Author Archives: Katrine

Workshop in South Africa

Post author and sponge taxonomist Francisca together with the workshop roll-up

In the beginning of October, I travelled to Cape Town to teach in the workshop “Deep-sea Biodiversity and Applied Taxonomy Workshop”.

This workshop was organized within the framework of the SponBIODIV project and hosted by the Iziko South African Museum.

You can read more here about SponBIODIV (homepage) and Iziko South African museum (homepage).

Group photo — Workshop team, participants and tutors. Photo: Museum staff

Several participants, from different countries and institutions in Africa, joined us during this week to learn about marine biodiversity research, monitoring, taxonomy, and management of marine resources.

people gathered in a room, listening to a presentation — Lectures during mornings;

A female scientist giving a lecture — Lectures during mornings;

Each day included lectures in the morning followed by practical sessions in the afternoon. During the practical sessions, participants were divided into small groups, each guided by two tutors, where they learned how to handle and identify sponge specimens. They became familiar with the main literature used in sponge taxonomy, learned how to prepare spicule slides (a crucial step in sponge identification), and explored important aspects of sponge morphology and taxonomic nomenclature.

Top image: (pic 5) One of the groups with the sponge specimens assigned to them. During the practical sessions, participants were able to identify their specimens. Left image: (pic 6) The museum has dedicated staff responsible for digitizing the collections. Here, they demonstrated part of this work, including how photographs are taken for museum catalogues and databases. Right image: (pic 7) Participants handling sponge specimens during the practical sessions. Photos by Francisca Carvalho. — Top image: One of the groups with the sponge specimens assigned to them. During the practical sessions, participants were able to identify their specimens. Left image: The museum has dedicated staff responsible for digitizing the collections. Here, they demonstrated part of this work, including how photographs are taken for museum catalogues and databases. Right image: Participants handling sponge specimens during the practical sessions. Photos by Francisca Carvalho.

Participants also learned the importance of carefully recording information when collecting specimens in the field. This information is essential for biodiversity studies, as it helps transform field observations into clear, reliable, and usable.

At the end of the workshop, each group presented the results of their assignment.

four images of scientists at work — Top left: group 4, Andreu Santìn, Francisca Carvalho, Carlota Amoda, Ryan Rambaran, Lisa Skein and Lailah Gifty Akita (from left to right). Top right: Carlota Amoda presenting. Bottom left: Lailah Gifty Akita presenting. Bottom right: Ryan Rambaran presenting. Photos by Francisca Carvalho.

In addition, one session introduced participants to image-based identification methods used in marine biodiversity surveys, using BIIGLE software.

Scientists working on computers — Practical sessions in image-based identifcation methods. Photos by Francisca Carvalho

This was an amazing experience. Everyone was very friendly, welcoming, and highly motivated. Cape Town is also a beautiful city, surrounded by nature and stunning landscapes. We hope to organize or participate in a similar workshop again in the future.
It is also worth mentioning that the workshop attracted more than 200 applications for only 16 available places, highlighting the strong interest in sponge taxonomy and marine biodiversity research.

A yellow museum building against a blue sky, a museum exhibit with whales, and museum jars with marine invertebrates in them — The Iziko South African Museum and parts of its collections. Photos by Francisca Carvalho.

3 images, from the left a group of 8 standing in a museum collection, an image of a yellow museum building in front of Table Maountain, and a selfie of a group of happy smiling scientists out in the sun — Left image: Tutors visiting the museum collection, Toufiek Samaai, Frederico Martins, Joana Xavier, Javier Cristobo, Andreu Santin, Pilar Rios (from left to right). Top right: The Iziko South African Museum, with the Table Mountain in the background. Bottom right: (pic 19) Francisca Carvalho, Pilar Rios, Javier Cristobo, Joana Xavier, Andreu Santin (from left to right). Photos by Francisca Carvalho.

A special thank you to Toufiek Samaai, a partner in SponBIODIV, for hosting us throughout the week. I also would like to thank all the staff at the Iziko South African Museum for their excellent organization, support, and warm welcome to all participants throughout the workshop.

-Francisca Carvalho

https://www.iziko.org.za/museums/south-african-museum/

The 4th Bathysphere Symposium

October 15-16th 2026, Sommarøy, Tromsø

Since the beginning in 2023, Bathysphere has arranged annual symposia for those working with the deep sea.

