Ep.34 – Temporary Ponds with Gavin Campbell

Planet B612

In this episode, I speak with PhD student Gavin Campbell. Gavin studies the aquatic and terrestrial creatures that inhabit temporary ponds. We also talk about education in Jamaica, research on Mars, and Gavin shares some quirky facts about mosquitoes!

• Gavin lives and works in Jamaica (0:00:30)
• Talking about Perseverance on Mars (0:02:12)
• Collaboration within researchers (0:06:01)
• Differences between Jamaican and North American universities (0:07:08)
• Gavin’s research into aquatic and terrestrial organisms in temporary ponds (0:12:00)
• Gavin discovered a new species of shrimp in Jamaica (0:14:30)
• Where do new pond creatures come from? (0:17:33)
• How Gavin got the idea to research temporary ponds. (0:18:48)
• What does Gavin find when there is water in the pond? (0:21:01)
• What does Gavin find when the pond is starting to dry out? (0:23:33)
• The way creatures can change based on environmental changes (0:25:20)
• What happens when a pond is completely dry? (0:27:02)
• Experiments with temporary ponds (0:31:30)
• The species “Notonecta” eats a LOT of mosquitoes! (0:32:20)
• The kind of water that mosquitoes breed in. (0:34:25)
• Mosquitoes can smell predators from far away (0:36:58)
• Notonecta can be found in ponds (0:38:42)
• Pond jars (0:40:02)
• Gavin adopted and cared for a dragonfly. (0:40:29)
• Gavin’s obsession with dragons. (0:43:15)
• Cool facts about dragonflies. (0:44:20)
• Gavin’s obsession with his research (0:45:30)
• What cartoons does Gavin enjoy? (0:47:37)
• The desire to do voice acting. (0:49:25)

Follow Gavin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dragonecology Visit Gavin’s website: https://www.dragoninflight.com/

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