Category Archives: species identification

Presentation at the 8th International Crustacean Congress (ICC-8)

Almost 300 researchers from many nations were convened last week at the beautiful Campus Westend of the Goethe–University in Frankfurt for the 8th International Crustacean Congress (ICC-8). Many interesting talks and high quality posters were presented over six days. A special workshop on DNA-identification and barcoding filled the auditorium to the the edge and left many attendants standing through the session. EW gave a 15 minutes talk on results from our barcoding of decapods and stomatopods. He particularly emphasized how barcoding can reveal discordant species identifications among different labs and research environments and pinpoint the need for reidentification and / or taxonomic revision of species. Copy of GoetheUnivFrankfurt ICC-8_presentation

The Casino building of the Goethe University

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

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 – 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.

Participant snapshots – Williams

Name: Akanbi Bamikole Williams

Home Institution: Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research

What do you work with at home? I am a Principal Research Officer at my home institution with special interest in fish biology, fisheries management and benthic ecology. Presently working on marine fauna diversity in Nigeria.

What are you working on here? I have been working on taxonomic details of different families of polychaetes and some other animal groups (Molluscs and Crustatceans). I am also going through the process of preparing samples for DNA Barcoding – specimen selection, filling-in the various data sheets, taking photographs of specimens, tissues extraction and the final plate preparation. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Bristle worms from the family Maldanidae. Of of the techniques used for distinguishing the different species is to stain the animals with colours and use the patterning that results as a morphological character

Bristle worms from the family Maldanidae. One of the techniques used for separating different species is to stain the animals with colour and use the patterning that results as a morphological character

Stained Maldanids

Participant snapshots – Trond

Name: Trond R. Oskars

Home institution: University Museum of Bergen, Norway (blog here)

What do you work with at home?

Samples, big and small

I have recently been working on preparing material for the workshop by sorting benthic samples from the West-African coast, paying particular attention to the Bivalvia (clams, oysters, cockles etc.) and the Ophistobranchs (a group of gastropods/snails), as these are some of the focus groups for the workshop. I defined the specimens to morphospecies and/or genus, to ease the work for the experts who will be working on identifying them to species. I am also preparing papers on Cephalaspidea and Philinidae (snails) from my master thesis work, and preparing to start my Ph.D.

Jar upon jar upon jar of molluscs

Organizing

What are you working on here?

On the workshop I have been nominated as the “gastropod team”. The previous workshop got a lot of nice results on the gastropods, and it was decided to continue the work this year. My task is to organize the species by family, and pick suitable specimens from target families that we wish to do DNA barcoding on, prepare the barcoding samples, and keep the database up to date.

Aaand we’re off!

Most of our participants arrived over the course of the weekend, and work is already well under way. The 2014 workshop will focus on the Mollusca – especially the bivalves – and our ever-present polychaetes, from both the GCLME and the CCLME.

Like last year, we are based at the field station of the University of Bergen, which is a great venue for workshops.

Our field station at Espegrend

Discussions in the lab

Working on the bivalves

We have – amongst our in total 15 participants – no less than nine nationalities representing nine different institutions present!

Part of “Team Mollusca”

Labwork

Many of us also participated in last years workshop, and it’s been very nice to have a reunion with that lovely crowd!

Some of last year’s participants had other obligations and were unfortunately unable to attend. We do have some new additions as well, and they are very welcome. As the pictures show, work is already well under way, we will get back to the strategies and results of the work in coming blog posts.

We are generation a lot of data to keep track of

Biodiversity in a dish

One of my (non-marine) colleagues asked me what I was planning on doing with the cartload of samples I was hauling into the lab – so I decided to write a little here, explaining what it is we do when we sort the samples.

R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen

The first step is of course to aquire said samples. Ours have been collected from the West African continental shelf in agreement with the Guinea Current (GCLME) and Canary Current (CCLME) Large Marine Ecosystem projects.

The sampling has been done by the R/V Dr. Fridjof Nansen.

At present we house samples collected from close to 650 stations along the West African coast.

You will find all the stations and their associated metatdata in this interactive map – here’s a static version of the same:

Stations

Once the samples have arrived at the University Museum, we begin the laborious process of identifying the fauna within. The first step is – rather obviously – to separate the animals from the sediment. Whilst doing this, we also do a rough sorting of the animals to what we call the main groups: Echinoderms, Crustaceans, Polychaeta, Mollusca and so on.

Below are some pictures from the processing of a sample collected by use of a sledge at 106 m depth in the waters of Senegal in 2011.

$A 1 l container of decanted (= the most animal rich part of the sample) sample - from the same station we will have several bottles with different fractions of sample (decanted, 1 mm, 5 mm,...). Large or particularly conspicuos animals are picked out separately whilst processing the samples on board.$

A 1 liter container of decanted (= the most animal rich part of the sample) sample – from the same station we will have several bottles with different fractions (decanted, 1 mm, 5 mm,…). Large or particularly conspicuos animals are picked out separately whilst processing the samples on board.

Sorting using a dissecting microscope

A petri dish with two tea spoons worth of unsorted sample collected by sled (this is from a decanted fraction, though – not all containers will be this intensely populated!)

Zooming in..my, that’s a lot of animals!

At a glance..Ostracoda, Galatheidae, a Ebalia (the pink crab), isopods, amphipods and a lot of polychaeta.

Once the animals have been sorted to the main groups, they are passed on to the taxonomists, who will (do their best to) identify them to species. This is done to learn more about the rich species diversity of this region, and to compare it with the northern fauna. Some of the identified animals will be used as DNA barcode vouchers, helping us build a library of the genetic barcodes* of the marine invertebrates of western Africa.

*within the framework of the Barcode of Life Data Systems; “BOLD”

A left-handed hermit

Ciliopagurus caparti belongs to the group of hermit crabs that is sometimes called left- handed because the left claw is larger than the right, as opposed to the situation in other hermit crabs. C. caparti was originally described as a new genus Trizopagurus. The original description in Bulletin, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 28(39): 1–8 is available for download from ATOL:Decapoda. We hope that our just submitted samples will yield DNA-barcodes of the species in the BOLD database.

Ciliopagurus caparti expelled from its snail shell residence

Geographic position of a new sample to the BOLD-database