As usual, we use a variety of methods to work with our animals – these include use of stereo microscope, “ordinary” microscope, and electron scanning microscope (SEM). Below are some pictures of work in progress during today.
Work in the lab, SEM photos of complete animals and of tiny details, talks and stacks of material. (Pictures by A. Mackie and K.Kongshavn)
This week our lab is teeming with activity as twelve researchers goes to work on our polychaete material, focusing mainly on that which has been collected by the MAREANO program.
Worm work in progress!
Photos by Andy Mackie (SEM photograph by K. Kongshavn)
As mentioned previously, the material collected by MAREANO gets split into size based fractions, which then receive different treatments. As far as the polychaetes go, MAREANO carries out routine identification on what is collected by grab (1 mm) and beam trawl (5 mm), all of which has been fixed in formalin (until this year, where it was begun fixing half of the beam trawl in ethanol). Thus we already have some idea of what to expect to find in the material.
At the Invertebrate Collections we have processed a lot of bulk samples from the fractions that MAREANO does not utilize, and lately we have especially focused on the Ethanol fixed material, as this can be used for genetic work.
This workshop is part of the Polychaete diversity in the Norwegian sea (PolyNor) project. This project aim to explore the diversity of polychaetes in the Nordic seas;
The Norwegian Sea holds a diverse fauna of polychaete worms, more diverse than previously anticipated. Recent work has discovered several new species and species described in the old literature but not seen since their description, has been rediscovered. Material from new samples will be targeted to discover the true diversity of polychaetes in the Norwegian Sea.
During the workshop we will work on some of the groups with especially tricky taxonomy, prioritizing the identifying of specimens fixed in ethanol, and select individuals that are especially suited for genetic work. And of course we will also discuss current topics, find and reconnect with collaborators, drink an unholy amount of coffee, and learn some new things!
These are the bristles of a polychaete viewed at 3310 times magnification in a scanning electron microscope. So pretty!
I came across these two bristle worms from the genus Nothria whilst sorting out the animals from a sample collected in the Barents sea by the MAREANO project, and wanted to show you how differently they’ve approached the choice of building materials for their tubes. They build the tube around their bodies to protect themselves from predators. Now, a Nothria outside its “house”, or tube, looks like this (scale bar is 2 mm) :
Nothria out of tube
The same animal inside its tube looked like this:
Typical tube, built out of sand grains and small rocks
And then there was this one, who had made a more select choice of building materials:
Fancy edition; built using empty bivalve shells
R/V G.O. Sars
I’m onboard the research vessel “G.O. Sars”, participating in the last MAREANO cruise of the year. We’re currently on our way back out to the sampling sites after seeking refuge in a fjord from the storm yesterday.
Sampling areas. The yellow area is finished, the brown ones are work in progress. From mareano.no
The area we’re working on is outside Møre & Romsdal, currently we’re on our way to a set of video stations whilst we wait for the sea swell to die down (it’s quite the rollercoaster here at the moment!). We have two-three full stations remaining, hopefully we’ll be able to finish those as well before the cruise ends this Friday.
Campod. It has one main HD camera, and two additional cameras to aid in the handling of it.
“Full station” means that we in addition to videoing the sea floor for a 700m long transect with our remotely controlled video rig, the Campod 2, also collect physical samples.
From the video room (the smallest room onboard, and the most crowded!)
This is done using a variety of gears, which collectively gives us a extensive insight in the properties of the area we’re working on. On board we have a team of biologists, geologists and a chemist. The geologists and chemist are after sediment cores, which provide a window back in time for analyses of the physical and chemical parameters of the sea floor, including the accumulation of pollution. How far back a core extends will depend on the sedimentation rate, and on how long the core we manage to extract is.
Multicorer in action
The multicorer collects six sediments cores in one go
For collecting animals, we are using three main gears: the epibenthic RP-sled, the beam trawl, and the grab. These collect different parts of the fauna, and (together with the video) gives us a fair understanding of the species diversity and composition.
The grab (a van veen) collects a quantifiable amount of animals exceeding 1 mm in size living in the sediment. We collect two grabs at each full station.
Incoming grab
A typical grab sample. We carefully rinse the mud through a 1 mm sieve, collecting the animals within it.
