Category Archives: Artsprosjekt/NTI projects

Workshop: Polychaete diversity in the Norwegian Sea

Our lab is currently brimming with polychaetologists (those working with the polychaeta, the bristle worms), as we’re in the middle of this year’s PolyNor workshop (Polychaete diversity in the Norwegian Sea).

The making of plans

Working hard

The Polychaete pack gathered

The colourful family Phyllodocidae is one of the groups we are working on

We have eleven participants (five nationalities) here, and all are working hard to assign names to animals, fill up our lists of material to be cataloged into the University Museum’s collections, accumulation data for their own research projects, and selecting material suitable for barcoding through the NORBOL-project.

Odontosyllis sp

A Paranaitis wahlbergi

A member of the family Sabellidae

The majority of the samples that we are working on have been collected through the MAREANO-programme, but we are supplementing with material collected around Bergen, closer to the coast and into the fjords, and material collected around Svalbard.

Collecting in the Oslofjord

The past week we’ve been staying at “Biologen”, a research station in the city Drøbak. The station is run by the University of Oslo, and we’ve been making day trips with the research vessel Bjørn Føyn collecting marine invertebrates using a variety of gear. During three days we managed to sample 19 localities, some of which were “type localities” of specific species that we were after. A type locality is the site where the specimen that the species description is based on was collected. Whenever possible, we want to include genetic barcoding of a specimen collected at the type locality. We also collected “a bit of everything” for barcoding, as we don’t have a lot of material that is suitable for genetic work from this region.

: “Biologen” (“the biologist”) where we were staying

: A Henricia spp on its way to becoming a barcode voucher

: Lovely conditions for field work!

: Happy researcher with a sponge

: Mountains of sediment, as per usual

: Checking the samples

: R/V Bjørn Føyn

: Washing samples

: The field station

: A pretty Sabellidae worm being prepared for barcoding

: One very happy researcher (he just found the isopod species he had come to look for)

: Sea urchins en masse

: Planning next days sampling

: We’re not letting the early dusk stop us

The Museum’s scientific cruise of 2014

R/V Håkon Mosby in Lysefjorden. photo: K.Kongshavn

R/V Håkon Mosby in Lysefjorden. photos: K.Kongshavn

We’ve spent the past couple of days out on the big ole’ blue, sampling along the south-western coast of Norway for bristle worms, worm molluscs, bubble snails and fish on board the research vessel “Håkon Mosby”.

We went from Bergen down to Lysefjorden in Rogaland, and had a highly productive trip. In total we sampled 30 stations using various kinds of gear (epibenthic sled, grab, net, trawl and triangular dredge) to capture our target animals.

This is a region that we have very little material from, and what we do have has been sampled in a way that makes it unsuitable for genetic work – so we went out to remedy that. Now the work begins with sorting and identifying the animals – but we already know that we have found some of the species that we were hunting for – so the cruise was definitely a success, and the scenery and weather made for a wonderful bonus!

Grab

Netting for fish in the littoral zone

Collecting in the littoral zone

Lab work onboard

No cruise without mud! This pile yielded three of the tiny snails one of our researchers was after; success!

Sorting in the lab

Trawl catch

RP-sledge in the sunset

Emptying the triangular dredge

Friday Photo: A beautiful feather duster worm!

For todays photo we have a real beauty; this bristle worm (Polychaeta) from the family Sabellidae, the feather duster worms!

After being emailed this photo, one of our collaborators – who works with the Sabellidae – has identified it to the genus Euchone (Thanks, M.! ).

For an identification to species level, an examination of small details, such as the characteristics of individual bristles would be needed. Or we can barcode it and hope that a specimen from the same species has already been (correctly!) identified to species and uploaded to the database, in which case we would get a hit on “our” barcode. In this case, we hope to do both – get a name on it based on the morphology, and do genetic sequencing so that its genetic barcode can be included in the BOLD database Euchone sp. Photo: K. Kongshavn

It was collected just outside of Bergen on one of our day trips, and will be included in our ongoing effort to assemble a library of genetic barcodes for all the Norwegian marine invertebrates.

10(!) new plates ready for BOLD

We’re currently in the final stages of preparing ten plates; 9 from Norwegian waters for the Norwegian Barcode of Life project (NorBOL), and one plate of Polychaetes from the Marine Biodiversity of Western Africa (MIWA) project for submission to the BOLD database.

The shipment will consist of the following taxa groups:

1…

2….

3….

…4 plates of polychaetes (bristle worms) from Norwegian waters. These have mainly been collected by the large projects MAREANO, BIOSKAG and PolySkag, and have been identified during workshops that we have arranged.

One plate of aplacophoran molluscs

One plate of ophiouroids (brittle stars), mainly from MAREANO and BIOSKAG

One plate of ophiuroids (brittle stars), mainly from MAREANO and BIOSKAG

One plate of Amphipoda, mostly collected by MAREANO, but also samples collected during a teaching cruise from UNIS at Svalbard

One complete plate of Cumaceans…

..and one plate with Cumacea (bottom right), Mysida (bottom left) and Isopoda (top)

As well as one plate of African polychaetes.

Hopefully the sequencing will be successfull, and yield many new DNA barcodes!

More from the PolyNor workshop

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)

PolyNor Workshop on the MAREANO material

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!

The 11th International Polychaete Conference – Sydney, Australia 2013

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.

The Invertebrate Collections

The University Museum of Bergen