sampling kit | The Seagrass Microbiome Project

Here’s the version of the sampling kit that’s being sent to 25 ZEN partner sites throughout the world:

Each ZEN partner (site) is working in two Zostera marina beds (subsites.) At each subsite, the partners will take three water, sediment, and plant (root+leaf tissue) samples.

On the left, is the AeroPress coffee maker that will function as a water filtration device. The plunger is hollow, so inside of that, I put plastic forceps and 6 gloves. A piece of tape over the top will make sure that it doesn’t all slide out.

On the right is a 500mL plastic bottle for water collection.

In the middle is a plastic, hinged tube storage box. There are 30 2mL tubes inside. The tops of the tubes are pre-labeled:

Lavender: R1.1, R1.2, R1.3 for the three root collections at subsite 1.

Lavender: R2.1, R2.2, R2.3 for the three root collections at subsite 2.

Green: L1.1, L1.2, L1.3 for the three leaf collections at subsite 1.

Green: L2.1, L2.2, L2.3 for the three root collections at subsite 2.

Orange: S1.1, S1.2, S1.3 for the three sediment collections at subsite 1.

Orange: S2.1, S2.2, S2.3 for the three sediment collections at subsite 2.

Blue (2 of each): W1.1, W1.2, W1.3 for the three water collections at subsite 1.

Blue (2 of each): W2.1, W2.2, W2.3 for the three water collections at subsite 2.

There are two blue tubes for each water collection because the filter is to be cut in half and put into two tubes. There are also 30 Tough Tag labels for the sides of the tubes that are to be filled out by the ZEN partners with their site ID, subsite ID, plot ID, and date.

Also, six 0.22micron filters that have been LASER cut to fit the AeroPress, a small pair of scissors for cutting leaves and roots and water filters, a 6mL syringe (top cut off) for taking sediment cores, plastic spatulas for scooping a little bit of sediment out of the corer, a Sharpie, 24 individually-wrapped alcohol swabs, and the 3D-printed stand for the Aeropress.

Pretty cool, huh? Hope I didn’t forget anything!!

I will update with the sampling protocol when it has been finalized.

While in Cocoa Beach, waiting for the rocket to launch, we decided to test out Russell Neches’s idea for filtering seawater with an AeroPress coffee maker. We were also shooting the instructional video for the Seagrass Microbiome sampling kits that include the AeroPress for this purpose.

Forcing water through a 0.2 micron filter with the AeroPress was easier than I thought it would be, but pretty awkward. It would have been much easier to put that thing over something like – oh I don’t know – a coffee cup to hold it in place while pressing down. I’d decided that if I put a 500mL wide-mouth plastic collection bottle (for the seawater collections) in the kit, that they might also be able to use the bottle for that purpose. But, I was having a hard time figuring out if the mouth of the bottle would be wide enough. So, I went next door to complain to Russell Neches and David Coil. And David said, “you should just have Russell 3D print something,” and Russell said, “Sure, I can do that!” and then 30 minutes later an email had been sent to Madison Dunitz, an undergrad in the lab, and within a couple of hours, it’s done! It’s really simple, just a ring that serves the same purpose as the rim of the coffee cup, with channels in the sides for the water to go through, that is just tall enough to keep the bottom of the AeroPress off the table (or whatever surface.)

Embedded image permalink