Life Update...

     It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and write, so here's an update on what has been happening. I finished all of my classes for my Master's degree. It's been kind of surreal to finally be finished with graduate classes. I finished most of my classes in March, but had one last course to finish up in April. After the Easter Holidays I got to start my research project. 

     Over the past month and a half, I've gotten to work with an amazing team of 8 others to work on a research project keeping corals. Me and my research partner have been looking at sediment and coral mucus in coral reef ecosystems to try and see if heat waves affect the rate of nitrification. Over two weeks we ran 72 hour assays and took 128 samples each. We are still waiting for the results to be run through an auto analyzer, but I am excited to see the results. 

    It's been a super fun yet stressful couple of months. Caring for corals is definitely a challenge. They seem to want to die every other day.  Thankfully we have only lost two corals, but man they are super tricky to care for. I've gained so super valuable skills though. I learned how to frag corals, do water quality testing, and mix up and maintain seawater and seawater salinity. 

    I think I will be posting my lab notes, so if there are a ton of posts next week, they will be my notes. I also have a whole bunch of photos and videos that I can't wait to post as well. So sorry that I haven't been posting, but I have a whole bunch of stuff to post about my experiment and life soon.