Everything West of the High Tide Line

We just returned from #WSN100, the 2016 meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists. The meeting was in Monterrey, CA, so it was a bit of a haul to get us from Charleston and back. It was a blast, and super cool to hear about a whole suite of study systems.

In a way, WSN was a reunion. I got to see Drew, Phoebe, and Evan for the first time in months (or a year already?). In any case, it was awesome to catch up with my undergrad lab and a whole bunch of other people too.

WSN was also an opportunity to present as a newly minted member of the CTELab! We all presented something. Aaron talked about his observation of a massive Cancer magister (Dungeness crab) settling event. Julie shared her results so far on how diet and substrate could affect the coloration of the rockweed isopod Pentidotea wosnesenskii. Elena displayed a poster on her results looking at the fatty acids of mysids and their diets. Zofia showed how her work at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center improved scientific understanding and motivation in students. Lastly, I plugged my OPTKS project, the Online Photography ToolKit for Science.

Also, during the WSN President's Address, we found out which papers were most influential in our field. Of course, #1 was On the Origin of Species. Only Darwin could claim greater influence in marine ecology than Paine and Connell.

I won't go into too much more detail, except to say that WSN was awesome. We even were treated to a beautiful sunset as we drove out of California on Sunday.