Video of a swimming crab! Enjoy!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Like bugs?! Follow Yonatan in Panama!
My lab-mate Yonatan Munk also has a blog. He studies wingless ants that glide in the rainforest of Panama. Go check it out!
http://ractopus.wordpress.com/
A Letter from Vani at PS 23 in NJ
May 18, 2010
Dear Lindsay,
My name is Vani. I am 9 years old. I like many sports such as soccer. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. Also I have many friends. They are all nice. Can you tell me a little bit more information about yourself? I will be happy if you do.
Mr Evangelista told me on his blog that you will be studying crabs in French Polynesia so I have a few questions for you about crabs. Where are crabs mostly found? How long is a crabs life span? Do all crabs live in the water and on beaches? Are all crabs meat eaters? These are the questions I have for you.
Good luck finding crabs in the field.
A third grad student,
Vani
Hi, Vani!
I am 26 years old, and I am finishing my fourth year of graduate school. I am from North Carolina. I have one younger sister who lives in Virginia and is very nice. We get along very well. I like to watch football and ride my bike. I also have a dog named Raleigh, and she really loves to play with me.
The hermit crabs I will be studying in French Polynesia live on the land. They like to stick close to the water, so they you can find them on the beach and in the woods close to the beach. Hermit crabs can live for many years, some species live up to 30 years old!
Not all crabs live in the water or on beaches. There are some crabs that live in the jungle, up in plants called bromeliads (see the picture). When it rains, water gets caught in between the leaves of the bromeliads and create little ponds where the crabs live. They can also climb up and down the trees to find food and other crabs.
Not all crabs are meat-eaters, although most of them probably are. Most often crabs are scavengers that eat whatever they can find, stuff like dead animals, snails, and plants and algae. Some crabs only eat algae, but most eat whatever they can find!
I hope you are doing well, and thanks for your letter!
Lindsay
Dear Lindsay,
My name is Vani. I am 9 years old. I like many sports such as soccer. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. Also I have many friends. They are all nice. Can you tell me a little bit more information about yourself? I will be happy if you do.
Mr Evangelista told me on his blog that you will be studying crabs in French Polynesia so I have a few questions for you about crabs. Where are crabs mostly found? How long is a crabs life span? Do all crabs live in the water and on beaches? Are all crabs meat eaters? These are the questions I have for you.
Good luck finding crabs in the field.
A third grad student,
Vani
Hi, Vani!
I am 26 years old, and I am finishing my fourth year of graduate school. I am from North Carolina. I have one younger sister who lives in Virginia and is very nice. We get along very well. I like to watch football and ride my bike. I also have a dog named Raleigh, and she really loves to play with me.
The hermit crabs I will be studying in French Polynesia live on the land. They like to stick close to the water, so they you can find them on the beach and in the woods close to the beach. Hermit crabs can live for many years, some species live up to 30 years old! Not all crabs live in the water or on beaches. There are some crabs that live in the jungle, up in plants called bromeliads (see the picture). When it rains, water gets caught in between the leaves of the bromeliads and create little ponds where the crabs live. They can also climb up and down the trees to find food and other crabs.
Not all crabs are meat-eaters, although most of them probably are. Most often crabs are scavengers that eat whatever they can find, stuff like dead animals, snails, and plants and algae. Some crabs only eat algae, but most eat whatever they can find!
I hope you are doing well, and thanks for your letter!
Lindsay
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Packing for Moorea: Science Diving Equipment
I put together this short video about all the equipment I have to take with me to Moorea for science diving.
Science diving is a great way to study what lives underwater. What sort of animals do you think I'll see when I dive? What would you study if you could dive for science? How would you study it?
Molly, my friend, is studying stomatopods, also known as mantis shrimp. These are little crustaceans that are related to crabs and shrimp that smash things with their arms! They can also see much better than we can; they can even see polarized light! We will be collecting them and doing other studies to learn more about how they live. Do you have any questions for Molly about stomatopods?
Science diving is a great way to study what lives underwater. What sort of animals do you think I'll see when I dive? What would you study if you could dive for science? How would you study it?
Molly, my friend, is studying stomatopods, also known as mantis shrimp. These are little crustaceans that are related to crabs and shrimp that smash things with their arms! They can also see much better than we can; they can even see polarized light! We will be collecting them and doing other studies to learn more about how they live. Do you have any questions for Molly about stomatopods?
Hermit crabs and sniffing!
