A multi-institution team consisting of the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (UW SAFS) Professor John Horne will deploy experimental technology next week to explore the deep scattering layers of the ocean. In addition to Horne, the UW team includes Ross Hytnen Jr. and summer intern Raymond Surya (a JISAO intern from the University of Michigan). Horne’s lab at SAFS uses active acoustic technologies to count and characterize aquatic organism distributions and dynamics throughout the world.
They are looking for information about animals in the Gulf of Mexico that make up the scattering layers — those that undergo daily vertical migrations of 100 to 1,000 meters. These animals represent the largest organized animal migration on the planet, yet little is known about them. What scientists do know is these animals are major players in the global carbon cycle, transporting carbon to deeper waters as they migrate. Some of them are part of a global discussion about whether they could have economic potential from a fisheries standpoint.
The research team will deploy an autonomous glider modified with sonar technology to collect up-close and personal data on the migrating animals in the water column. The slow-moving glider can stealthily travel through the water measuring where organisms are and how they are moving. An exciting addition to the glider is an ‘acoustic brain’ developed by the University of Washington team that processes acoustic data and sends data products home through a satellite connection. Having near-real-time acoustic data facilitates changes to the glider path when interesting acoustic features are observed.
(L to R) Raymond Surya (UW JISAO summer intern from U Michigan), Ross Hytnen UW and Allen Institute for Brain Science, Chad Lembke Center for Ocean Technology College of Marine Science University of South Florida, John Horne UW SAFS
“We are excited to add the acoustic brain to the glider scientific package,” says Horne. “This is the first test of this capability, which should ultimately lead to adaptive sampling on autonomous platforms including gliders.”
The team will simultaneously deploy a prototype camera system developed by the National Geographic Society called the Driftcam. Also an autonomous device, the Driftcam is designed to collect high-resolution images of species composition, distribution and even behavior that is not possible to capture with current technologies and methods. It too is a minimally invasive device.
The prototype Driftcam developed by the National Geographic Society. Dave McAloney, National Geographic Society
The research project is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Chief scientist Kevin Boswell, an Associate Professor at Florida International University, leads the research team which is comprised of additional scientists from NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Geographic Society, Nova Southeastern University, and the University of South Florida.
“Our goal is to look into the deep sea without interfering,” Boswell said. “We hope to observe these animals in their natural states and collect data on their sizes, how complex their aggregations are, and learn more about their behaviors.”
Current methods include acoustic measurements from ship-based sonar and throwing nets into the water to collect specimens. Ship-based sonar is limited in its reach and detail at deeper depths. And net collections are invasive and don’t provide great insight on animal behavior including the types of groups these animals migrate with — do they stick with their own kind or do they intermingle.
Traditional ship-based sonar and the experimental technologies will be combined to create a swarm of data collection in the same areas at the same time to provide a clearer picture of life in the oceans. If successful, the four-day mission which launches on July 28th from St. Petersburg, FL, will advance marine research by providing new, proven tools for seeing what lies beneath.
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For more information, contact Horne at jhorne@uw.edu.
From searching for extraterrestrial life to tracking rainfall, non-experts are increasingly helping to gather information to answer scientific questions.
One of the most established hands-on, outdoor citizen science projects is the University of Washington-based Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team, COASST, which trains beachgoers along the West Coast, from California to Alaska, to monitor their local beach for dead birds.
Abrandon67/Wikipedia
COASST citizen science volunteers identifying a seabird carcass in Ocean Shores, Washington.
With about 4,500 participants in its 21-year history and roughly 800 active participants today, COASST’s long-term success is now the subject of scientific study in its own right. What makes people join citizen science projects, and what motivates people to stick with them over years?
A UW-led paper published in the July issue of Ecology and Society explores the interests and identities of participants who join and remain active in citizen science. Results could help other science projects aiming to harness the power of large teams.
Previous research led by the UW has shown that people who join online-based citizen science projects generally try it just once, and fewer than 1 in 10 remain active past one year. The rates for hands-on, in-person efforts are much higher: COASST, for example, has 54% of participants still active one year after joining.
