Video transcript

Fun of Science: Studying Bugs’ Lives

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A boat moves across an estuary toward shore and comes to rest in some tall grass.

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NARRATOR:
Down in the Salmon River estuary on the central Oregon coast, Sea Grant researchers have been collecting bugs.

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Women walk away through a marsh.

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Plastic tubs of soapy water are put out in the marshes. Later the bugs that are trapped by falling into the soapy water are collected.

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Water poured from tub through strainer.

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Graduate student Ayesha Gray pours the bug water through a strainer held by assistant Debbee Davies.

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Ayesha looks into the strainer.

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AYESHA:
Uh-oh, there’s a spider. He’s alive!

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Ayesha looks through a microscope.

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When I started working with insects, I really loved just the diversity of insects and how beautiful they are…[laughs]…which you just don’t know, unless you see them under a microscope.

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Fly seen through microscope.

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. . . I’ve just always been interested in animals, I guess.

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Hand with tweezer removes insect from dish and places it in a test tube.

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NARRATOR:
Ayesha removes the insects from the water, then identifies them --specific flies, beetles, and spiders, for instance. Next she sorts them into groups.

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Ayesha and Debbee guide a motorboat through Salmon River marsh.

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Organizing into groups isn't an end in itself but instead a means to try to understand more about the marshes that the bugs are found in.

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Young salmon hide underwater near underwater roots.

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One important question the Sea Grant researchers want to answer is when and how salmon use marshes and estuaries, since knowing this may help to protect and restore dwindling salmon populations in the Northwest.

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Aerial map view of Salmon River.

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Salmon River provides a unique experimental laboratory for this purpose, for there are three marshes of different specific ages and characteristics.

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Zoom in on map to marshes.

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These marshes have been re-establishing themselves since dikes on adjacent farmlands were breached at different times during the last 25 years.

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The women hike to collection sites in the marsh.

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To date Ayesha has found differences in the assemblages of bugs collected in different marsh sites. Still to come is seeing if there is a connection between the bugs, the restoration of the marshes, and a benefit to salmon. This knowledge wouldn’t be possible without the primary work out in the field, which Ayesha and Debbee obviously enjoy.

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The women wade back through the marsh.

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AYESHA:
So I really wanted to work in estuaries because they’re so dynamic. I just find that really fascinating, you know, that nothing in an estuary is ever the same.