AFSC Internships, 2007 Intern Experiences - Robyn Takamine
I studied various samples in the lab.
Example of an icthyoplankton sample I helped to identify.
One of the abundance and distribution maps I helped create.
Preflexion (top), flexion (middle), and postflexion (bottom) stages of prickleback larvae.
The Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group (left to right): Debbie Blood, Ann Matarese, and Morgan Busby. |
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Robyn Takamine, a graduate from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, gives an account of her 2007 summer internship working with the Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group (RACE Division).
This summer, I had the privilege of working with the Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group, a subdivision of the Recruitment Process Program. This program conducts research on the early life stages of Northeast Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea fishes to better understand how biological and physical processes influence populations of these fish.
The Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group acts as a base for these studies by describing previously unknown early life stages of Northeast Pacific fishes. The has done much to advance the knowledge of the egg, larval and juvenile stages of these fishes, most recently describing the early life stages of a number of Northeast Pacific and Bering Sea larval and juvenile poachers.
Much of my summer was spent identifying eggs, larvae and juvenile fish using meristics, morphometrics, and pigmentation as described in the "Laboratory Guide to Early Life History Stages of Northeast Pacific Fishes," a guide published by some of the group members in 1989. Many of the samples I worked with were collected on cruises conducted in various parts of the Bering Sea. These samples allowed me to become familiar with larvae and eggs of commonly found fish in this area, including the walleye pollock and pacific cod, as well as some less frequently encountered species such as quillfish, poachers and blacksmelts.
Another aspect of my internship allowed me some experience with Arc GIS. Using cruise data through 2003 from the local database, I created a comma separated value file for each species.
I then ran the files using amls script written for Arc GIS to create updated abundance and distribution maps. These maps will be uploaded to the Ichthyoplankton Information System, a public website created and maintained by the group outlining material published in the Early Life History lab guide with abundance and distribution maps.
The Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group aims to have maps drawn from data up to five years from the current year available to the general public, data up to three years from the current year available to all RACE Division employees up to one year for anyone in the Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) Program.
The internship also allowed me to become familiar with cutting edge image analysis technology. Image-Pro Plus, a fairly new program that allows the user to take digital snapshots of specimens in a microscopes field of view, made collecting morphometric measurements fast, easy and accurate.
Using Image-Pro Plus, I collected data for several prickleback species. Standard length, and lengths of the head, snout, distance from snout to anus and eye diameter and body depth measurements were collected for preflexion, flexion and postflexion prickleback larvae. This information will be processed at a later date to calculate proportional ratios used to describe early life stages of these prickleback species.
This internship has helped me determine what direction I would like to take in life and the skills gained this summer will help me get there. Many thanks to Rebecca Reuter, the RACE Division and the wonderful Egg and Larval Taxonomy Group!
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