Eduardo Perez Vega
My name is Eduardo Pérez Vega and I am a master student from the Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences department at ODU. I work in Dr. Margie Muholland’s Iab and my research interest is studying harmful algal blooms that initiate and develop in the Lafayette river, specifically the ones from the dinoflagellate Margalefidium polykrikoides. The objective of my master thesis project is to determine what abiotic factors are responsible for the encystment and excystment of M. polykrikoides. To study the encystment, I am deploying a cyst trap and then collecting a sample daily during the summer blooms to correlate the rate of encystment with abiotic factors like temperature and nutrients. While to study excystment we are using turbidity as a proxy for sediment resuspension and then correlating it with M. polykrikoides cell concentration and chlorophyll. Also, I am collecting sediment samples before the bloom on a weekly basis to find the location of the cyst beds and to monitor changes in the morphology of the cyst, which would suggest the start of the germination phase. Since there is a controversy regarding the identity of M. polykrikoides cysts due to the existence of different ribotypes and bottle effects when doing lab experiments, I am using a novel FISH technique developed by Hattenrath-Lehmann et al 2016 to identify and quantify M. polykrikoides cysts. My project also has a lab component which consists in creating a water column by collecting a sediment sample with a sediment core sampler and not removing the water. Then the water columns are incubated at different temperatures and wind resuspension is simulated by using a motorized mixer to study the bloom initiation and development.
After graduating from high school at Colegio la Inmaculada Concepcion located in Manatí, Puerto Rico, I received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology at University of Puerto Rico-Bayamón campus. While I was a sophomore, I had the opportunity to participate in a short REU program at University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, in which I worked with Dr. James Pierson, Dr. Concepción Rodríguez Fourquet, Dr. Ruby Montoya, and Dr. Lora Harris to study the grazing of the copepod Acartia tonsa on the dinoflagellates Pyrodinium bahamense and Ceratium furca at the bioluminescent bay located in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Then, when I was a junior I had the privilege to participate again in a REU program at University of Texas Marine Science Institute, where I worked with Dr. Tracy Villareal studying the buoyancy of centric diatoms from the Gulf of Mexico. Later, I went to the 2016 Ocean Science meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana to do a poster presentation related to the research that I did at UTMSI. Finally, while I was a senior I accepted a job offer at UTMSI to work again with Dr. Tracy Villareal to study the buoyancy of centric diatoms from the Gulf of Mexico.