But what separates those who stay from those who go? Years of responses to surveys from the COASST team’s recruitment and engagement efforts provide a unique window on citizen science.
“I came to the UW to analyze a gold mine of social science datasets accumulated by COASST,” said social scientist and lead author Yurong He, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “Over a four year period, hundreds of participants responded to survey questions about why they were joining – or continuing – with the program. This represents an unparalleled opportunity.”
Aleut Community of St Paul Island Ecosystem Conservation Office
Recently COASST helped pinpoint a major die-off of puffins in fall 2016 along the Alaskan coast. The timing and location of carcasses found by volunteers suggested that the mass strandings might have been caused by unusual ocean conditions.
She analyzed answers to two freeform questions posed to project participants: “Why did you join COASST?” and “Why do you continue to be involved in COASST?” Some 310 new participants chose to answer the questions during their initial training. Another 623 seasoned participants, who had been involved for more than one year, completed a mail-in survey.
“People’s memory can be a bit tricky,” He said. “You may think that two or five years ago you had a particular motivation, but is that really so? With this study we can definitively answer the motivation question at two different times: at the moment of joining the program, just after they finish being trained, and once they have spent at least a year on the beach collecting monthly data.”
The analysis shows that new participants wanted to be outdoors on the beach, learning about birds. Many listed their scientific degrees, previous occupations and birding expertise. But responses from longer-term contributors displayed a slightly different pattern: Although birds and beach remained dominant interests, seasoned volunteers were more likely to mention interests such as the desire to monitor and observe their beach, help in making scientific discoveries, and the importance of project data and results for environmental conservation. Moreover, their “science identity” became focused on their data-collection team and the project collective, rather than on their personal traits.
One important finding, He said, was the value of place. Volunteers often mentioned the importance of continuing to visit their beach even if they hadn’t found any birds washed ashore after several months.
“We thought they would talk a lot about birds, and they did, but they actually talked more about the coastal environment, the beach and the ocean,” He said. “Place was either equally important or even more important to them than birds.”
Another surprising finding is the degree to which participants consider citizen science to be a social activity. Of the five tasks volunteers listed as most important in defining their work for COASST, two – “communicating project results” and “recruiting others to participate” – were social. The other three tasks were “collect data,” “make measurements” and “enter data.”
“Activities that help connect family members and friends, and provide opportunities to meet new people who share similar interests, can also be scientific in nature,” He said. “COASST fulfills both science and social interests for coastal residents.”
The study’s conclusions based on the surveys included some take-home messages for organizers of hands-on citizen science efforts:
Long-term participants tend to be motivated by a project’s mission and goals, and successful programs communicate scientific findings back to participants so that they can see their individual contribution as part of the big picture of project results.
Experienced participants focus on where they conduct their project activities, indicating that sense of place is important to volunteers.
Both new and long-term participants focused on their social interactions as a central part of project activities, suggesting that successful hands-on, citizen science combines high-quality scientific activity with building and maintaining social relationships.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning program and Washington Sea Grant’s support for COASST. Other authors on the paper were Julia Parrish, a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and director of COASST, Timothy Jones, a UW postdoctoral researcher in aquatic and fishery sciences, and Shawn Rowe, an associate professor at Oregon State University.
Parrish is lead author, with co-authors including Jones and He, of another recent paper, published in February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, exploring the relationship between participant retention over the long term and accuracy of data collection, which also revealed the importance of social networks in citizen science. That analysis looked at 54 citizen science projects, including COASST, to pinpoint the characteristics of highly successful long-term participants and determine how citizen science projects can be designed for maximum success and reach.
“Both of these papers indicate that attention to social and scientific aspects of the project are likely to return the highest quality data,” said Parrish. “Attention to friends, family, community and other aspects of individual identity will make a difference in the success of our recruitment efforts.”
Other authors on the PNAS paper are Hillary Burgess at the UW, Lucy Fortson at the University of Minnesota and Darlene Cavalier at Arizona State University. That work was funded by the National Science Foundation and Washington Department and Fish and Wildlife’s support for COASST.
