Marine Biology Commons^™

Waking Students Up With Explorations Of Metabolic Dormancy: A Pilot Study Of The Killifish Cure, Emma Goodwin, Daniel E. Zajic, Jason E. Podrabsky, Erin E. Shortlidge

Student Research Symposium

A national goal for education reform is to provide opportunities for all biology undergraduates to participate in research. Traditionally, undergraduates gain research experience by apprenticing in faculty-led research labs; however, only a fraction of undergraduates have access to these opportunities. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are a type of laboratory course where students conduct experiments to answer relevant research questions, thus allowing undergraduates to gain authentic research experience at a large scale. To increase equity in opportunities for biology undergraduates to participate in authentic scientific research at Portland State University (PSU), we have designed and implemented a CURE to pilot …

Effects Of Water Contaminants On The Immune System Of The Fathead Minnow, Jacob B. Walling, Marina Cetkovic-Cvlje

Huskies Showcase

Award for "Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation".

Abstract

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including personal care products, pharmaceuticals, industrial agents and agricultural runoff, have shown adverse effects on aquatic survival species. Numerous CECs have potentially harmful effects, but have not been well studied. One of the most alarming studies was the treatment of an entire lake with a synthetic estrogen, found in birth control pills, which showed a near extinction of the fathead minnow population. My study looks at the potential effects of CECs on the immune system of fathead minnow. This study does not only show the potentially hazardous effects …

P-46 A Periodic Matrix Model Of Seabird Behavior And Population Dynamics, Mykhaylo M. Malakhov, Benjamin Macdonald, Shandelle M. Henson, J. M. Cushing

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Pacific Northwest lead to food resource reductions for surface-feeding seabirds, and have been correlated with several marked behavioral changes. Namely, higher SSTs are associated with increased egg cannibalism and egg-laying synchrony in the colony. We study the long-term effects of climate change on population dynamics and survival by considering a simplified, cross-season model that incorporates both of these behaviors in addition to density-dependent and environmental effects. We show that cannibalism can lead to backward bifurcations and strong Allee effects, allowing the population to survive at lower resource levels than would be possible otherwise.