You are probably wondering what type of hints I'm giving you with the nine circles drawn in red ink and the one hole cut into the plate. Any guesses? Remember, I'm working at a marine lab.
Let me give you another hint:
Now that you see the culture tube next to the plate, it's obvious what this is for, isn't it? Well, maybe not.
Recall that I'm studying the effects of ocean acidification on fertilization success in the COT. Ocean acidification is caused by the increased amounts of CO2 spewed into the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuel, some of which dissolves in the oceans forming carbonic acid, which lowers the pH. This process is very temperature sensitive, so when we run experiments, it's important to conduct replicates at the same temperature. Therefore we can't do this out in the lab air, for that can vary by several degrees. Thus we decided to conduct our fertilization experiments in tubes suspended in aquaria where the water temperature is carefully controlled. The challenge was to construct tube holders that we could float in the aquaria.....voila!
The Leatherman did a great job while the salad plates were available on this remote island and fit our budget! Being a productive scientist often requires one to be resourceful! Now our gametes will be kept at just the right temperature suspended in the aquarium water, as seen in this picture is taken through the front of the aquarium.
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