Tag Archives: research

Tracking Sharks in the Pacific Northwest

Announcement: TONIGHT WE HAVE A SHARK SCIENTIST ON THE SHOW!

Meet Jessica Schulte, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Jess is part of ‘The Big Fish’ lab, and guess what—she still has all her limbs! As you’ll hear on the show tonight, this isn’t a Jaws sequel. Sharks are often portrayed negatively in the media, but Jess is here to flip the script. She’ll highlight why sharks are fascinating, misunderstood, and worthy of far more research attention.

Broadly speaking, Jess is studying the movement and foraging ecology of an apex predator: the broadnose sevengill shark. Her work takes place primarily in Willapa Bay, Washington, where—mysteriously—these sharks gather in large numbers. Why they congregate there is unknown, but Jess is sinking her teeth into finding the answer. In fact, little is known about the movement and foraging ecology of broadnose sevengills. Last year Jess co-authored a paper on the first scientifically confirmed sighting of sevengills in the Puget Sound. To uncover more about what they are doing, Jess heads out on a boat 3–4 times each month from March to October and catches (yes, catches) these sharks. Utilizing strong ethical methods, she collects stomach contents and secures tracking tags before safely releasing them back to the ocean.

If you think Jess’s research sounds exhilarating, wait until you hear about her journey to grad school. She served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, became a dive master in Honduras, assists with OSU’s scientific diving program, and has traveled to countless countries. She’s also just an awesome person—so tune in to our chat tonight on KBVR 88.7 FM, May 4th. You can listen to the episode anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including on KBVR, Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else!

No Rest for the Massless

Sometimes the smallest things in the universe can answer some of the largest questions. That seems to be the case with neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles – which just means they are the smallest of the small and that they are indivisible. The name neutrino literally means electrically neutral (neutr-) and small (-ino). For a long time, scientists believed neutrinos had no mass. Now, it is known to have a mass, but nobody has been able to enumerate it. Despite their size (or maybe because of it) they are the most abundant particle in the universe. Every second, 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body without interacting with any particles in your body.

Noah at the Wilson Hall atrium at Fermilab, the national particle physics lab outside of Chicago where their experiments are based

Noah Vaughan (they / them) is a PhD Student in the Physics Department at Oregon State University whose research focuses on experimental high energy particle physics, specifically neutrinos! They are co-author on over 50 publications, which is an incredible feat at this career stage and demonstrates the collaborative nature of the field. Noah works on the Main Injector Neutrino ExpeRiment to study v-A interactions (MINERvA) Project which is the first neutrino experiment in the world to use a high-intensity beam to study neutrino reactions with five different nuclei. Basically, MINERvA provides understanding on how neutrinos interact with other particles which inform scientists about the bigger role they play, including in star supernovas, the creation of the universe, and the structure of protons.

Noah in the underground hall at Fermilab

Noah’s experiments for their dissertation were performed at Fermalab, which is 100 meters underground. That’s something I bet a lot of PhD students couldn’t claim! These experiments have given Noah a dataset with over 1,000,000 points, which is the largest of its type. The nature of neutrinos makes them difficult to study. They interact through gravity and something called the weak force. The weak force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It’s much weaker than electromagnetism, but it’s incredibly important. The weak force changes one type of particle into another. It’s one of the driving forces in radioactive decay and helps fuel the sun through nuclear reactions. The weak force changes the identity or “flavor” of particles, at a very small range (smaller than the size of a proton). This allows neutrinos to navigate through atoms of massive objects without interacting.

The top parts of the MINERvA detector that Noah helped rebuild for use in a new prototype detector to be used for DUNE, a future neutrino experiment. Each of the blue and red cylinders is a photomultiplier tube that reads out the light collected from the scintillation strips in the detector (Photo provided by Noah)

This all means that Noah’s work is very important, and answering questions about some of the smallest things in the universe leads to answers to the biggest questions in the universe.

The front face of the MINERVA detector in its original commissioning (photo provided by Noah, from Reider Hahn at Fermilab)

Written by Taylor Azizeh.