Parrish described the work last March at the National Academy of Sciences’ Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium on Creativity and Collaboration:
Coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters and establishing new reefs in more temperate regions, according to new research published July 4 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The researchers found that the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85% — and doubled on subtropical reefs — during the last four decades.
“Climate change seems to be redistributing coral reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species,” said lead author Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine. “The clarity in this trend is stunning, but we don’t yet know whether the new reefs can support the incredible diversity of tropical systems.”
As climate change warms the ocean, subtropical environments are becoming more favorable for corals than the equatorial waters where they traditionally thrived. This is allowing drifting coral larvae to settle and grow in new regions. These subtropical reefs could provide refuge for other species challenged by climate change and new opportunities to protect these fledgling ecosystems.
“This study is a great example of the importance of collaborating internationally to assess global trends associated with climate change and project future ecological interactions,” said co-author Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “It also provides a nugget of hope for the resilience and survival of coral reefs.”
The researchers believe that only certain types of coral are able to reach these new locations, based on how far the microscopic larvae can swim and drift on currents before they run out of their limited fat stores. The exact composition of most new reefs is currently unknown, due to the expense of collecting genetic and species diversity data.
“We are seeing ecosystems transition to new blends of species that have never coexisted, and it’s not yet clear how long it takes for these systems to reach equilibrium,” said co-author Satoshi Mitarai, an associate professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University who earned his doctorate at the UW. “The lines are really starting to blur about what a native species is, and when ecosystems are functioning or falling apart.”
Young corals. Peter Edmunds/University of California Northridge
New coral reefs grow when larvae settle on suitable seafloor away from the reef where they originated. The research team examined latitudes up to 35 degrees north and south of the equator, and found that the expansion of coral reefs is perfectly mirrored on either side. The paper assesses where and when “refugee corals” could settle in the future — potentially bringing new resources and opportunities such as fishing and tourism.
The researchers, an international group from 17 institutions in six countries, compiled a global database of studies dating back to 1974, when record-keeping began. They hope that other scientists will add to the database, making it increasingly comprehensive and useful to other research questions.
A coral reef. Nichole Price/Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
“The results of this paper highlight the importance of truly long-term studies documenting change in coral reef communities,” said co-author Peter Edmunds, a professor at the University of California Northridge. “The trends we identified in this analysis are exceptionally difficult to detect, yet of the greatest importance in understanding how reefs will change in the coming decades. As the coral reef crisis deepens, the international community will need to intensify efforts to combine and synthesize results as we have been able to accomplish with this study.”
Coral reefs are intricately interconnected systems, and it is the interplay between species that enables their healthy functioning. It is unclear which other species, such as coralline algae that facilitate the survival of vulnerable coral larvae, are also expanding into new areas — or how successful young corals can be without them. Price wants to investigate the relationships and diversity of species in new reefs to understand the dynamics of these evolving ecosystems.
“So many questions remain about which species are and are not making it to these new locations, and we don’t yet know the fate of these young corals over longer time frames,” Price said. “The changes we are seeing in coral reef ecosystems are mind-boggling, and we need to work hard to document how these systems work and learn what we can do to save them before it’s too late.”
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For more information, contact Padilla-Gamiño at jpgamino@uw.edu.
This post was adapted from a Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences news release.
Each year, our students, faculty and staff win regional, national, and international awards. Please join us in congratulating the latest group of award winners.
Students
Degree track and faculty advisers in parenthesis
Martini Arostegui (PhD, Quinn) received the International Woman’s Fishing Association Scholarship Trust Award.
Martini Arostegui
Catherine Austin (MS, Quinn), Katherine McElroy (PhD, Hilborn/Quinn), Sean Rohan (PhD, Essington), and Yaamini Venkataraman (PhD, Roberts) jointly received the Outstanding Commitment to Diversity Award from the College of the Environment for designing, creating and leading a new graduate-level seminar “Outreach in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences to Diverse Audiences.”
