Hello all! Welcome to my blog. For my dive into microbiological research, I decided to visit the Georgia Aquarium. I vividly remembered going to the aquarium on a field trip in middle school and squishing my face up against the glass of the jelly fish tank and thinking, “THIS IS AWESOME!” Since it’s been a good 12 years since my last venture, I figured it was time to see if it was a cool as I had remembered. 

The first thing I noticed when my boyfriend and I we arrived at the aquarium is that if you do not have a small child with you (which we didn’t), then you are going to feel out of place. The second thing we realized is that people are there for the big-ticket items like the whale sharks and the belugas. No one else was getting down on their knees to take pictures of the coral and algae like I was. I first saw the name Zooxanthellae when I was looking at an exhibit for the Orange Cup Coral.

It turns out that this particular type of coral is an invasive species in many or the coral reefs around the world for one particular reason. It does not need a specific alga called zooxanthellae to exchange oxygen and nutrients. It can eat zooplankton so it can live pretty much anywhere it wants to. So, what is zooxanthellae? I asked one of the employees for a little more information on this alga I had never heard of and he did not have a whole lot of insight to give me (because honestly how often are people asking him about the algae and not the dolphins?) What I did learn from him is that zooxanthellae were what gives most coral reefs their color. After learning this, I tried to take several more pictures of the corals while fighting through crowds of toddlers.

I did not learn a great deal about these algae while at the aquarium but my interest was piqued. I will have to do more research at home to learn all of the secrets this colorful algae have to reveal. I also learned that I do not need to go back to the aquarium for at least another 12 years. Or until I have a small child to bring along. Until next week!

-L