Gross and slimy: How salmon shark barf can teach us about their foraging ecology

If someone asked you to describe a shark, I imagine most folks would report a ten-foot long body, rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, and the ruthless nature of a (literal) cold-blooded killer. If you asked Master’s student Reilly Boyt to describe a shark, she would likely describe a salmon shark. Before you look at the photo below, I urge you to close your eyes and picture a shark that looks a little shy and vaguely embarrassed. Okay now open, is this what you pictured or is it even better?

**Pictured**: Reilly Boyt helping conduct an ultrasound on a shark, all photos taken during permitted research

Reilly (she/her) is a second year Master’s student in the Big Fish Lab in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, studying the diet and habitat use of salmon sharks using multi-chemical tracers (e.g. eDNA metabarcoding and fatty acid analysis) across size classes and sex). Not only are salmon sharks adorable, but they are also one of the many fascinating shark species that are located right off the Oregon coast. Although salmon sharks are fish, they are actually warm-blooded or endothermic, meaning they can regulate their body temperature like mammals. Salmon sharks are apex predators, and they therefore impact the ecosystem from the top-down and have an incredibly important role throughout the entire food web. Despite this, scientists are still unsure of exactly what they are eating and where. That’s where Reilly comes in!

Reilly’s work aims to combine multiple methods that look for feeding signatures within fatty acids, isotopes, and DNA. These techniques can provide an understanding of both short- and long-term diet choices. In order to get these types of data, Reilly gets the simultaneously awesome and disgusting job of sorting through shark stomachs and vomit. I think true science nerds understand how cool that is!

**Pictured**: Reilly Boyt examining the contents of a shark stomach.

From conducting diet analysis on coyote stomachs in high school to working for NOAA on shark diet studies, Reilly really has done it all. She is the founder and CEO of Disabilities Within Ocean Sciences (DWOS), an organization dedicated to “building a network and resource hub for disabled marine scientists at every career stage.” She has done prolific advocacy work that focuses on promoting inclusivity and equitable access within the field of marine science.

To learn more about DWOS and the adorably awkward salmon shark, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!

Written by Taylor Azizeh

The fourth of the Five Goliaths: Mercury poisoning

If you’re not a fan of ‘The Office’ then that title probably made no sense to you. But, if you are, then you’ll know that Michael Scott famously said that mercury poisoning is one of the five Goliaths that America faces (though we never actually find out what the fifth one is…). Regardless, this Sunday you’ll be able to learn all about this Goliath as our guest on the show, the newly minted Dr. Cailin Sinclair, will discuss his doctorate and post-doc work investigating mercury cycling in freshwater systems. Mercury chemistry and availability are very complex and the way mercury moves through food webs is also highly complex, which can make it difficult to know how much mercury is in a system and what its impacts might be. However, measuring biological tissue is a good way to determine risk associated with mercury, which is why Cailin uses dragonflies, which are exposed to mercury through their diet, as indicators for mercury in freshwater systems.

For his PhD dissertation, Cailin conducted field studies, lab experiments and a comprehensive literature review, to get to the bottom of some fundamental questions about mercury in the environment. So, join us for this week’s show as we sit down with Dr. Cailin Sinclair to discuss his research, his path to OSU, what he’s working on next, and maybe a factoid or two about musical theatre.

Tune in to our live show with Cailin this Sunday (February 9^th) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM! If you miss the show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!

Diving into Underwater Robots

Have you ever wondered what goes into designing and building a robot? In an age of seemingly exponential technological growth, robots are becoming more and more commonplace. On land, robots have excelled at tasks such as assembly line manufacturing, warehouse logistics, and even household chores. Engineers and researchers are now designing robots capable of exploring other environments such as the ocean. The use of robots underwater can aid humans in many tasks, including engineering projects like offshore construction. This approach significantly improves safety by removing humans from often dangerous situations, while also increasing efficiency. However, the underwater environment differs dramatically from land, posing many challenges for researchers.

Akshaya Agrawal, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Robotics Department at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering, is tackling the challenges of implementing robots underwater. Ocean currents create drag—up to 800 times greater than what we experience on land—and communication signals like Wi-Fi do not travel well underwater, making it difficult to localize (determine the robot’s exact position). Akshaya’s research involves developing and testing motion-planning algorithms designed to help teams of robots coordinate movement and perform tasks underwater. She utilizes realistic simulations to assess the performance of robots underwater, coupled with laboratory tests on ground-based robots, and plans to transition to an underwater testing phase in the future.

