AP Biology Lab Report

After learning in-depth about climate change in AP Biology, I wondered about what types of organisms are being directly affected by it. Afterward, I went home and did research on how climate change has affected different organisms. One organism that struck me was the red-eared slider turtles, or Trachemys scripta elegans. The sex determination process of these turtles is influenced by temperature in the surrounding environment. Reading that for the first time amazed me because we, as humans, are not only affecting the Earth, but also many different organisms the motherly planet is nurturing. Furthermore, I could not believe that there was a lab at Duke University that specializes in sex determination of those turtles (the Capel Lab).

For weeks after learning about the topic, I wanted to learn more to add new knowledge for myself. So, I read research papers published by the lab and was astonished about how the topic of climate is discussed; a few of the papers discussed that climate change has a significant impact on the turtles and the sex determination process could be disturbed.

Luckily, the NC School of Science and Mathematics was sponsoring a fully-funded 5-week summer research internship for its students at universities in North Carolina. I saw it as a perfect opportunity to learn more about the topic while being an intern at the lab.

Fortunately, I was accepted into the summer research internship program and was eventually accepted into the Capel lab at Duke as an intern. Even so, I could not believe it; I was able to have a research internship in the lab that I had always been interested in.
By the fact that I want to learn more and do something meaningful, I asked my mentor's permission to do an independent research project.

Surprisingly, she answered yes right away. She and I then talked and finalized that my project was to determine the timing of germ cell proliferation in the temperature-influenced red-eared slider turtles and to compare the data between males and females. I took charge of the project under the guidance of the mentor. It was extremely interesting and fun working on the project because I wanted to gain new knowledge and leadership skills in the lab where I worked independently for most of the

time.
Providentially, I completed the independent project at the end of the 5-week period. My findings indicate that there is a difference between the male and female germ cell proliferation, suggesting that temperature does have an enormous influence not only on the sex, but also the mechanisms after the sex is determined. My mentor and I concluded that due to the different gonadal structures between males and females, germ cell proliferation happens differently.
After having completed the project focusing on temperature, climate change is now more important to me more than ever. I sometimes wondered what would happen if the temperature on Earth increases so greatly that the sex determination favors only a specific sex. Accordingly, it would be detrimental to the turtle's and many other populations.
There must be regulations on the burning of fossil fuels and nonrenewable resources to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. It is unacceptable, in my opinion, and it is the tragedy of the commons to only think about one's own good and be unaffiliated about many other populations living in the same planet, Earth.