North by Northwest: Collaborative Research at Glasgow University

by Dr. Sophie McCoy, FSU Dept. of Bio Sci and FSUCML

Mussel bed from Tatoosh Island

I started my PhD thinking I would reconstruct local environmental history from an organism’s perspective. Has the seawater environment recently changed in a way that has been felt by an organism where it actually lives? The California mussel showed good potential to answer this question. As a common species found on West Coast shores and an ecologically important part of rocky shore ecosystems due to its many food web links and its deep and expansive mussel beds that act as habitat for other organisms, the California mussel was important enough to care about. Mussels also grow their shells by forming distinct growth bands each year, like other bivalves. This was a good start.

In that summer of 2009, I first visited Tatoosh Island. Tatoosh, the north-westernmost point of the contiguous United States, would become my field site and quasi summer home for the next 5 years. That year, my eyes were opened to rocky shore ecology in real life. I couldn’t believe how many mussels there were, nor how big they got.

A look at the inside of a mussel shell. The colors show the crystal orientation of that piece of calcium carbonate

The mussel project did not end up as the focus of my doctoral work, but has remained an active interest and side project ever since, involving Cathy Pfister and Tim Wootton from the University of Chicago. Most recently, I went to visit the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences at Glasgow University on a Post-doctoral and Early Career Researcher Exchange from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology, Scotland. Of course, I had my mussels in tow.

In my two month visit to Glasgow, I spent nearly every day in the Imaging Spectroscopy and Analysis Centre. By far my favorite technique learned and used while I was there was Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (EBSD), which maps and images crystallographic orientation. I now have images of modern day mussels collected in 2009 and 2015, archival samples from the 1960s-1970s, and mussels collected in archaeological middens from 1,000-2,000 years before present, donated by the Makah Tribe and Olympic National Park. This time series of field samples provides insight to mussel shell growth as ocean acidification has intensified in the Pacific Northwest, allowing us to match previous climate reconstructions made using these same shells to response of the California mussel in this population.

Learn more about other hardbottom reef habitats in the FSUCML Virtual Classroom.

Update # 2: Pulley Ridge and Tortugas research cruise May, 2016

by Dr. Sandra Brooke, FSUCML faculty

The ROV operations center with National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry on the left, Lew Lamar (Camera Technician) and Steve Firman (ROV pilot)

Monday was another day of strong currents and high winds at Pulley Ridge so we decided to try our luck over at the Tortugas Ecological Reserve (TER). We focused on the western wall of the TER in an area that is outside of the current protected area, but has been proposed to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GMFMC) as a potential Habitat Area of Particular Concern. The ROV struggled with strong currents, but we managed to complete a dive along the reef and saw some large boulder corals, gorgonians and sponges, typical of the Tortugas reefs as well as lots of fishes including large grouper. After completing our dive at this site, we moved to another location along the wall and saw a similar reef community. Towards the end of the dive we were joined by a pod of spotted dolphins that swam around the ROV for several minutes then followed us to the surface where they played around the bow. Tomorrow we will try a different part of the Tortugas a little further south, if the weather holds…

Atlantic spotted dolphins swam by the ROV and the ship outside the Tortugas Ecological

Pulley Ridge and Tortugas research cruise May, 2016

by Dr. Sandra Brooke, FSUCML faculty

On Wednesday 4th May, I drove across Florida to West Palm Beach to meet the Waitt Foundation vessel, the M/V Plan B. It started out as a lovely sunny day but quickly deteriorated into a torrential downpour that lasted the rest of the trip. I arrived in West Palm, just in time to load my gear and hop on the boat before it left for Pulley Ridge, a unique mesophotic coral reef in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Mesophotic or ‘twilight zone’ reefs are on the edge of the depth limits for reef-building corals that need sunlight to support their symbiotic algae. Their depth and distance from shore lends them some protection from high temperatures and human impacts, so they may represent refuges for corals and other reef species that can no longer survive in the degraded shallow areas.

Deploying the Falcon ROV at Pulley Ridge mesophotic reef

This cruise is part of a larger project that is supported by the Waitt Foundation in collaboration with National Geographic and the Marine Conservation Institute. Brian Skerry, a National Geographic photographer, is aboard to collect images that highlight special marine ecosystems. My colleague John Reed (Harbor Branch Oceanographic Inst/FAU) and I are collecting benthic habitat and community data on the Pulley Ridge reefs. It was a rough trip down with strong winds and high seas, but we arrived at Pulley Ridge late Thursday night ready to start work.

