Author Archives: katrine

Guest Researchers: Kate

Collecting Magelona samples on my favourite sampling beach, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. A beach known to many polychaetologists through the work of naturalist George Johnston.

Earlier this month we had a visit from Kate Mortimer from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. In her own words:

Magelonid polychaetes – Shovelhead worms

7^th – 15^th November

I have been specialising in the taxonomy of magelonid polychaetes for the last 15 years, particularly the investigation of species from Europe and the Indian Ocean. More recently I have been additionally studying the behaviour and functional morphology of this fascinating group.

Making drawings of specimens from the MIWA project back at the National Museum Wales, Cardiff.

Discussions with Jon Anders Kongsrud at the University Museum of Bergen (UMB) started at the International Polychaete Conference in Lecce 2010 about the MIWA-Project and the magelonid species off West Africa. I started work investigating the magelonid specimens from the MIWA-project back in 2013. Early investigation work suggested the possibility of up to 16 putative species from the samples, which potentially included several species new to science. So the work began, on the lengthy process of drawing, describing and imaging each individual species back at the National Museum Wales, in Cardiff.

Imaging a Magelona, this specimen has a distinct thoracic pigment band

: This animal is from Ghana

: Closer…closer..!

Whilst work continued looking at the morphology of these specimens it was decided that it would be prudent to come to the University Museum of Bergen to look at additional magelonid specimens from further MIWA samples, in order to select samples for DNA sequencing. The week would further cement morphological descriptions and to search for additional material of the rarer species within samples. So in November I took the trip to Bergen, leaving a wet and windy Cardiff behind and arriving in an equally wet and windy city!

After a week in the lab, over 100 vials of specimens and over 800 specimens have been studied. A further four potential species have been identified and the material is now ready for tissue sampling and photographing before the material is sent off to Canada for sequencing.

Working in the lab

Magelonid samples processed and identified, awaiting sequencing.

It has been a successful week, and I am very much looking forward to comparing the results from the sequencing to the morphology of these animals. Meanwhile back in Cardiff, we have selected specimens of similar British species for comparison to the West African material and Norwegian species.

Many thanks to all at the Museum for making me feel so welcome in Bergen. I very much look forward to collaborating with you on this project and look forward to some fascinating and interesting results from the project.

Guest Researchers: Williams and Lloyd

Lloyd (left) and Williams. (photo: Williams)

Goniada congoensis collected in Nigeria

A Glycera africana collected from Ghana

A Goniada multidentata from Ghana

For the past two weeks we have had two old friends visiting to work on the material collected through the MIWA-project:

Lloyd from Ghana, who has previously been here to participate in the first of our workshops in the Espegrend field station, and Williams from Nigeria, who has been both on the Espegrend workshops and who also included a visit to the Museum as a guest researcher in combination with the workshop visit last summer.

This time around, the focus has been on Polychaetes from the suborder Glyceriformia, mainly within the families Glyceridae (bloodworms) and Goniadidae.

Our visitors have been working on identifying specimens from a variety of countries, and selecting specimens from the different (morpho)species so that we could proceed to start work on a plate of Glyceriform worms that will be sent to Canada for sequencing.

We have gone through the whole process of identification, section, photographing, metadata assembly and the creation of accounts and projects in the BOLD database, where our sequences will be uploaded.

It will be very interesting to see the results!

Photographing and keeping records of the animals selected for barcoding (photo: Williams)

Ready to take tissue samples to be sent to Canada for sequencing (photo: Williams)

Thank you for visiting, and for all your hard work!

Guest Researchers

The invertebrate collections are high in demand these days, and we have a string of visitors coming here to examine our material. They range from students just starting out to well established researchers – some are new to us, others are old friends returning.

Amongst the latter is São from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She works with polychaetes in the family Nephtyidae, and came for a short visit in October. In her own words:

18-23 October: After an amazingly (for Bergen ☺) sunny Sunday, with a wonderful walk in the mountains, I had a very productive week looking through nephtyids from Western Africa.

More than 300 specimens were examined and ascribed to 13 putative species. The results were very exiting! Interesting distribution patterns and a couple of potentially new species for science. Now we are waiting for barcodes… -São

We have also had a Russian student visiting for two weeks earlier this fall. Polina worked on polychaetes in the family Onuphidae together with Nataliya, and will continue to work on some of the material that she examined. Currently we have visitors from Ghana and Nigeria, and that will be the next blog post – so stay tuned!

Starstruck

Following the workshop on the brittle stars – the Ophiuroidea – that we arranged earlier this fall, we have a lot of samples that have been selected for DNA barcoding. These are in the pipeline for photographing, and the photographer is currently seeing stars…

Below is a sample of the animals, each animal is photographed twice; dorsal and ventral view.

Brittle stars en masse – we plan on filling two plates this time around, so in total there will be 380 photograps.

Unravelling the diversity of Bivalve Molluscs of Western Africa

Tellina (Oudardia) compressa

Venus verrucosa

The study of the marine invertebrates of West Africa collected during the “Nansen Project” goes on and this year a second workshop was organized with a focus on the taxonomy of bivalves. Nine days of seclusion in our marine station at Espegrend on the surroundings of the city of Bergen allowed for the necessary tranquility to concentrate in the laborious work of sorting through and identifying thousands of specimens collected between Morocco and Angola by the Norwegian research vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.

Abra alba

This year the “Molluscan” team was strengthen with two extra players; Sara Castillo, a PhD student from Spain enrolled at the University of Vigo and working on the marine fauna of Mauritania and Rudo von Cosel from the Paris Museum of Natural History a recognized authority on the taxonomy of bivalve molluscs.

