Nicolas Dunn

· Prepare check lists for very survey the day before running the site.

· Pre and post calibrated sonde used to test water for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity, and depth.

· Boat experience includes going over all equipment for survey check list, hooking boat to truck, tying boat to docks, and cleaning it after survey is complete.

· Help conduct dolphin survey days by assisting in various tasks.

· Readies check lists for sonde, data sheets, secci tube, life jackets, research signs, and boat check list.

· Recorded survey data; counting dolphins, distinguishing individual animals from catalog, observing behavior, noting sonde and environmental readings, and weather patterns.

· Participated in the Clean Rivers Program, a state mandated project that takes water samples from Texan rivers.

· CRP involves trips to designated sites, water sample collections, sonde readings, and bacteria check.

· Learns to use FinBase, FinFinder, and LightRoom data bases to organize catalog.

· FinBase: A catalog of all identified dolphins, distinguishing them by fin notches, all within the survey area of Galveston Bay.

· FinFinder: Engine that compares fin photos from a survey to existing catalogs by tracing the notches on the edge of the fin.

· Light Room: Program that brings in metadata of survey photos and finalizes edits through tagging and cropping.

· Photo-ID: Cropping photos to cut out any unnecessary objects and focus on the dolphin. Tagging the photos by identifying activities done within the photo.

● Ran gene assignments through multiple programs to identify and characterize types of sea phages using existing data.

● The genome chosen for analyses was flaveriant.

● Preformed Genemark to obtain the coding potential of the genome.

● Blasted the genome to analyze the alignment of the gene hits and find the function of each gene.

● Used Starterator to track genes that match the data base example and obtained a specific percentage of similarities of the genome.

● Preformed DNA master on all genes of the genome and found a glimmer score for each gene.

● Identified an Immunity Repressor that promotes lysogenic state from lytic infection.

● Identified VIP-2 Toxin, a natural insecticidal protein that was possibly picked up from transduction of a phage.

● Assisted in the Red Fish ecology and population research in the Gulf of Mexico.

● Sifted through planktonic samples obtained from the Texan Gulf.

● Recorded the larvae species as fish, squid, or arthropod and the amount found in each sample size.

● Conducted predation rates of periwinkle snails in a local saltmarsh based on plant heights.

● Identified the periwinkle snails, hermit crab, salt marsh, and mangrove tress as primary species for this project.

● Set up and mark a specific area within the marsh with 10 snails in them.

● The snails were tethered using fishing line, glue, and paper clips, with half tethered at the base of the plant and half tethered at the top of the plant.

● Half the marked areas were placed at the edge of the salt marsh, while the other was placed in the interior of the marsh.

● Conducted two trails, each 7 days long and used 200 snails.

● Returned to the marsh to gather data on which snails were still present and which were not.

● Used R to analyze data between plant type and plant height and how these two parameters resulted in the data that was collected.

● Assisted in the continual recovery of the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle population.

● Monitored beach shore for signs of sea turtle tracks, hatchlings, or stranding events.

Provided biological response once nests were located and secured.

● Went out in the morning to an estuary to collect oysters.

● Collected about 10-15 oysters from a reef nearby that needed to be at least 4-5 inches in length.

● Recorded temperatures of the water at the edge of the estuary and the center of the oyster reef.

● Trained in handling shellfish and learned how to cut them to obtain a single organism.

● Returned to the lab and gave all the data to the lab manager.