Day 11: Let's Hear From Our Resident Translator

Hello hello! 

My name is Liya and I’m currently on this trip as an incoming 4th year biochemistry student. This trip has been the most incredible experience of my life so far, and every day in French Polynesia really is the best day ever. 

I’m the second half of the ATP team, where we use luciferase (an enzyme commonly found in fireflies), to give us an estimate of the amount of biomass that a certain environment has. Here on Tetiaroa, I am interested in the development of two distinct projects, both of which I’m super excited about. 

First, today we spent the day sampling for Team Coral, where we hope to characterize the turbidity of the water at the north of the atoll. By collaborating with DIC and alkalinity, we’re able to measure the carbonate chemistry of the water, and determine the role that corals growing in the turbidity are playing. 

Additionally, during my time in French Polynesia, I am sampling for my research lab, and bringing samples back to Cal Poly to analyze over the rest of the summer. The goal of this project is to extract DNA samples and look at the variation in siderophore activity. Siderophores are enzymes that allow for microorganisms to uptake dissolved iron. By studying them, we can create a larger scale idea of how iron is cycled through within this environment. 

Particularly, this makes me really interested in how this can lead to future applications. On Mo’orea, we learned about their e-DNA database, which is able to list out any and every species on the island. With this same idea, the Tetiaroa society was able to eradicate the rats on the atoll, bringing back bird populations, and thus enriching the island with more nutrients. My idea is to continue with the methodologies that I am using now to characterize siderophores, but to eventually apply it to other key nutrients, and see how they are cycled within and around Tetiaroa.

After some morning science, we learned how to open a coconut that we had found by the field station, the Tahitian way. I then spent the afternoon learning how to run a procedure for a different parameter, alkalinity. It has been pretty cool seeing how different everyone’s instruments are and their various applications, and I had a lot of fun running a spectrophotometer for them. 

We ended the night with a walk under the brightest stars that I have ever seen, followed by hanging out with some of the locals at the beach bar, Bap's. We learned so much about their culture, and they imparted so much wisdom onto us, all while we shared our funky music tastes. 

I can’t wait to see what we learn in the next few days, and I am starting to get so sad that the trip is coming to an end. Maururu!