During the summer of 2025, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live and conduct research at the NOAA NCCOS Kasitsna Bay Laboratory (KBL) field station for 10 weeks! Perfectly nestled between the coastline and forest's edge, KBL is located in Kachemak Bay, near Seldovia on the southcentral side of Alaska. Throughout my time at the lab, I developed and conducted a field-based research project, created an informational outreach tool for the wetlab, and connected with so many other like-minded scientists and students.

From literature review to fieldwork to lab work to more fieldwork to data analysis, this summer I fully immersed myself in the breadth of skills and knowledge required in the scientific research process. However, beyond just the science, I also learned many other skills involved in living life at a semi-remote lab. Notably, I had to learn how to meal plan and meal prep around our boat trips across the bay to Homer, which only happened approximately every other week!

To say I learned a lot this summer would be an understatement (and when it came to food, my life literally depended on it). It was so inspiring and such an honor to spend my summer at KBL, and I'm so grateful for all the experiences and knowledge I gained this summer!

The type of environment that this lagoon system represents is rather unique. Since no research had ever been conducted on this ecosystem, even knowledge as fundamental as water conditions was unknown prior to this summer. During my summer, we deployed oceanographic moorings at various depths in the lake for two weeks to gain a better understanding of this lagoon's water conditions, and see how dramatically these conditions fluctuate during periods of tidal influence.

Through this data, we learned that the lagoon is much saltier than we expected, with average surface salinity just slightly lower than that of the connective ocean. The surface salinity also has measurable fluctuations with oceanic and freshwater inputs (left graph below). We also learned, expectedly, the lagoon has warmer, more productive surface waters than the ocean during summer months. Lastly, we were able to see measurable spikes in water depth that aligned with our expected tidal input (right graph below).

One of our primary biological survey methods was shoreline surveys, which entailed careful observation and documentation of species we could identify just by walking along the edge of the lake. Through these surveys, we identified many marine invertebrate species across a diverse array of phyla (some pictured below), including many molluscs, annelids, and arthropods. Despite the relative simplicity of this survey method, it actually provided us with perhaps the best representation of the biology of the lake.

In terms of species diversity, a huge highlight of our shoreline surveys was finding many white bubble snail eggs (and later adult bubble snails) all along the perimeter of the lake. Bubble snails haven't been found along the coasts of Seldovia in decades, and never nearly as prolifically as we observed in the lake, so these eggs were an incredibly surprising and exciting find.

We also found dessicated herring eggs, which lended to the possibility that herring may use this lagoon as a nursery.