Spring Student Research Symposium 2022
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/1969.6/90409
The purpose of the symposium is to provide students (undergraduate, graduate, postbac) from participating colleges (Science and Engineering, Education and Human Development, Nursing and Health Sciences) with an opportunity to present their research and obtain feedback in preparation for participation in national and international conferences.
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Browsing Spring Student Research Symposium 2022 by Author "Abdulla, Hussain"
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Item Corals in crisis: How temperature and nutrient fluctuations affect physiological responses of corals and their microbiome in Kāne’ohe Bay, Hawai’i(2022-04) Ruben, Zoe; Pinnell, Lee; Abdulla, Hussain; Turner, Jeffrey; Bahr, KeishaCoral reefs are the foundation to the social, cultural, and economic life in Hawai i; however, these reefs have not escaped the conditions that have ravaged coral reefs worldwide. Along the east coast of O ahu lies Kāne ohe Bay, which serves as a living laboratory with distinct difference in environmental gradients due to variation in circulation and residency times. Landward, there is a distinct gradient of cesspool presence and therefore a gradient of potential effluent intrusion and nutrient loading to these reefs. Together, these provide a unique opportunity to explore the impact of water quality and ongoing ocean warming on coral health, susceptibility and tolerance. This research investigates how temperature and nutrients influence the coral holobiont across a spatial and temporal environmental gradient. Pairs of known bleached/non-bleached corals were collected at two sites within Kāne ohe Bay which encompass this spatial gradient in temperature and nutrient influence. Corals were then subjected to experimental treatments (Control, Nutrient, Heated, Heated + Nutrient) for one month. Measurements of bleaching were collected at the beginning, middle, and end of the experiment and coral subsamples were collected at the beginning and end of the experiment for subsequent metagenomics analysis. I hypothesize that (A) coral subjected to a combined increase in temperature and nutrients will experience higher levels of bleaching and lower levels of survivorship, (B) historically non-bleached phenotypes will show higher levels of survivorship than their historically bleached counterparts, and (C) there will be an observed shift in microbial community composition across corals due to these stressors. If validated, these findings will support that coral bleaching susceptibility is manifested throughout the coral holobiont and the physiological response to stressors such as temperature and nutrient loading can be better understood and potentially mitigated, therefore supporting reef resiliency and restoration in the face of climate change.Item Increasing the analytical window of marine dissolved organic matter for orbitrap mass spectrometry(2022-04) Elliott, Justin; Abdulla, HussainMarine dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a major carbon pool comparable to the atmospheric carbon pool and serves important roles in long term carbon storage. Elucidating the chemical composition of DOM is necessary to improve our understanding of its roles in global biogeochemical cycles. Most studies utilize solid-phase extraction (SPE) to concentrate and desalinate samples, followed by high-resolution mass spectrometry to characterize DOM composition. The conventional SPE method achieves up to 70% dissolved organic carbon (DOC) extraction efficiency; however sample acidification prioritizes the extraction of organic acids creating an incomplete chemical profile. Although a robust methodology, many compounds are not retained by the non-polar SPE resin constraining the analytical window creating a hidden fraction of DOM. This study aims to generate a method to elucidate the DOM fraction previously uncharacterized by targeting DOM constituents with basic functional groups. Surface seawater samples were processed by two distinct SPE procedures; the conventional acidified SPE procedure and the modified acid-free procedure. Extracts were analyzed with ion chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to a high resolution, mass accuracy Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer. Samples were analyzed by data-dependent acquisition in negative and positive modes, and databases were used for tentative structural identification of Individual DOM compounds. DOC extraction efficiencies of the acid-free SPE method were around 40%, even though it recovered lower DOC; still, it shows significant chemical composition differences relative to the conventional SPE procedure, indicating it extracts a distinct DOM fraction. These results suggest that utilizing both the conventional SPE procedure and the acid-free SPE procedure on seawater samples provide a more comprehensive chemical profile of marine DOM, overcoming the current bias towards acidic constituents. This method better represents marine water samples and has the potential to become a routine method for future marine DOM characterization.