Akshaya’s passion for engineering and robotics began at an early age. Her journey from India to Oregon is inspirational, as is how she’s redefining the academic landscape for women in robotics. To hear more about her story, all the cool robots she’s working with, and the steps involved in getting them underwater, tune in to KBVR 88.7 FM this Sunday, Feb. 2. You can listen to the episode anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including on KBVR, Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else!

The details are in the DNA

Have you ever been on a walk or a hike and encountered the feather of a bird or the scat of a deer? Most likely, you tried to avoid stepping on the scat and you maybe admired the feather for a few moments before moving on. But did you know that those left behind animal parts are actually full of genetic data that scientists use to answer all kinds of ecological questions? Nowadays, many ecological studies strive to be as non-invasive as possible since physically handling animals can be logistically complicated as well as potentially cause stress to the animal. Hence, being able to make use of biological samples such as feathers or scat that are already left behind is incredibly non-invasive!

On this week’s show, we talked with PhD student Emily Dziedzic about her multitude of projects that she is working on for her research in the Levi Lab in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Emily is a molecular ecologist who focuses on bioinformatics, which means that she uses computer-based methods to analyze genetic data. Her work spans a wide variety of taxa, from freshwater fish to scarlet macaws, from bats to Humboldt marten, and has implications for improving ecological monitoring for management as well as assisting in the fight against wildlife disease.

If you’re curious to hear more about Emily’s research as well as learn about how she went from being a young child who organized all the kids in her neighborhood to save snapping turtle hatchlings on bikes to a molecular ecologist working on conservation management projects at OSU, then listen to our episode with Emily wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!

Straying from the stream: investigating the impacts of spring Chinook salmon hatchery fish on wild, origin fish

Dams, climate change, habitat loss, predation, anglers. Wild salmon must contend with all of these challenges during some point in their lifetimes. But an additional challenge may be having a negative impact on wild salmon that we don’t yet quite understand: hatchery salmon. The main purpose behind rearing and releasing hatchery salmon into the wild is to increase the number of fish available for anglers (both recreational and commercial) to catch since wild salmon populations are too low in many areas to yield sustainable catches. However, when hatchery fish are released into the wild, some individuals stray. The term straying describes when hatchery fish go where they are not supposed to go. While some degree of straying can be positive because it helps maintain or increase genetic diversity within wild populations, too many hatchery strays could lead to problems for wild salmon. Investigating the impacts of hatchery salmon on wild salmon is no easy feat, and it’s not made easier when you’re trying to do it in possibly one of the most remote and wild places in Oregon…

But that’s exactly what our guest this week is doing! Emily Treadway is a first year Master’s student advised by Dr. Seth White in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at OSU. On top of being a graduate student, Emily is also an employee at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife working within the East Region Fish Research Office. By wearing these two hats and through support from the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan, Emily’s Master’s research aims to do three things: (1) establish baselines for the Wenaha River, (2) determine how a remote region like the Wenaha can be monitored cost-effectively into the future, and (3) hopefully implement certain mitigation efforts or designs that will help support healthy wild salmon populations.

If you want to hear more about Emily’s research, which involves kayaking on the Wenaha, scouting for river hazards, hiking into remote regions with huge solar panel-powered stationary antennas, then tune in to our live show with Emily this Sunday (October 20^th) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM!

If you miss the show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!

Changing the narrative of the sophomore slump

Going to college is an overwhelming and all-consuming experience. To help students cope with the new realities of college life, universities typically provide huge amounts of resources and support to freshmen during their first year. Once students hit their sophomore year, the assumption is that students are returning to something they’re already familiar with; they know what resources their school has to offer, how to sign up for classes, where to buy the best lunch on campus, and so on. Sophomores are expected to independently way find and the amount of support and provided resources fizzles out. This phenomena is referred to as the sophomore slump as research has shown that sophomores are in fact quite vulnerable compared to other college classes because of this drop-off in support. Shania Siron, who is in her third (and final!) year and advised by Dr. Tenisha Tevis at OSU, is our guest on the show this week and the focus of her Doctorate of Education dissertation research is the sophomore slump. Shania’s research aims at better understanding how college sophomores develop their abilities to self-author through engaging with career services, which Shania is pretty well-placed to do given that she doesn’t just wear a graduate student hat but she in fact also works full-time as the Assistant Director of Career and Fellowship Advising at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Schematic showing how Self-Authorship Theory intersects with the Center for Life Beyond Reed’s Purpose=Driven Career Advising Model

Tune in to our interview with Shania this Sunday (October 6^th) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM to learn about Reed College’s unique advising model, what it means to self-author, and Shania’s journey from being an undergraduate Duck at University of Oregon to being a graduate Beaver at Oregon State University!

