you be more specific about what your actual research question is?

Also, can you say your experimental design?

There is a huge body of literature already out there about how temperature and changing pH is impacting coral reefs.

Okay so the experiment I think would consist of 5
10gallon tanks consisting of the same corals each tank will be cycled my goal would to be to see how raised temperatures on each one affects them and from there.

 

[Perthegallon]

I suggest that you have a solid written research plan that you can share before you start reaching out to companies as well as a letter of support from an advisor. I may or may not get you the items that you need for the project, but it will increase your odds.

Yes of course I’m just in the drafting phase and would love to hear suggestions on what the questions should be

 

[Perthegallon]

Can you be more specific about what your actual research question is?

Also, can you say your experimental design?

There is a huge body of literature already out there about how temperature and changing pH is impacting coral reefs.

I’m trying to see what would be a good question to look within to any other suggestions

 

[andrewey]

+1 on being more specific. Most of the aspects of the question you are asking have already been answered and studied for decades. I'm not sure how much research experience you have, but I would suggest starting with a literature review of the topic (PM me if you'd like help with this step) and find gaps in the knowledge base. From there, you can design a research experiment designed to try and tackle some of those gaps and discuss with a research adviser how to undertake the research (understanding experimental design, current practices, best practices, etc). Unfortunately, most of the companies you would reach out to have dealt with professional researchers in the past, so it's unlikely they would support you in your current pursuit. However, this is a fantastic time to learn about research and make yourself a professional

 

[Peace River]

Yes of course I’m just in the drafting phase and would love to hear suggestions on what the questions should be

There are many grant request guidelines available on the Internet that you could use as a template.

 

[andrewey]

Is this for a graduate program, undergraduate research course, a project part of a biology/chemistry/oceanography course, etc? Just trying to understand your experience, knowledge base, and expectations of the faculty you're dealing with.

 

[Perthegallon]

One of the ideas I was thinking of was what if you were able to make a ball that dissolved within water and released prime and to help the fish during travel. In doing this the ball would have to be made at the correct sainliity as well to stable out the salinity instead of it being made of pure water

 

[Perthegallon]

Is this for a graduate program, undergraduate research course, a project part of a biology/chemistry/oceanography course, etc? Just trying to understand your experience, knowledge base, and expectations of the faculty you're dealing with.

Undergraduate I have multiple tanks and that’s why I wanted to do this

 

[kevin_e]

I feel like this has been answered in several literature articles over many years. In fact, it has played out in real time 3 times in the last 5 years on the great Barrier Reef. Perhaps look more into corals that may be resistant to extreme heating. This seems to be an emerging study question. Maybe look into coral acidification, or a specific question regarding it. You want to ask a question that isn't too wildly understood, while not limiting yourself on possible citations. More importantly, it needs to be testable. This may be the tricky aspect.

 

[kevin_e]

Undergraduate I have multiple tanks and that’s why I wanted to do this

Keep in mind you will want every variable the same. Same pumps, same heaters, same tanks, same lighting etc. You want to remove all variables except the one you are testing against. Then also have your control.

 

[Perthegallon]

Yes that’s why I was thinking of the ball idea. Because I know how prime can’t be dumped into a bag before shipping a fish because of the ph change it might cause. So my idea was what if you were able to make a ball that ever dissolved and let out ph with it (ball being same salinity so that it wouldn’t alter it) or a ball that stayed together but leaked it so that during shipping fish don’t have to suffer from toxic ammonia increasing suviablity

 

[NS Mike D]

Th hardest part of your project is, IMO, going to be maintaining the variables to limit the control to just temperature. Not only will you need corals from the same colonies, identical water, identical lights etc you will need to measure them. It's not just enough to have the same light fixtures and set them up identically, but you will need to monitor their output to ensure no variances throughout the life (like getting a PAR meter).

Also, how do you set up the initial parameters? There is so many different schools of thought, high alk, low alk, high nutrients low nutrients, how much light, cleanup crew fish added. etc.

 

[NS Mike D]

if this is an undergraduate project, can I assume that the goal of this is more about the process of scientific method and not the actual biological results?

 

[NS Mike D]

Start by making your list of variables and how you will keep them the same. Of course, your source for this list can be this forum as you have a massive collection hobbyist, professionals and scientists on this board from which you can draw as reliable sources.

 

[Acosta.2]

I agree with those above. If this is for a course or undergraduate research in a lab, I'd say to use the KISS method. Keep it as simple as possible. Ambition and overambition has been the downfall of many an early scientist. READ READ READ....there is a great deal out there in the journals on coral and temperature. Get a hold of as much as possible and read it all. Once you start to focus in on your question then set up your experiment as simply as possible.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Iglesias-Prieto defined bleaching as a percentage loss of zooxanthellae and/or chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll can be measured in a non-invasive manner using a fiber optic chlorophyll meter. When I bought mine, it was about $2,500. Contact Opti-Sciences and see if they will rent one. It is very difficult to visually identify partial bleaching.

CCM-300 - Opti-Sciences

Measuring a white pine needle Measuring Arabidopsis Thaliana st germination Measuring immature wheat The CCM-300 can be used for measuring fruit Gittelsons correlation graphs.<br>The fine lines show 1 σ Direct readout of chlorophyll content mg/m<span class="superscript">2</span> Protective...

www.optisci.com