Visiting Professor Dr John Keesing from CSIRO in Australia visited YIC ZR in April this year to continue his collaborative research with scientists from the Coastal Ecology and Environment Laboratory of Professor Dongyan Liu.
During his visit he worked on a number of projects with staff and students. Professor Keesing accompanied Professor Li and PhD student Yajun Shi to the Jiangsu province coastline where they completed the 2010 sampling of green algae which fouls the laver aquaculture rafts. They also retrieved light and temperature loggers which had been deployed since early January 2010. These loggers record temperature and light levels every 1 minutes and have provided a valuable continuous record of sea and air temperatures over this period. It is planned that this data will be used to interpret measurements of growth rates of the algae on the rafts. Following the field trip Professor Keesing helped Yajun Shi set up a culture experiment to examine the influence of temperature and nutrient levels on the growth rates of two species of green algae sampled from the aquaculture rafts. During his visit, Professor Keesing also worked with Dr Baoquan Li analysing some data they had collected together when Dr Li visited Australia in 2008.
During the rest of his visit, Professor Keesing worked with Professor Liu on completing a manuscript for submission on the 2008 and 2009 Yellow Sea green tides. He also discussed revisions to other manuscripts with Dr Zhijun Dong and Dr Li. Professor Keesing said his collaboration with YICZR had been very productive with 3 papers written together with YICZR staff accepted and another submitted since he was made a Visiting Professor in 2008. Professor Keesing attributed this success to the hard work and dedication of the staff and students in the Coastal Ecology and Environment Laboratory.
Professor Keesing expressed his gratitude to Professor Liu and to YICZR Director Professor Ping Shi and Deputy Director Song Qin for their kindness and hospitality in hosting his visit. He hopes to visit YIC ZR again later in 2010.
