Thursday, December 9, 2010

What's Ahead?



Those that follow this blog may find it slowing down in the next few months. Why? The last official field season ended this past November. I'm in writing mode now and will continue to be for the next several months. I've now finished analyzing the data for the C&R manuscript and just need to compile it into a meaningful document. My goal is to have this manuscript off to a publisher in the next couple months.

Following that I will be crunching the 260,000+ data points from our telemetry project this past summer. Basically, I will be spending much of the winter slouched over my computer, probably doing irreparable damage to my spine, and trying to spend as much time ice fishing as possible.

My intention is to keep this blog alive through reviewing various concepts key to my Master's and important papers I come across. For example, in the past I have reviewed a paper discussing muskellunge stocking. In the future I will likely attempt to explain things like lactic acidosis or the mechanisms behind cortisol production. Though some (most?) of you may find it rather boring, the process will be useful to me as I prepare to defend my thesis next fall.

Many thanks to those who have remained steadfast visitors and followers of this blog. For those new, I hope you take a few minutes to peruse the archives and have fun with the content. Any questions, feel free to drop me an email.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Compromised

It looks like my blood/plasma samples may have been compromised during transit. Our control fish have higher cortisol concentrations than our angled fish, a finding not at all expected. Cortisol concentrations, overall, were simply higher this year than they were last year. Chloride ions were also consistently higher than last year's data.

Given all of this, we may be forced to turf some of the data. It's quite unfortunate, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Bummer...