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THE URI RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP PHOTO CONTEST 2021-2022

1ST PLACE: WATER COLLECTION OF A HONEY BEE

Casey Johnson, graduate student, plant sciences and entomology “In the heat of summer, honeybees can often be found collecting water from puddles, gutters, and other unsavory sources,” says Johnson, who is a graduate student in Professor Steven Alm’s lab at the URI Agricultural Experiment Station at East Farm in Kingston, R.I. She continues, “We noticed that our honeybees were drinking water from sphagnum moss in the pots of pitcher plants, which led us to investigate the water collecting behavior of honeybees on four local moss species. Here, a water forager honeybee rests on one of our observational moss setups, drinking water that she will bring back to her hive.”

2ND PLACE: JAM-PACKED MICROMUSSA

Michael Corso ’24, aquaculture and fisheries science major

“This Micromussa lordhowensis coral colony was shot at Love the Reef, a marine animal distributor/ coral aquaculture facility in Wilmington, Mass., where I work,” says Corso, who aspires to preserve tropical marine species. He continues, “In the wild, this species is found in the South Pacific and along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The bioluminescent colors emanate from the coral’s symbiont algae, zooxanthella. Rising ocean temperatures and acidification can prevent the corals from holding onto the algae they depend upon, resulting in coral bleaching. Land-based sustainable aquaculture efforts may be the last chance coral species like these have at surviving in our future environment.”

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