Graduate Research in Chile
Anna McLaskey in Chile to conduct experiments on copepod development.
Anna McLaskey recently traveled to Chile to conduct ocean acidification experiments on copepod development. The trip was possible because of collaboration between Dr. Julie Keister and Dr. Pamela Hidalgo at Universidad de Concepción to study zooplankton dynamics in Oxygen Minimum Zones. As part of the collaboration, students and researchers travel between the US and Chilean universities. Anna has worked with Chilean collaborators in Seattle for the past two years and last October she went to Chile to visit two universities. While there, she gave seminars about her research on how two important zooplankton in Puget Sound – the krill Euphausia pacifica and the copepod Calanus pacificus – are impacted by ocean acidification.
There was a lot of interest in doing similar studies on the closely-related local species in Chile, and Anna returned in March to conduct the experiments. Dr. Cristian Vargas’ ocean acidification mesocosm lab in Dichato, Chile supported the experiments. This was an exciting opportunity to work with students and professors in a foreign country and provided interesting comparisons with Anna’s MS research.
