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I’m a GRAZER baby…

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Pamela Reynolds, ZEN Coordinator

by Pamela Reynolds (ZEN Coordinator)

As a small token of our appreciation for the hard work of all of the ZEN partners (past, present and future!), we present:
“GRAZER”. Turn up the volume and enjoy!


This film is, as everything in ZEN, a collaborative production and we very much appreciate the contributions of all of the ZEN participants. Lyrics were written by Paul Richardson, editing by undergraduate Conor MacDonnell, and lyrics by undergraduate Nick Penthorne. The film features cameos by Emmett Duffy and others in the Marine Biodiversity Lab at VIMS, as well as chorus refrains from many of the ZEN sites (watch the film all the way to the end so you don’t miss this!). The film premiered along with a select few other films on the big screen at the Beneath the Waves Film Festival at the Benthic Ecology Meeting last week in Savannah, GA. Enjoy!

 

GRAZER debuts at Beneath the Waves Film Festival

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Pamela Reynolds

by Pamela Reynolds (ZEN Coordinator)

At the Virginia Institute of Science, we are gearing up for this year’s Benthic Ecology Meeting in Savannah, Georgia. We can’t wait to hear what our colleagues are up to, talk science, and watch the films at this year’s Beneath the Waves Film Festival.

 

Come to the festival on the evening of March 21st to watch our short film, titled “GRAZER”. This film was produced by the Marine Biodiversity Lab at VIMS and features contributions from the ZEN partners as well as undergraduates at the College of William and Mary. It’s our way of saying “thank you” to all of the hard working individuals who’ve dedicated the past two years with us to quantify the role of biodiversity and to understand top-down and bottom-up interactions in eelgrass beds. We’ll be posting the full video on ZENscience.org later this week, so check back!

To get you excited, here’s a short teaser…

 

Thankful for my day job

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Pamela Reynolds, ZEN Coordinator

by Pamela Reynolds, ZEN Coordinator

This past week in the States we celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday, which encouraged me reflect on all that I am thankful for – family, friends, and great colleagues near and far!

Continuing along the theme of creative collaborators, a film recently sent to me from grad student Ross Whippo in ZEN partner Dr. Mary O’Connor’s lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, reminds me what a great career I have as a marine ecologist. What does your lab do?

Science is Creative

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Pamela Reynolds

by Pamela Reynolds, ZEN Coordinator

Coordinating the ZEN is awesome. Not only do I have the opportunity to interact with incredibly smart and wonderful researchers across the globe, but I am constantly impressed with their creativity and talent. From writing marine ecological haikus to crafting algae and sea creature art, the ZEN partners continue to surprise me.

Here’s a video recently sent to me by Eduardo Infantes, a postdoc with Per Moksnes’ who assisted with the ZEN projects this past summer in Sweden. This video produced by Eduardo shows how the Swedish team used the experimental protocols and materials we sent them from VIMS to implement an experiment testing for predator effects in eelgrass beds at their field site in Gullmar Fjord. The video features Drs. Moksnes, Johan Eklov and Lars Gamfeldt, and grad student Jonas Thormar at the Kristineberg Marine Station on the west coast of Sweden. Just think how much shorter and more exciting scientific papers could be if they all included links to online video methods with fun soundtracks like this! 

I’ll let Eduardo and some of the other ZEN scientists tell you in more detail about the experiment (affectionately called the “Podsicle” approach) in another blog post. Until then, enjoy the movie!