The noble art of playing with mud and water
RP sled (left) and the beam trawl. The sled collects the small animals living just above and in the upper layer of sediment. The beam trawl collects the macro- and megafauna living above and within the top layer of the bottom.
Beam trawl catch: various starfish
Beam trawl catch: sea cucumbers (Stichopus)
Rough!
Calm
We’ve had some glorious sunrises whilst working on deck
Fulmars and gulls are following us, hoping we’ll give up on the small animals and start catching fish for them
Three gannets are also trailing us, they’ve been around since we left Kristiansund. Gorgeous birds!
Now we’ve arrived at the next station, so I’d better get going!
We are currently on the lookout for students interested in doing their Master thesis with us.
If you are interested in learning more, you can look here for some examples of possible topics within polychaetes or marine molluscs.
We’re also interested in students that might want to work with decapods, such as the African crab fauna.
Contact us if you are interested!
Diopatra project – check link for details
From the mid-conference excursion to the Royal National Park. Photo by Katrine
For a hectic week in early August, the Australian Museum in Sydney was swarmed by enthusiastic people in purple hoodies, who kept talking about (bristle) worms.
It was the 11th International Polychaete Conference, with 149 attendants from 26 different countries. We had a strong Norwegian presence there – from the Museum, three of us attended (with talks and posters), as well collaborators of ours from NTNU, NIVA, and Uni Environment.
You can read more about our contributions here (if your Norwegian is up to speed – unfortunately it is not avaliable in English).
Group photo (courtesy of the IPC 2013 committee)
The conference venue, the Australian Museum
From the auditorium
It was a great week, where we got to meet and mingle with our colleagues from all over the world, learning what they are working on and how, making new connections and meeting up with old friends.
We had a excellent time, and would like to thank the IPC 2013 committee for the fantastic job they did!
The next conference will be in Cardiff, Wales in 2016, we look forward to it.
..is conference time!
Preparing talks
Most of our department are currently either attending The World Congress of Malacology, or are busy preparing for The 11th International Polychaete Conference.
The blog is therefore entering a bit of a summer holiday, though there may be some glipses of conference life coming.
We’re spending the first two weeks of July out on our marine field station, running a workshop with participants from nine different countries on material from Western Africa. You can read more about this on our project blog: Marine Invertebrates of Western Africa
The Horniman Museum and Gardens
Curating a natural history collection comes with many challenges; how do you “freeze” the specimen in such a state that another taxonomist can request to examine it in 10 (20, 30, 50, 100…) years from now, and expect to find the same characters (the traits that are used for determining which species one is looking at) as the one who originally described or determined the specimen?
Which fluid should then be used as a preservative? Here we nee to take into consideration such features as potential harmfulness, fire hazards, longviety, the possible effects on histology and DNA, resistance to pests, effects on the container it is kept in, etc. etc. And how should the samples be stored? How do you rescue objects that have been damaged?
I spent most of last week attending a course in methods for fixing and preserving natural history specimens in fluid; The «Fluid Preservation Course» was given by Simon Moore at The Horniman Museum in London.
The group
Some of the topics covered included
Making a display part 1: One lizard in a bag. Extract from bag, figure out which preservative has been used, transfer to suitable new preservative.
Making a display part 2: prepare speciemen for being mounted in a suitable jar
Making a display part 2b: Stitch monofilament in to lizard to mount it on a custom made piece of glass in the jar (it looks rather brutal, doesn’t it?)
Making a display part 3: Ta-da!
A jar stuffed full of turtles and tortoises in really bad condition – we tried to salvage as much as possible, especially one specimen that was of a species they didn’t have in the museum collection.
Still not in great condition, but at least we can see what’s in the jar now!
Working with glass
Using vaccuum to extract air from dried-out specimens
Dessicated sea horses en route to rehydration
Injecting alcohol in dessiccated specimens to help them rehydrate (and sink).
A fairly messy jar with spiders (with varying numbers of legs still attached) and a tick
The spiders have been mounted on monofilament, the missing legs have been re-attached using class needles and colloidin as glue, the jar has been replaced, and they are now stored in 80% alcohol.