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Xiaoying
Pu ’17 (right) and Sean Reese, Aquatic Biologist with Bucknell’s Environmental
Center, collecting freshwater mussels. Advised
by Prof. Carl Kirby, Xiaoying examined freshwater mussels as possible
biomonitors for barium and strontium associated with flowback water from
hydraulic fracturing.
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What
writing project are you working on right now?
This summer I have been
doing research in the Geology Department with Professor Carl Kirby. It is a
feasibility study on using freshwater mussels to monitor possible contamination
by barium and strontium. These elements have very high concentrations in
flowback water, one of the many environmental concerns from Marcellus Shale gas
development in the area. I analyzed for barium and strontium concentrations in
mussels’ annual shell layers. The report that I am working on is a summary of
the field and lab work; I am also trying to discuss whether the chemistry in
mussel shells could be interpreted as a temporal record of water chemistry,
thus the bio-monitoring aspect.
What do you love about it?
I was very excited to be
part of this project right after my freshman year, and learned everything about
mussels and much more from scratch. Using freshwater mussels for flowback
monitoring would be a novel approach, and I have been curious to see how it
would work out. Only after I looked into the records did I realize how little
we actually know about river water quality and these benthic animals. Also, this
report has been something very different for me, because part of the materials
includes my own observations and data.
What about it (if anything) is
driving you nuts?
Since I was trying to
correlate elemental concentrations in mussel shells to water chemistry records
through time, I hoped to be able to determine which growth ring in the shell layers corresponds to which year. After
digging around in the literature, it occurred to me that it is not conflicting
opinions that were frustrating, but confident
claims that a certain method would work, while the specimens that I had
suggested otherwise. Ultimately I decided that the best thing to do was to
simply write down my observations and avoid over-interpretation.
How would you describe your writing
process?
Though a ten-week research project
seemed to be long, I was advised to begin writing from day one. I had an
outline at an early stage, and then I made the figures and tables as I gathered
data. These preparations were very functional in planning to write and in the
actual writing. When I was not dissecting mussels or doing something else, I
wrote the body of the report section by section.
What kind of feedback on your writing do you
find most helpful?
Besides the report I also
did a poster presentation. When talking to people outside the project, I was
constantly surprised at how to-the-point some of their questions were. The
interest in shale gas and mussels also confirmed the significance and promise of
my project.
What would you like students to know
about you as a writer?
As a true novice in scientific
writing, I feel so lucky to find it rewarding and meaningful, and I look
forward to future challenges.