We finally caught a break in the weather and deployed the Falcon ROV (See image above) on the main ridge inside the Pulley Ridge Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC). Conditions were not ideal; we were being pushed around by the current and wind, but we saw some large red grouper excavations, each with attendant lionfish (unfortunately), fan-shaped green algae that only grows on Pulley Ridge, and large flat plates of coral that are characteristic of these mesophotic reefs. Growing as a plate instead of a boulder allows the corals to take advantage of the limited light (See image below). Towards the end of the dive we were venturing into territory that had not been explored before, and found a massive basin (probably a red grouper excavation) with hundreds of tiny fishes as well as large red grouper, scamp and black grouper. At this point the current pulled us off the reef and signaled the end of the dive.

Large flat plates of Agaricia coral at Pulley Ridge. Image courtesy NOAA-OER

Saturday and Sunday were again battles with nature with high seas and strong currents, but we managed two ROV dives on the western ridge before having to give up for the day. This part of Pulley Ridge is inside the HAPC but is outside of the small part of the total area that has any protection. This area is deeper than the main ridge and has a dense covering of gorgonians, sponges and many other invertebrates and fishes. An expansion of protection for Pulley Ridge has been proposed to the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council as part of a larger effort to protect deep sea corals (those > 50 m depth) in the Gulf of Mexico. Any additional data we can collect on the proposed protected areas may help move them forward.

Update #2: Deep-sea Research Cruise

Tags

biology, cruise, deep-sea, gulf of mexico, marine science, research

by Johanna Imhoff, FSUCML graduate student

Leg one of the 2016 Florida Restore Act Center for Excellence Program (FLRACEP) cruise threw many challenges our way, including rough seas and heavy currents. Our first fish of the year was a yellowedge grouper (Epinephelus flavolimbatus, top left). This is one of the species that we have caught repeatedly over the five years of our survey, as well as hakes (top right), gulper sharks (Centrophorus granulosus, middle right) and shortspine spurdog (Squalus cf. mitsukurii, bottom). Repeatedly sampling these species over the years and in several different regions (i.e. West Florida Slope, east and west sides of DeSoto Canyon) provides valuable toxicology samples so that Dr. Jim Gelsleichter and his students at the University of North Florida can continue to evaluate the presence of persistent contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The hake pictured in the top right is actually a new species for our survey (Carolina hake, Urophycis earlyi) and it will be preserved in the FSUCML Ichthyological Collection. Typically, we catch Gulf hake (U. cirrata) and Southern hake (U. floridanus), and rarely, Spotted hake (U. regia).

Just in case you were wondering about the strange letters in the middle of the shortspine spurdog’s scientific name (cf.), this stands for “conferred as.” This species is part of a circumglobal species complex that is currently undergoing re-description. In other words, there are several species around the world that look like this one and have all been called by the same name. However, they are actually different species. This one in particular is being re-described by Mariah Pfleger, a recent master’s student in Dr. Toby Daly-Engel’s lab at University of West Florida. She found that this species in the Gulf of Mexico is in fact distinct from the others around the world. It will have a new name in the next year or so.

We find some amazing invertebrates in the deep sea. This beautiful urchin and basket star (middle left) came up from the bottom tangled with each other and around our longline. We don’t know what species they are, but perhaps FSUCML faculty Dr. Sandra Brooke will be able to tell us! NOTE: We asked Dr. Sandra Brooke, and here’s what she had to tell us – the right hand side of the picture is a basket star, member of the family Gorgonocephalidae, and the left hand side of the picture is a pencil urchin, member of the family Cidaridae.

Clark Morgan was lucky enough to see his first bluntnose sixgill shark on leg one before he had to head back to school. Unfortunately, she broke the barb on the hook and swam away before we were able to get good photographs or tag her.

Another UNF master’s student, John Whalen, took Clark’s place and FSU research technician Bryan Keller joined the team for leg two. We are headed out to our first set of stations in the northern Gulf. We’ve rigged some new weights for the longlines, added two more hanks of line to our spool, and we’re being treated to calm seas. Everyone is ready to start fishing again. Wish us luck!

Venturing to the West Florida Slope: Deep-sea Research Cruise

Tags

cruise, deep-sea, marine biology, marine science, research

by Johanna Imhoff, FSUCML graduate student

We are having beautiful weather as we steam toward our first set of stations on the West Florida Slope. After we had stowed most of our gear securely, fellow FSUCML grad students, Bianca and Brian; UNF grad student Clark; and I sat at the galley table and prepared flagging tape with individual numbers to tag each fish when it comes on board, and vials with the same numbers for storing fin clips and muscle biopsy samples for genetics and stable isotopes research. When we start fishing, our first fish will be RA-16-001 (that stands for Restore Act, as in FL Restore Act Center for Excellence Program, 2016, and the first fish). Bianca also prepared syringes for collecting blood sample for her reproductive and stress physiology research. With the team working together, we got this done pretty quickly and we’ve had time to read, nap, work and acquire our sea legs.

Stay tuned for more information about our research cruise.