As cliché as it sounds, I knew I wanted to be a scientist ever since I was a little girl. As I was nearing the end of high school and deciding upon a college to attend, I needed to narrow down my interests. Being from the landlocked state of Missouri, the marine environment had always been an elusive and interesting habitat to me. In my college selection, the University of Puget Sound stood out to me as a great school with a solid biology department. If I wanted to get involved in marine research at a small, liberal arts college, this was the place to go.

During my sophomore year, I was ready to get started doing research. I contacted my ecology professor Jennifer Burnaford, whose class I had taken in the fall, about potentially working with her. I had no idea what exactly I wanted to study or if she could help me out, but I decided to take a shot in the dark. To my delight, Jen was more than happy to take me on as a research advisee. And to my surprise and even greater delight, Jen told me that she did her summer research at Friday Harbor Laboratories, part of the University of Washington, on San Juan Island. If I could just get the money, I could spend my summer doing field workm in the intertidal zone.

Writing my first ever proposal for a grant from the University of Puget Sound Summer Science Research Grant Committee was a very valuable experience. Jen gave me a number of scientific papers to read that were related to her general interests. From those, I created my own research question. Pisaster ochraceus, that big purple sea star you see on the coast, is the dominant predator in this habitat. At low tide, when out of the water, you usually find Pisaster in shaded areas, such as under rocks or Hedophyllum sessile, or large, broad-leafed kelp. I was curious to see how the temperature differences between shaded and sunny areas played a role in this microhabitat location. Aerial temperatures in the open can reach over 30°C (86°F), while in the shade they only reach between 15-20°C (59-68°F). Since sea stars are ectotherms (cold-blooded), their body temperatures are very closely related to the air (or water) temperature. I studied the physiology of Pisaster and how it is affected at different temperatures.

Because I started my research after my sophomore year, I was able to extend my project for two years. The first summer I lived on San Juan Island at the labs. What an amazing experience! Friday Harbor Laboratories is a world-renowned institute doing cutting-edge marine research. I met so many biologists whose published papers I had read. My field site looked directly across Haro Strait to Victoria, BC. The orcas passed by nearly every day. I learned field techniques to survey Pisaster in their natural habitat and laboratory techniques to measure their aquatic oxygen consumption at different temperatures.

The second summer I needed to measure aerial oxygen consumption. Friday Harbor labs did not have the equipment I needed, but luckily, University of Puget Sound did. The previous fall I took Comparative Animal Physiology with Professor Alexa Tullis, and I learned how to use this equipment during lab. So I stayed in Tacoma that summer and teamed up with Alexa to complete the second part of my research. I traveled to Friday Harbor to meet Jen three times during the summer to wrap up my field work.

Right now I’m in the throes of writing my Honors thesis. While the sitting-down-and-writing aspect is not nearly as much fun as the spending-the-day-by-the-water part, it is actually much more rewarding. Seeing my two years of research come together in a cohesive, well thought-out paper is kind of like seeing your team win a national championship after months of training (okay, I used to be on the crew team, so I know the feeling). I’ve been able to attend a national conference at which I presented my research and made valuable connections for the future. My experience here at University of Puget Sound has helped me make a significant step towards that goal I’ve had since I was little – to become a scientist.