Maine Maritime Academy > Corning School of Ocean Studies > News Feed > Sierra James awarded “best poster” at Northeast Natural History conference

Sierra James awarded “best poster” at Northeast Natural History conference

Marine Biology senior Sierra James and several peers recently presented their senior research at the Northeast Natural History Conference in Springfield, MA. Sierra’s poster, entitled “Cardiac response of Carcinus maenas and Cancer irroratus under acute hypoxia exposure”, won an award for best poster. Congrats Sierra! Here is what Sierra says about the experience:

“I presented at the Northeast Natural History Conference in Springfield, MA. This was the first conference I had ever attended and I was not sure what to expect. I really enjoyed the experience and think that it is a wonderful conference to attend for those who have never been to one before. We left our posters up all day and had two sections of time where we stood by them to talk to people about our research. In between we were given the opportunity to attend 20 minute lectures about various natural history research that was going on and ask questions of the researchers. One of my favorites that I attended was learning about frog species that live on Mount Washington (in my home state of NH)!

My poster was completed for my senior research project on the cardiac response of Carcinus maenas and Cancer irroratus under acute hypoxia exposure. Hypoxia is becoming more of a problem along the eastern US coast. Areas of Maine are beginning to experience dead zones (areas of low oxygen concentration) which may negatively affect benthic marine organisms. I studied heart rate of two crab species in a laboratory setting to determine if/how they were affected by hypoxia. I found that the Carcinus maenas (invasive European green crabs) had a smaller decrease in heart rate when compared to Cancer irroratus (native Atlantic rock crabs). Although many questions came out of my study, these initial findings may show that Carcinus maenas are better equipped to handle hypoxia than Cancer irroratus.”