Aequipecten flabellum

Atrina chautardi

Corbula cadenati

During last year workshop we have implemented a successful “conveyor-belt operation” where each of us was responsible for a specific task (identification, labelling, databasing, imaging, barcoding, etc.). The samples were first organized by morphotypes and then passed into the hands and eyes of our taxonomic experts; a new label with a museum voucher number, species name, locality, etc., was added, and the samples were then databased, photographed, and some selected for DNA barcoding. In parallel several invited participants received training in the various technical and scientific aspects of this operation.

Cuspidaria cuspidata

Falsolucinoma leloeuffi

This year we have again implemented the same successful strategy; Lena Ohnheiser (University Museum of Bergen) was responsible for the database, labelling, and “in between” automontage imaging, Rudo von Cosel, José Pedro Borges (Portuguese Institute of Malacology), Kouakou Kouadio (University of Nangui Abrogoua, Côte d’Ivoire), Sidi Moctar (Institut Mauritanien de Recherches Océanographiques et des Pêches), and Sara Castillo for the taxonomic identification, and the author of these lines was the responsible for general imaging of the specimens and overall coordination of the team-work. In parallel Trond Oskars (a PhD student at the University Museum of Bergen) and Endre Willassen (PI of the Marine Invertebrates of Western Africa project) have worked on the preparation of 95 samples for DNA barcoding.

Gari fervensis

Laevicardium senegalensis

Noetiella congoensis

Our colleague Rudo von Cosel has been working for more than 10 years on a comprehensive book about the bivalves from tropical western Africa.

Rudo brought the proofs of his book to the workshop and we can proudly claim to have been the first ones to have ever seen his book assembled! The species illustrations and descriptions were bind together by families and used as identification tools during the workshop. At the end of the week we have databased over 800 lots and identified approximately 125 species. It was very rewarding to realize that our joint effort rendered many new geographical records contributing to better understand the distribution of species and biogeographic processes along the coast of West Africa.

We are very thankful to all participants in the workshop; to all those mentioned along these lines and those who were not but were nonetheless crucial for the success of this very productive week helping with various technical and logistic aspects, contributing to the good atmosphere, and very important keeping everybody “bellies” happy with great demonstrations of cuisine masterskills!

Sinupharus bernardi

-Manuel

The workshop has ended

It’s been a busy, productive and fun week – thank you so much to all our participants for the hard work they’ve done and the good cheer they brought!

Stay tuned for updates on results and continued work – though the workshop has finished, work is only just beginning!

Participant snapshots – Sara

Name: Sara Castillo Oñate

Home institution: University of Vigo (Spain) and Spanish Institute of Oceanography

What do you work with at home?

I’m preparing a paper about composition and distribution of macrobenthos from Mauritanian deepwaters, based on samples collected with Agassiz trawl between 150 and 1600m.

I’m also working on mollusc identification (except cephalopods) from CCLME region.

Sara and Lena on board the “Aurelia”

What are you working on here?

I am part of the “Team Mollusca” helping the expert on bivalves Rudo von Cosel and learning a lot about the identification of this group. I’m also separating the mixed mollusc samples to morpho-specie level. This is my first workshop and I’m really happy for the experience.

Participant snapshot – Sidi

Name: Sidi M. Moctar

Home institution: Institut Mauritanien de Recherches Océanographiques et des Pêches (IMROP)Laboratoire d’Ecologie et Biologie des organismes Aquatiques/ Mauritanian Institute of Oceanographic Research and fishing

What do you work with at home?

I am responsible for the studies of ecology, biodiversity and systematics of macrobenthos

What are you working on here?

I am part of the group working on identifying the bivalves that have been collected in the CCLME and GCLME regions.

Participant snapshots – Kouadio

Name: Kouakou Norbert KOUADIO, PhD in Sciences and Environment Management

Home institution : University of Nangui Abrogoua (Abidjan; Côte d’Ivoire)

What do you work with at home?

I am a teacher and a researcher, and my areas of expertise are Hydrobiology: Biology and Ecology of Benthic macroinvertebrates, and Environmental impact study (aquatic fauna)

What are you working on here?

I am part of the team working on mollusc identification based on sample material of marine invertebrates from the African CCLME and GCLME regions. The main focus of this workshop has been on the Bivalvia, whilst we last year worked mainly on Gastropods.

Participant snapshots – travel letter from Rudo

We are fortunate enough to have with us an expert on African bivalves, Dr. Rudo von Cosel from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.

Rudo (centre) with two of his workshop colleagues on “Team Mollusca”; Lena and Sara

Below are his words on how he’s finding the Norwegian MIWA experience:

Here I am in the high and cold North, but the weather is not so bad here; after some windy days we have now bright sun which is visible to almost 23h in the evening. The train ride was fantastic. 2 nights and a day, always with the printout of my book under the arm! Indeed the book is a success, and everybody uses it, and the identification work progresses more rapidly thanks to it. However, the identifications are very much more difficult than thought because most samples are grab samples, and the small, very young and ultra juvenile species are much over-represented.

Rudo and Kouadio onboard the “Aurelia”

Yesterday we went out at sea with the station boat for sightseeing in the fjord around the marine station, the sea was like a lake which is exceptional!

The food is excellent, and the kitchen brigade consists of two of us and changes every day, whereas the people from the institute go shopping for the food. I am one of the first in the kitchen for doing the morning tea. After the breakfast we sit at the binocular until midday and after the lunch to 20h, of course with a coffee break.

We have treated 557 lots up to now but there remains still a lot to do until Saturday evening.

Norway is fantastic, and the colleagues are very very friendly and helpful; it is a real pleasure for me to be in a marine station after such a long time!

Now back to the binocular where some tricky Corbulidae and small Tellinids wait for me.