David Thistle

Facilities

lab I have a 420 ft2 laboratory for preserved-sample processing. It is equipped with a fume hood, natural gas, and deionized water. It houses a differential-interference-contrast (DIC) Zeiss compound microscope with a drawing tube; a Leitz epifluorence compound microscope equipped for photomicroscopy; an Olympus compound microscope equipped for epifluorence; four Wild M-5 binocular dissecting microscopes, and a Zeiss binocular, zoom, dissecting microscope. I have a motorized stage and a drawing tube for use with the Wild microscopes. A full complement of equipment (e.g., sieves, oven, balance) for the processing of benthic samples is available.

I have a separate laboratory (350 ft2) for work with live materials that contains a control-temperature cabinet, fiber-optic lights, and a Nikon DIC-epifluorence compound microscope. The microscope can be used for photomicroscopy or linked via television camera to my image-analysis system.

flume My laboratory at the FSU Marine Laboratory (a 1-hour drive from campus) is equipped with a wet table and running seawater for working with live animals and a 5-m-long-by-0.5-m wide seawater flume and a computerized velocity probe for studies of the effects of flow on benthic animals. The marine lab is well equipped with small boats and is situated in a pristine region. FSU has an excellent scientific diving program that offers training in diving technologies. It operates a diving locker that provides buoyancy compensators, regulators, tanks, air, dry suits, and Nitrox.

For work in shallow water, I have a recording light meter in an underwater housing, a Unisense® system for using microelectrode sensors to measure oxygen and pH in the seabed, a Nikonos® underwater camera and strobe, and an acoustic-Doppler profiling current meter.

Deploying a Current Profiler

Former doctoral student Keith Suderman and electronics specialist Dave Hunley deploy an acoustic-Doppler current profiler from the deck of the R/V Seminole at the FSU Marine Laboratory. The current profiler is used in my studies of the emergence of animals from the seabed into the water column.

camera

For work in the deep sea, I have two Benthos® time-lapse camera systems, 15 Ekman samplers for use with a submersible or a remotely operated vehicle, 10 deep-sea emergence traps, and a Unisense® system for making high-resolution profiles of pH and O2.

My colleagues include microbiologists and biochemists, so I have access to equipment for radioisotope work and biochemical analyses, for example. My students share 110-ft2 offices. I have several computers for their use.