Research on the Road…and Sea!

Sometimes all signs point in a certain direction. So it was last winter when I met with folks from the Alumni Association to begin planning our spring semester “Research On The Road” events. They mentioned that the alumni chapter in Puerto Rico is rapidly growing, with hundreds of Penn State grads on the island, and increasingly active membership programming. I left that meeting (bundled up against the cold and snow) pondering their enthusiastic suggestion to bring ROTR to Penn State’s hopping Caribbean alumni group.

Just hours later, I happened upon a Penn State video about the work of Iliana Baums, associate professor of molecular ecology in Penn State’s biology department. Trained at the University of Miami and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Baums focuses her work on the coral reefs of the Caribbean and, in particular, has ongoing research projects on Elkhorn corals in Puerto Rico. 

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The coincidence was just what I needed to get the planning wheels in motion for our farthest-flung ROTR to date, a visit to the Penn Staters of San Juan. As luck would have it, Iliana Baums was available, the chapter was thrilled about having us come visit, and the planning process got underway in earnest!

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With the help of the go-getters in the chapter’s leadership positions, especially brothers Cedric and Johann Sasso, and Javier Rosario, we soon developed a strong plan involving two events: a presentation by Iliana about her research on the Elkhorn coral reefs in the waters off Rincon, Puerto Rico, along with a luncheon for Penn Staters and friends attending the talk; followed the next day by an excursion by boat to the islands off the Northeast tip of Puerto Rico to explore the coral reefs first-hand with Iliana as our guide.

We’ll get to the photos of the ocean in a moment (question: how many shades of turquoise are there? answer: dozens!) But first let me tell you about the talk, which informed and inspired everyone attending. Over 30 people came out on Saturday to meet Iliana, hear about her research and share a lunch with us. Attendees included Penn State alumni, their friends and family, as well as prospective students, incoming students (one of whom was heading to Penn State for grad school in a few weeks!) and even a few Penn Staters who just happened to be on vacation at the San Juan hotel, saw our signs and came by to say hello!

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We Are…everywhere, indeed.

 

We Are…everywhere, indeed.

One of the special things about the warm and friendly Puerto Rican culture is that, within minutes, everyone in the room had introduced themselves to each other and were chatting like old friends. I didn’t have to “work the room” to encourage the mixing and mingling–they had that covered!

 

 One of the special things about the warm and friendly Puerto Rican culture is that, within minutes, everyone in the room had introduced themselves to each other and were chatting like old friends. I didn’t have to “work the room” to encourage the mixing and mingling–they had that covered!

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After everyone had helped themselves to the buffet lunch, Iliana spoke for over an hour about her research on the adaptive responses of important reef building corals in the Caribbean, especially fast growing, branching corals that once dominated the shallower reef zones and framework but today are threatened by climate change, tourism, and pollution, among other factors.  

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  IMG_5511Everyone was fascinated by her vivid description of the experiments she conducted to determine the impact of warming seas on of coral, specifically the development and gene expression of their larvae.

Baums and her colleagues faced complicated logistics involving night diving and spending hours in the ocean.  Star coral shoot eggs and sperm into the water column in mass spawning events, which occur a few days after the full moon in August. In order to collect samples during these annual spawning events in Rincon, Baums and the other scientists faced tough conditions. 

In her own words, “”We have to find suitable reefs with known, and therefore roughly predictable, spawning habits,” explains Baums. “These reefs have to be close enough to shore that we can get into the water and out to the corals within the first hour of spawning, which always happens at night.  When we see that the corals are about to spawn, we set up nets over coral colonies to catch the fragile gametes before they can reach the surface, then we rush back to shore to set up controlled matings and get the young corals back into aquarium tanks before they die.”  

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Iliana Baums and colleagues collecting coral gametes during a night dive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of a local chapter of Surfrider, a non-profit surfing/environmentalist organization, proved to be some of their best allies, noted Baums.  

The event was supposed to end at 2 pm but nobody jumped up to go…in fact, people lingered to ask more questions of Iliana, chat, laugh and socialize. The mood was everything an event planner could ask for: engaged, enthusiastic, upbeat and interactive to the max!

Some of the attendees had already signed up for the next day’s trip, so we said “hasta mañana” instead of “adiós” — we had to meet in the lobby at 7:30 the next morning for the shuttle van to the marina. 

End of Part One… Don’t miss Part Two, coming soon! 

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