End to summer break and the beginning of a semester

Well! The summer has flown by and so much has happened since the last post! The lab group has been busy over the summer conducting field work across Alabama, in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alaska. It has been an incredibly busy summer with field sampling across multiple streams and watersheds as well as experiments. Two manipulative experiments occurred as part of the Mussel Dimensions Project and AIMS. For the Mussel Dimensions Project, we are conducting a reciprocal transplant experiment across two different river basins with two separate species (one species per basin) to determine whether environmental context influences the gut microbiome while also tracking growth and stoichiometry. For AIMS, we conducted a manipulative stream drying experiment to address how drying and rewetting controls the biogeochemical template and microbial and macroinvertebrate communties! We are also testing out metabolic chambers as part of Atkinson's Career grant to isolate the impact of mussels on in situ biogeochemical processing and stream metabolism!

Since the last update, here are some major milestones:
- August 2022

• Mitchell joins the lab officially as a MS student with the beginning of the semester! Welcome Mitchell!
• Megan graduated!! Congratulations Megan!
• Metabolism chamber tests on the Sipsey River.
• Carla returns from Alaska with samples frozen!

- July 2022

• Jonathan starts as a post doc in the lab!! Welcome Jonathan!
• Shannon departs to start her lab at the University of Arkansas as an assistant professor.         Miss you Shannon!!
  
• Mussel silo transplant checks!

- June 2022

• Chelsea, Mitchell, Carla, & Dr. Arial Shogren sample for StreamClimes in SW Georgia!
• Mobile River silo transplant experiment initiated for Mussel Dimensions project!
• AIMS All-Hands meeting and SUPER SYNOPTIC CAMPAIGN sampling!

- May 2022

• Carla, Garrett, Irene, Chelsea, Matt, Megan, Taylor, and Jonathan (as incoming!) all present their research at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  
• Tennessee River silo transplant experiment initiated in the Duck and Paint Rock Rivers for the Mussel Dimensions project!