Following along on the road to research …

In my last blog, I ended with the activities of my 2015 students. I’ll pick up where I left off…

In August 2015, I re-entered the “marine snail” world as I took on the co-supervisory role of master’s student, Stephen Maxwell. Stephen’s work focuses on taxonomy, systematics, morphological aspects of the different snails, and genetics. He has produced two papers so far, one describing a new species of Vasticardium, called Vasticardium swanae (Fig. 1) and the other discussing commercially driven taxonomy. You can find these listed on my blog, and he has a few others under review and some in preparation. He’s currently preparing to present his final seminar, and then hopefully he will submit his thesis soon thereafter.

 

Fig. 1. A new species of Vasticardium, Vasticardium swanae (Maxwell et al. 2016)

Fig. 2. Misha Rowell's poster presented at ASSAB, Katoomba 2016

In February 2016, my new honours student, Misha Rowell, started her project investigating the impact of microenvironmental change on emotion and cognition in M. cervinipes. She set up two habitat categories and, after several days, she then trained animals in a modified Barnes maze to assess anxiety and spatial cognition. She then either returned them to their original habitat category, or she switched them into the opposite category. After an acclimation period, they were trained again in the Barnes maze. Like Ayla, Misha was also fortunate enough to have her project funded by both Skyrail Rainforest Foundation and the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA). Misha also presented her preliminary findings in poster format (Fig. 2) at the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference in Katoomba, New South Wales in 2016. We are in the process of preparing her data for publication. A short blurb is available on the Skyrail website.

Fig. 3. Greater glider Petauroides volans. Photo: D. Cook; https://www.flickr.com/photos/kookr/8688066201

Also at the start of 2016, I took on a masters by coursework student, Zachary Julson, who did a minor project on resource availability and tree use of greater gliders Petauroides volans (Fig. 3). He spent some time using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to determine formylated phloroglucinols in Eucalyptus leaves and he also measured water content. He has subsequently returned to his home in the United States.

Fig. 4. Pale yellow robin Tregellasia capito. Photo: J.J. Harrison; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tregellasia_capito_-_Julatten.jpg

In June 2016, I took on another co-supervisory role, this time for honours student Renee Cassels, who is looking at fragmentation and pale-yellow robins Tregellasia capito (Fig. 4). She has been conducting field work up on the Atherton tablelands, working in numerous different fragments up there. She is due to submit her thesis mid-year, so watch this space!

 

Also in June 2016, I took on a student who is studying a Graduate Certificate in Research Methods. Jess Watt is also a marine snail person, focusing on Strombus gibberulus (Fig. 5). She started mid-year 2016 with me, and completed her literature review, so is now focusing on collecting the data needed for her project. She will be working at Green Island (Fig. 6), studying the communities of marine gastropods and the different habitat characteristics of the island. More updates on her project will follow once she’s collected the data she needs.

Fig. 5. Marine gastropods Strombus gibberulus sp. Photo: R. Parker; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strombus_gibberulus_gibbosus.shell001.jpg

Finally, starting soon in 2017, I have a new masters by coursework student, Kelsey Paulling, who is going to be investigating melomys olfactory cues. Hopefully, we’ll find some interesting stuff there, so keep watching this space!

Fig. 6. Green Island, Australia

In my next blog, I’ll take you through my own personal research over the last few years. You can also read more in my publications, listed on my blog. You can also find me on ResearchGate or the James Cook University website.