Acropora palmata Spawn Collection

Nick Polato, a fellow grad student down the hall from me, is blogging Summer Spawn '07. He is a graduate student in the lab of new faculty member Iliana Baums here at Penn State. They form the second contingent of Penn State Marine Biology (which exists only in our minds). Our motto? "Come study the ocean far away from it!" Having an office overlooking a beach is overrated and an unnecessary distraction to scientific progress (damn you Scripps!! No, I'm not bitter...really...). They are out in Florida Keys (bastards!) waiting for the coral to spawn. They are studying the federally-listed endangered coral species, Acropora palmata with the goal

"...to enhance efforts to protect and expand populations of this species by promoting a better understanding of their reproduction and helping to establish new colonies for reseeding reefs."-Summer Spawn '07

So head over there for (hopefully) daily updates of their research during their field season. In addition to the underwater photos they take (like the one above), you can read some nice natural history

"There was a sense of anticipation as darkness fell and we were surrounded by glowworms spawning in the water all around us."-Summer Spawn '07