The first three* meetings were arranged by the Bergen node (at the time, the only one), but this year the torch was picked up by the newly formed Tromsø node of Bathysphere.

“Bathysphere is a voluntary deep-sea network of Norway-based deep-sea scientists and professionals who want to increase collaboration and knowledge-sharing across local institutes. The network is named after the Bathysphere, a unique spherical submersible designed for deep-sea exploration. “

(from bathysphere.no, go check it out!)

54 participants gathered for two days filled with presentations, posters, discussions and socializing in a gorgeous venue (though the weather was…interesting at times, with winds reaching over 23 m/s and rain coming horizontally).
The talks covered a wide range of topics, split into sections on:

Creating knowledge baselines and Monitoring change in the Deep-Sea
Emerging Technologies & Methodologies
A discussion on how we inform management and policy makers
Deep-sea Management
Deep sea across areas/regions/realms, and finally
Making the Deep-Sea Visible: Art, Outreach and Visual Communication

Three of us from the museum gave talks.
🪼 Luis presented on behalf of the Manet Team their work on a jellyfish species that is turning out to be several species; “A bloom of species revealed by multimarker DNA data: the hyperbenthic deep-water jellyfish Ptychogastria polaris across Arctic, Antarctic, and Atlantic waters”,

🧬 Nataliya spoke about how we are using molecular data to understand deep-sea macrobenthic diversity, and how museum collections play a vital role in this work.

🦐 Katrine presented some preliminary findings from the MADAM project about how we are trying to record which other animals our amphipods are choosing as microhabitat, and how that might help us unravel cryptic diversity in the six families we work on. I also urged the many cruise participants and ROV-footage experts in the room to keep an eye out for such interactions.

images from a lecture hall; three presenters from the museum (see text for details) and the poster session — Presentations by Luis, Nataliya and Katrine, and from the poster session.

The outreach-session was particularly engaging, first with talk by former master student Lara, who is co-founder of a very cool initiative called the Unseen Ocean Collective (web page here), followed by a presentation by Jane Zimmermann, who will be illustrating the children’s book “Worm Party in the Deep” that our UiB colleague (and also former museum master student!) Mari is making.

After the talks it was time to get our hands dirty (literally!), and try to create clay creatures that could exist in the deep.

Hands-on work, with varying degree of success, but with lots of laughter

It was a wonderful meeting, and we are so grateful to the organizers for all the work they did to make it happen. Huge thank you also goes to all the participants, for making this such a friendly and welcoming venue to meet. Next Bathysphere will be in Bergen in 2027, hope to see you there!

Bathysphere Symposium 2026. Photo: Camille Saint-André

*You can read about our participation at Espegrend in 2025 here: Museum attendance at the Bergen Bathysphere Science Symposium 2025 | The Invertebrate Collections

PS: For anyone interested in the deep sea, the pre-registration for the big deep sea biology conference that will be held in Bergen in April 2028 is live!

Link is here

Project home pages:
Norske Arktiske Hydrozoer (NOAH)
Marine Amfipodar: Diversitet, Artskompleks og Molekylær studiar (MADAM)
Leddormer i Arktis (MAnDAriN)
The evolutionary origins and consequences of bipolarity in Hydrozoa (POLE2POLE) (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions)

Manet Team joins the Jellyfish Blooms Symposium in Ireland

Every three to four years, jellyfish researchers from around the world come together for some serious fun: the International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium.

The event is one of a kind and a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet new colleagues, and share the latest discoveries about our favourite marine invertebrates. This year, the 8th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium took place in Cork, Ireland, where the Manet Team from the University Museum of Bergen presented some of our latest findings and exchanged ideas with a fantastic international community of jellyfish researchers.

Over several days of talks, posters and discussions, the symposium covered many aspects of gelatinous zooplankton research; from their fascinating life cycles and biodiversity to their roles in marine ecosystems and responses to our changing oceans. The programme also showcased how new molecular, technological and modelling approaches are changing the way we study these often elusive animals. Most importantly, the meeting provided a unique space to exchange ideas, build new collaborations and discuss where jellyfish research should go next.