I study how crabs sniff. Why is it important to understand how crabs sniff? Because sniffing is important to crabs! Imagine you are a crab in a bay looking for food. The water is very murky, you can barely see your claw in front of your face. How are you going to ever find that tasty dead fish? You sniff it out, of course!
Just like dogs, crabs use their noses to sniff out food and other crabs. But their noses look really different than a dog's. They have a little toothbrush-shaped thing called an antennule, and the bristles of the toothbrush are hairs that sense chemicals in the water. Crabs wave, or flick, this antennule back and forth, and when they do this, the hairs splay apart and catch a bit of water that sticks in between all the hairs. It's just like when you take a long sniff of something that smells good, it stays up in your nose for awhile until you breathe it out. So when crabs flick there antennules, they are taking a sniff!
Here's a video of a crab sniffing under a microscope:
We understand a lot about how crabs that live in water sniff, but hermit crabs that live on the land are a little different. Instead of having a toothbrush-shaped antennule, their hairs are very short and are lined up like shingles on a roof:
So, we've figured out that they sniff too, even though they live in air and not water. But what if you are a baby hermit crab the size of a sand grain?? Can you still sniff like grown-up crabs? I want to study how these baby hermit crabs use their antennules to find food and water, and that's one reason why I'm going to Moorea: to get baby hermit crabs!
Do you think baby hermit crabs sniff? If they don't, how do you think they find food and water like adult crabs?
Just like dogs, crabs use their noses to sniff out food and other crabs. But their noses look really different than a dog's. They have a little toothbrush-shaped thing called an antennule, and the bristles of the toothbrush are hairs that sense chemicals in the water. Crabs wave, or flick, this antennule back and forth, and when they do this, the hairs splay apart and catch a bit of water that sticks in between all the hairs. It's just like when you take a long sniff of something that smells good, it stays up in your nose for awhile until you breathe it out. So when crabs flick there antennules, they are taking a sniff!
Here's a video of a crab sniffing under a microscope:
We understand a lot about how crabs that live in water sniff, but hermit crabs that live on the land are a little different. Instead of having a toothbrush-shaped antennule, their hairs are very short and are lined up like shingles on a roof:
So, we've figured out that they sniff too, even though they live in air and not water. But what if you are a baby hermit crab the size of a sand grain?? Can you still sniff like grown-up crabs? I want to study how these baby hermit crabs use their antennules to find food and water, and that's one reason why I'm going to Moorea: to get baby hermit crabs!
Do you think baby hermit crabs sniff? If they don't, how do you think they find food and water like adult crabs?
Monday, May 24, 2010
Welcome to A Sniffing Blog!
Hello, fifth graders of Rutherfordton Elementary School and the third graders of PS 23! Welcome to A Sniffing Blog!
This blog will follow me through my field season studying the land hermit crabs of Moorea, French Polynesia. My goals are (1) to collect hermit crabs in order to study how they sniff, or capture odors from the air, and (2) to measure the air flow and mixing that occurs in their natural habitat to get an idea of what sort of conditions they sniff in.
I will be traveling to Moorea, an island in French Polynesia. French Polynesia is a chain of about 130 islands in the South Pacific, closest to New Zealand (picture: Wikipedia.org). Moorea, right beside the biggest island Tahiti, is a volcanic island with a population of about 16,000.
I'll be staying at and near the Gump Field Station owned by the University of California, Berkeley. Right now, Gump is home to the Moorea Long Term Reef Ecology program and the BIOCODE program which study the ecology and diversity of life on and around the island. During my stay, I hope to talk to some of the scientists on these projects. I hope you can think up great questions to ask them!
My trip should be pretty fun. I will enjoy having you guys along for the ride!
This blog will follow me through my field season studying the land hermit crabs of Moorea, French Polynesia. My goals are (1) to collect hermit crabs in order to study how they sniff, or capture odors from the air, and (2) to measure the air flow and mixing that occurs in their natural habitat to get an idea of what sort of conditions they sniff in.
I will be traveling to Moorea, an island in French Polynesia. French Polynesia is a chain of about 130 islands in the South Pacific, closest to New Zealand (picture: Wikipedia.org). Moorea, right beside the biggest island Tahiti, is a volcanic island with a population of about 16,000. 
I'll be staying at and near the Gump Field Station owned by the University of California, Berkeley. Right now, Gump is home to the Moorea Long Term Reef Ecology program and the BIOCODE program which study the ecology and diversity of life on and around the island. During my stay, I hope to talk to some of the scientists on these projects. I hope you can think up great questions to ask them! My trip should be pretty fun. I will enjoy having you guys along for the ride!
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