Since 2013 there has been a decline in the harvest of Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) in south Puget Sound. The Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) is a network that focuses on crab population monitoring. PCRG runs a large-scale larval trapping network that uses light traps to attract Dungeness crab megalopae via positive phototaxis. The light traps span the Salish Sea, to recognize migration patterns and better understand Dungeness crab population dynamics. In addition to Dungeness crabs, different crab species are caught in the traps, creating an opportunity to study more species. All crab larvae follow the same larval stages, called zoea and megalopa, which appear similar to the naked eye. This creates a problem because population counts are often done by volunteers who don’t have prior knowledge of megalopa morphology. Gathering reliable population data of the marine organisms caught in the traps requires a clear procedure to identify bycatch. In this research project, I will classify the unknown larvae into morphospecies by carefully looking and documenting individual characteristics of each organism. Documents will note features such as: carapace shape, carapace width, lateral edges of carapace, telson shape and additions (e.g. setae), number of spines, location of spines, antennae, length and width of thoracic legs, coloration, and overall shape. Measurements will be taken through Image-J, which will be documented along with photographs clearly differentiating anatomical characteristics to compare to DNA barcoding to be conducted by Seattle University on these samples. When DNA results come back, I will determine if specimens that had identical characteristics are genetically matched. This information will be used to make an accurate guide down to the species level. My results will be shared with PCRG to improve the accuracy of population counts of different crab species which will increase reliability of future PCRG data.

Dungeness crabs (Metacarcinus magister) are culturally and ecologically essential to Washington; they also constitute the most valuable state and tribal commercial fishery. Recently, there have been sharp declines in adult crab catch, resulting in the closure of the south Puget Sound fishery. Previous research by Alan Shanks has shown larval abundance is a clear driver of adult yield in Oregon, but many gaps in research remain regarding population dynamics in Washington, sustainability, and the impact of shifting environmental conditions. To address these gaps, the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) was formed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. PCRG is a collective of over 110 state and tribal co-managers, federal agencies, academics, commercial crabbers, and non-profit organizations. As part of PCRG, UWT’s Becker Lab deployed standardized light traps in the south Puget Sound from mid-April to September for two consecutive years, with sampling four days per week. In June 2021, the light trap network experienced a large pulse of Dungeness megalopae succeeding an extreme heat event. With the frequency of heat waves doubling over the last century, understanding temperature and other environmental stress responses in Dungeness crab larvae is imperative. Megalopae (n=55) from six PCRG sites were preserved in the field with 100% ethanol, then returned to the laboratory where I imaged them under a microscope and performed morphometric analysis (carapace width, carapace length, total length) in Image-J. I then compared measurements with recorded temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and salinity. Analysis is ongoing, but I expect to see an inverse relationship between environmental factors and Dungeness megalopae size. The aim of my work is to quantify larval growth as it relates to varying environmental conditions in order to better plan restoration and predict adult harvest limits. These data will offer valuable insight for restoration and protection of larval Dungeness crab.

Phonemic proficiency refers to the ability to manipulate the phonemes, or unit of sounds, in a word. Speech perception deficits has been linked to lower phonemic proficiency, as children have difficulty isolating, manipulating, and blending sounds that they cannot perceive. Autistic children commonly report difficulty perceiving speech in noisy real-world environments where many people are talking at the same time, such as a classroom or playground. Thus, in this study, we investigate the relationship between phonemic proficiency and multitalker speech perception in autistic children. We hypothesized that we would observe a stronger correlation between speech perception and phonemic proficiency in autistic children compared to the neurotypical comparison group. Moreover, we expected that autistic children will have worse multitalker speech perception thresholds overall, suggesting difficulty perceiving speech under complex conditions. We tested 19 7-to-10-year-old autistic children and a comparison group of 19 age- and biological sex-matched neurotypical children. The Phonemic Proficiency subtest of the Weschler Individual Achievement Test – Fourth Edition was administered to assess phonemic awareness. Multitalker speech perception thresholds were obtained under 2 conditions: Co-located Noise and Segregated Noise. In the Co-located Noise condition, the target speaker spoke sentences from 0° azimuth with two additional distracting talkers, referred to as maskers, co-located from the same location. In the Segregated Noise condition, the distracting talkers were spatially segregated to ±90° azimuth, while the target talker remained at 0°. Preliminary analyses suggest that a relationship between phonemic proficiency and multitalker speech perception is observed. These results will advance our understanding of the difficulty autistic children have perceiving speech and have the potential to lay the groundwork for novel assessment and intervention strategies to improve how children with and without autism listen and learn in a noisy classroom. All authors participated in data acquisition, analysis, and preparation of this presentation.

 Children are tasked with listening and learning in noisy environments where many people are talking at the same time every day. Conceptual models of listening under complex conditions posit that working memory plays a role in the ability to extract the target speech from the distracting noise. Hard-of-hearing (HoH) children, in particular, do worse listening in noisy environments. Thus, in this study we investigate the relationship between working memory and multitalker speech perception in HoH children. We hypothesized that we would observe a correlation between working memory and speech perception in both HoH and the typical hearing comparison group. Moreover, we expected that HoH children will have worse multitalker speech perception thresholds overall, suggesting difficulty perceiving speech under complex acoustic conditions. We tested 7-to-18-year-old HoH children and an age- and biological sex-matched typical hearing (TH) comparison group. Working memory was assessed in both visual and auditory domains; participants were asked to recall either a sequence of visually presented letters or auditorily presented numbers. Multitalker speech perception thresholds were obtained under 2 conditions: Collocated noise and Segregated noise. In the Collocated Noise condition, the target speaker spoke sentences from 0° azimuth with two additional distracting talkers, referred to as maskers, collocated from the same location. In the Segregated Noise condition, the distracting talkers were spatially segregated to ±90° azimuth, while the target talker remained at 0°. Preliminary analyses suggest that a relationship between working memory and multitalker speech perception is observed. These results will advance our understanding of why HoH children experience difficulty perceiving speech under noisy conditions and have the potential to lay the groundwork for novel assessment and intervention strategies to improve how TH and HoH children listen and learn in a noisy classroom. All authors participated in data acquisition, analysis, and preparation of this presentation.