Awesome Update 5: Return of the Awesomeness

On Thursday we finally left the bleak plains of New Brunswick for the (not so) mean streets of Camden, Maine. Dr. E made some excellent choices for us, such as listening to Pat Benatar on the radio and climbing a nearly vertical trail over a mile up the side of Mount Megunticook. We also made significant progress in sampling, collecting Elliptio and Cariosa from 5 different sites in two days. The weather has improved a great deal, and Dr. E can finally sleep with less than 5 layers of clothing. We plan on attempting to drive our beaten and battered Ford Windstar the 8 hour journey home tomorrow, hopefully to the tune of "Love is a Battlefield." I was promised the honor of pushing us the rest of the way if the Windstar takes a union break.Worth the agony? Debatable.

New Bruswick, Canada, and St. John...

Well, we survived Canada and St. John. The weather was good for the most part, but the 49-50 degree nights were hard on us campers, especially me (who stupidly brought only a summer bag). We hit five sites in three days and collected many Elliptios from each site. Our only sampling trip to the Miramichi River in NE New Bruswick was not very successful with only one live Elliptio collected. Otherwise the trip was great and we met some great people at the New Bruswick Museaum (special thanks toMarry Sollows and Don McAlpine). Also, this part of the trip included the only time we have collected Elliptio's from a population with Margaritifera margaritifera (a federally endangered species) which can be confused with our species .

Awesome Update 4

Due to the inclement weather that seems to occur in every area where we wish to collect mussels, we have not been able to do so. The water levels have risen a great deal and made our jobs very difficult. Since we could not collect any specimens this week, we have been doing some lab work. We are amplifying the cytochrome oxidase subunit I of the mitochondrial genome of Etheria specimens. This involved nanodropping, PCR, electrophoresis, sequencing, and lots and lots of waiting.
The good news is that we are finally going on a field trip to Canada on Sunday morning. We plan to collect lots of mussels and eat some really good camp food.