New Beginnings

Guest post by Rob Vanderhoef ('27).

First, I had never traveled to the Deep South. The fieldwork allowed me to see rural and wetland parts of Louisiana and the chance to see one of our nation's historical cities, New Orleans. Louisiana was much hotter than I anticipated. However, I drank lots of water and applied lots of sunscreen. I also made sure to consume lots of motion sickness medicine before going out each day, and thankfully, I did not throw up the entire trip!

Dauphin Island, Alabama, was similar to Louisiana, with both locations showing me more about the Deep South than I previously knew. However, our Dauphin Island experience was more uncertain than Louisiana's. On our second day, the waves were supposed to be around 1-2 feet, but they turned out to be upwards of 6 feet. Fortunately, we could still collect numerous samples at our Alabama sites.

Finally, before leaving for our Florida site, Paul and Rebecca informed us that the boat in Florida would not be functional for our offshore travels. Instead, we spent our day off going to the local beach and aquarium and participating in a beautiful riverboat cruise at Wakulla Springs State Park. In the end, I had a fun and eventful time during my fieldwork experience because of our collaborative efforts on the boat and fun adventures when we had days off!!

In addition to showing me more about the Deep South and connecting with Paul, Rebecca, and my peers, traveling to the Gulf of Mexico to do field research allowed me to understand the significance of fieldwork and its role in data collection. For example, I could examine the process of sieving the sediment and picking through live organisms and shells, which eventually led back to our work in the lab. The box core on the boat in Louisiana and Alabama brings up sediment samples, meaning there is no way to tell what is present before sieving and picking through it. This uncertainty allowed me to learn so much about the different types of bivalves and examine other organisms that we may or may not study.

Before joining the lab, I did not realize that there were so many pathways to take when conducting research about the tiny bivalves we were studying. These included analyzing microstructure, examining ecological and phylogenetic differences across sites, studying population genetics, and much more. I am interested to see what projects the Paleo Lab will take me and my peers on in the future.

Ideally, I want to pursue a career in Conservation Biology. As a double major in environmental studies and biology, my most significant interest is studying how humans affect the environment, specifically how humans affect organisms. The experience in the field only excited my interest in working in the field and with live organisms. Our fieldwork experience showed me the often hidden, yet still significant, steps of storing and shipping specimens. The process of labeling bags and cards, as well as counting the live specimens, often goes overlooked. My time in the field was highly beneficial for my career in the sciences. I know so much more about conducting research, examining data, and answering scientific questions now than ever.