Provision Of A Marines Culture Laboratory At The Shannon Point Marine Center

Western Washington University, Bellingham WA

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Stephen Sulkin at the Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC), Western Washington University (WWU) to renovate a current lecture hall into a training and research laboratory. The goal of SPMC is to develop a facilities base that can support the research of resident and visiting scientists; can promote a focused, sophisticated instructional opportunity for students; and can contribute scientific information to marine resource agencies. The new facility will meet a critical need at SPMC for appropriately designed space that can support the maintenance of marine organisms in laboratory culture. The marine plants and animals cultured in this facility will be used to train undergraduates and Masters of Science students. These cultured species are used extensively by resident and visiting scientists and form the basis of collaborative scientific efforts among scientists and students at SPMC and between SPMC and other institutions nationwide. The space to be renovated has become available with the completion of a lecture hall in a new building. Project renovations will include installation of a glassware wash sink, laboratory preparation area, and laboratory benches, replacement of carpeting with tile flooring, addition of ventilation to an adjacent microscope room, provision of seawater to the main lab room, and extension of emergency standby electrical power to support temperature control cabinets. Research and training of undergraduates are closely linked at SPMC. Students from around the nation participating in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site and Minorities in Marine Science Undergraduate Program will use the new facility, as will WWU undergraduates and graduate students. The renovated facility will support student research on the role of climate change on food webs and coral reef biology, the use of chemical defenses by prey to avoid predation (and thus influence food web dynamics), and the importance of early life stages in the population dynamics of ecologically and commercially important fisheries species (such as the Dungeness crab and Pacific herring).