About 100 people in a group photo taken in an atrium, and a picture of the conference poster, which has different jellyfish on it — Group picture and poster of the 8th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium. Group picture by Enzo C. Morandini

Aino opened the second day of the conference with a fantastic keynote talk on the limitations of sanger sequencing and available reference databases. Challenges we will be working on during our new Artsdatabanken project CHANGEZ. She also shared the work we’ve done over the last decade and the exciting future endeavors we are embarking on.

Two images of a female professor presenting a talk in the auditorium — Aino during her plenary talk: A decade of reference sequencing jellyfish.

Joan shared his latest findings on a group of substantially understudied hydromedusae and how crucial it is to integrate both life cycle stages if we aim to understand their phylogenetic relationships and distribution.

A man giving a lecture (title on slide: “Connecting life stages: revisiting life cycle, species diversity and phylogenetic position in understudied hydromedusae”. ) and a photo of a branching marine invertebrate growing on a sponge — Joan during his talk “Connecting life stages: revisiting life cycle, species diversity and phylogenetic position in understudied hydromedusae”.

Praveen focused on his results on bipolarity in calycophoran syphonophores, as part of the MSCA H2020 project POLE2POLE, funded by the European Commission.

A man giving a presentation in front of an auditorium, and photo of a siphonophore, a jelly-like animal — Praveen presenting exciting results of his PhD thesis working on bipolarity in Dimophyes arctica.

Erlend explained how to properly identify pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in NE Atlantic. You can check out our ID guide here: https://zenodo.org/records/17303147 (link)

A small jellyfish with four prominent white spots against a black background, and a man giving a presentation titled “Key identification characters of pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in the North-Eastern Atlantic." — Erlend during his talk titled “Key identification characters of pelagic hydrozoans affecting aquaculture in the North-Eastern Atlantic.

Luis presented the project JellySafe, funded by FHF – Norwegian Seafood Research Fund, and the extent of the Apolemia uvaria (and other jellyfish) outbreaks for the last two decades.

Two images, first is of what looks like a fluffy white mop, but is in fact a jellyfish - the other is of Lusi presenting his research project. — Luis presenting “Challenges to finfish aquaculture from Apolemia and other hydromedusae and siphonophores in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean”

Doris shared how little we still know about the true diversity of tubulariid hydroids, despite being widely widespread and negatively impact aquaculture.

Doris during her talk on “Hidden diversity in Tubulariidae Goldfuss, 1818 (Hydrozoa) in the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic waters, and a photo of said Turbulariids, which are small, flower like animals in white and bright orange. — Doris during her talk on “Hidden diversity in Tubulariidae Goldfuss, 1818 (Hydrozoa) in the Northeast Atlantic and Arctic waters.

Besides the scientific programme of the conference, we also joined a Pint of Science outreach event promoted by the symposium’s organizing committee, where Joan gave a talk exploring the curious and often surprising lives of these fascinating animals.

In what os very clearly a bar (lots of beer taps and bar desk), a presentation is being given about jellyfish — Joan presenting a popular talk during Pint of Science: Time travellers of the sea: the hidden lives of jellies.

Irish sights, castles and amazing, green nature — Impressive historical buildings and breathtaking landscapes in beautiful Ireland were another highlight of our trip.

In brief: we had a great, productive and enriching experience presenting our latest findings and hearing very inspiring talks. Plus, we got to explore some of the wonders in and around Cork, with some birding whenever we had the chance. We are very much looking forward to the 9th Jellyfish Blooms Symposium in Sao Paulo 2029!

Happy faces in our group picture during the 8^th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium. Great job, everyone!

– Manet Team

Bioskag Workshop

We began the year with arranging two workshops in January. The first of these was based on the extensive sampling done in the Skagerrak strait in recent years (2006 – today). The aim was to increase the rather poor knowledge of the invertebrate fauna of the region (link is in Norwegian).

The focal group of this workshop was the Polychaetes (bristle worms), and through the effort of the ten attendants, a lot of material was examined. You can read more about this at the blog of the Norwegian Polychaete Forum.

Busy lab

We are currently processing the findings from the workshop, including documenting specimens through photography and drawing. One of the tools we employ for doing this is the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which enables us to make high resolution images at a very high magnification.

A SEM image of a a Sphaerodoridae. Photo: K. Kongshavn

A high magnification close-up of a Polychaete bristle. Photo: K. Kongshavn