If you miss the live show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else!

From hooves to helicopters: the study of foot-and-mouth disease virus in African buffalo

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus is one of the most infectious viral diseases in the world. FMD virus affects all cloven-hooved animals and there have been outbreaks all over the world except for in North America. While FMD virus doesn’t necessarily cause fatality in animals, it causes severe milk production losses and can leave affected individuals severely weakened and debilitated. This is particularly problematic for people who keep livestock as it can affect their livelihoods and economic welfare. Our guest this week is Cambrey Knapp, a 2^nd year PhD student in Comparative Health Science who is studying wildlife-livestock interactions related to FMD virus around Kruger National Park in South Africa. African buffalo within Kruger National Park harbor FMD virus and it can spillover to livestock that are kept in the surrounding areas outside of the park. Cambrey’s research is investigating which viral lineages of FMD virus are most prone to spillover and the temporal aspects of transmission by looking at historic and contemporary African buffalo and cattle samples.

Curious to know how helicopters factor in to the whole story? Tune in to our interview with Cambrey this Sunday (June 2^nd) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM. If you miss the live show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else!

Working towards sustainability in the doula workforce

Studies have shown that birthing mothers paired with doulas have better birth outcomes than mothers that do not work with doulas. For example, doula-assisted mothers are four times less likely to have a low birth weight baby, two times less likely to experience a birth complication and are significantly more likely to initiate breast-feeding, compared to non-doula-assisted mothers¹. Yet, the doula workforce suffers from high levels of burn-out often due to being underpaid, overextended, and disrespected in their work, which often results in doulas leaving the profession². Given the clear benefits of doula-assisted pregnancy and birth, these issues need to be solved. But, how? Well, one person on the job is Master’s student Katie Minich! Katie is in the Applied Anthropology program working with Drs. Melissa Cheyney and David Lewis. Katie’s research aims to better understand how we can improve the sustainability and best practices for doulas post-training.

Tune in to our interview with Katie this Sunday (May 26^th) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM. We will be covering a whole range of topics, including Katie’s eight years of experience as a doula herself, why Oregon is one of the best places to be a doula in the US, and more!

If you miss the live show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else!

If you’re interested in learning more about the topics discussed, check out the following resources:

Minich, K. I. (2023). “Listening to Doulas in Southern Oregon: Exploring Motivations and Experiences of Birthworkers.” McNair National Research Journal, 2. https://maop14.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/2023-McNair%20National%20Research%20Journal%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Minich, K. I. (2023) “Listening to Doulas in Southern Oregon: Understanding Value and Care.” Southern Oregon University Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program McNair Scholars Journal, 19. https://digital.sou.edu/digital/collection/p16085coll19/id/23004/rec/18

The Uplift Lab: Home – Uplift Lab

Profile on research award: Announcing the Deanna Kingston Scholarship for Graduate Student Excellence | Anthropology, Anthropology Academic Programs, Graduate Anthropology, Prospective OSU Anthropology Graduate Students | College of Liberal Arts | Oregon State University

Graduate Student profile: Anthropology Graduate Students | Anthropology, About Anthropology, Faculty & Staff Directory | College of Liberal Arts | Oregon State University

References

¹ Gruber, K.J., Cupito, S.H., and Dobson, C.F. (2013) Impact of Doulas on Healthy Birth Outcomes. The Journal of Perinatal Education, 22(1): 49-58.

² MamaGlow Foundation. (2023) Birth worker burnout: Exploring integrative approaches to nurturing a healthy doula workforce. https://mamaglowfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Birth_Worker_Burnout_Brief.pdf

Inspiration Dissemination

Inspiring Stories From Oregon State Graduate Students on 88.7 KBVR FM