Bailey Gilbert (BS) obtained the best poster award for her poster “Distribution of Beached Pinnipeds Along the Western Coast of the United States Using Effort-Based Surveys” from the Northwest Student Chapter of the Society for Marine Mammalogy.
Kyla Bivens (BS) netted the EpicPromise Employee Foundation Scholarship from Vail Resorts.
Rachel Fricke (BS) was the undergraduate Dean’s Medalist. She also was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship.
Rachel Fricke
Marta Gomez-Buckley (PhD, Tornabene) netted a Seattle Rho Scholarship.
Daniel Hernandez (PhD, Naish) was the College of the Environment Graduate Dean’s Medalist. He also received a fellowship from the University of Michigan Environmental Fellows Program and a Bonderman Travel Fellowship.
Alexandra Lincoln (MS, Quinn) received the Best Student Paper for her presentation “Managing salmon for wildlife: do fisheries limit salmon consumption by bears in small streams?” from the Washington – British Columbia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
Jessica Lindsay (MS, Laidre) obtained a Graduate Student Research Award from the North Pacific Research Board. She also received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Jessica Lindsay
Michaela Lowe (MS, Schindler) received the C. Jeff Cederholm Scholarship from the Washington – British Columbia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
Samuel May (PhD, Naish) won the award for Best PhD Student Oral Presentation for his talk “Investigating Fine-Scale Homing in Space and Time” at the 2019 Alaska Marine Science Symposium.
Samuel May
Hyejoo Ro (BS), Rachel Fricke (BS), Alexandra Lincoln (MS, Quinn), and Martini Arostegui (PhD, Quinn) were given SAFS Faculty Merit Awards for 2019. This award recognizes outstanding efforts by students who have achieved high scholastic standing in the program.
Sean Rohan (PhD, Essington) received the award for Best MS Student Oral Presentation for his talk “Monitoring the subsurface optical environment of the eastern Bering Sea” at the 2019 Alaska Marine Science Symposium.
Laura Spencer (MS, Roberts) was an invited speaker and the winner of the Student Spotlight Competition at the Aquaculture 2019 conference.
Yaamini Venkataraman (PhD, Roberts) was included in the Husky 100, which recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the UW.
Welcome to the first e-issue of the SAFS newsletter in many years. This e-version allows us to include much more material than our printed issues, which is great because there is always a lot going on at SAFS. The fall-winter issue of the newsletter will continue to be published as both an online PDF and a printed piece for those on our mailing list. If you’d prefer to “go green” and only receive the newsletter online, please let us know by contacting us at safsdesk@uw.edu.
The six months since we published the previous issue of the newsletter have been exhilarating, exhausting, and just plain amazing as I hope you will see from these articles.
In April, we celebrated the School’s 100th birthday with a special Bevan symposium. More than 50 speakers—alums, faculty, staff, current students, post-doctoral fellows, and friends—gave talks. There was also plenty of time to reminisce, catch up with old friends, and discuss the latest science happening at SAFS. The symposium started with a talk by former Director and Professor Emeritus David Armstrong, who provided a historical overview of the School—from its humble beginnings in 1919 to the present. Over two and a half days, symposium sessions focused on biology and ecology of aquatic species, aquaculture, fisheries management, and ecosystems and also on the future of aquatic and fishery sciences. Over 400 people registered for the event and, at times, more than 60 people were listening to the talks online. You can view the symposium online on the SAFS YouTube channel. You can also download the 100th anniversary commemorative booklet, or request a printed copy by emailing me at aepunt@uw.edu.
Bevan Symposium 2019
While the 100-year celebration was the highlight of the last six months, many other things are happening around SAFS.
Mark Scheuerell
We’ve had several faculty transitions in the past six months. In May 2019, Mark Scheuerell became the new assistant unit leader in the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit and associate professor in SAFS. Mark is not new to many of us, having been a UW PhD student and a member of the NOAA team that teaches a class on time-series analysis every other spring. Mark is looking forward to mentoring his first graduate students and teaching a new class in data analysis next year.
On July 1, Professor Tim Essington stepped down from his role as SAFS associate director, and Associate Professor Steven Roberts became the new associate director. I would like to thank Tim for everything he has done for SAFS during the seven years he has held this position. He will continue to serve the College as director of the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management and Quantitative Science programs. Please join me in welcoming Steven to his new role.
In this issue, we profile some of the research being conducted in the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers in Cambodia. SAFS Assistant Professor Gordon Holtgrieve has been working in the region for many years. Earlier this year, SAFS Professor John Horne joined Gordon to install an echosounder, which, with additional funding, could become part of a network of sensors that monitor migration and fishing mortality along the Tonle Sap. The information gathered could be used by managers. Read here about the work Gordon and John are doing, along with other UW colleagues.
With help from a local fisherman, professor John Horne (right) installs underwater components of an echosounder.
This year has again been a very successful one for SAFS staff, students, and faculty. José Guzmán, currently an Acting Instructor in SAFS, won the College of the Environment Outstanding Teaching Award and followed that achievement with the UW Distinguished Teaching Award. José joins several SAFS faculty who have won this award, which includes membership in the University of Washington Teaching Academy. José was not the only winner of a major award this year; learn more about the many awards the SAFS community obtained during the last six months.
As always, many thanks to all of our donors and friends who have given so generously to the program over the last year. The long list of names you see in the fall-winter edition of the newsletter does not do justice to the impact your gifts have. Your support for the program allows us to examine new avenues of research through “start-up” grants, fund travel for graduate and undergraduate students, and, of course, cover some of the stipend and tuition costs that make studying at the UW challenging for so many students.
Have a great summer!
André E. Punt
Director and Professor, UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Mark Scheuerell is the newest member of the SAFS faculty. He joins SAFS as the Assistant Unit Leader, Fisheries, in the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (WACFWRU), and an Associate Professor. Mark was a PhD student in UW Zoology from 1997-2002 and a post-doctoral fellow in SAFS from 2002-2003. Mark joins SAFS from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center where he was a Research Fish Biologist working on a variety of problems related to the conservation and management of aquatic resources, particularly along the west coast of North America. Many of us already know Mark from his days as a PhD student and post-doc and as one of the instructors of our time-series class, but I wanted to know more.
Jennifer Scheuerell
Mark on a recreational shrimping trip on Hood Cana in May 2018
AP: What attracted you to fisheries and Seattle?
MS: I grew up in central Minnesota with the Mississippi River about 50 feet from my back door. My family spent a lot of time swimming, canoeing, boating, and fishing during the summer, so I have long had a fascination with water and everything in it. My career path changed forever when I discovered as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin that you could get paid to study all kinds of different water bodies! About that same time I met my future PhD supervisor and current SAFS professor, Daniel Schindler, when he was TA’ing my limnology class. After he was hired as faculty member in the UW Department of Zoology, I followed him out here for graduate school in 1997 and never left.
AP: Describe your current research interests and job
MS: Much of my graduate research and prior training was very focused on field research. I was fortunate, though, to have taken a variety of great quantitative courses at UW, including Ray Hilborn’s Advanced Stock Assessment class. The combination of the empirical and quantitative knowledge I gained has helped me enormously as a research scientist at NMFS. Much of my current research is focused on the development and application of statistical models for analyzing the temporal and spatial data that we use for assessing the status of at-risk species.
AP: What attracted you to a position in the WAFWRU and SAFS?
MS: The Washington Coop Unit has a long history of collaborating with regional partners to address conservation and management issues in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. As an applied ecologist, I saw this unique position as a way to further contribute to these efforts through the integration of field studies and quantitative analyses. SAFS also has a 100-year history of academic excellence, and so the opportunity to possibly join such a storied program was simply too good to resist. I really enjoy mentoring and teaching, and this position will allow me to work with and learn from an amazingly talented group of students and post-docs.
AP: What are your planning to do as the new Co-Op Assistant Unit Leader?
MS: One of my first priorities is to travel around the state and introduce myself to the state cooperators in the Washington State Departments of Fish and Wildlife, Natural Resources, and Ecology. I want to learn not only about their most pressing needs, but also how they envision those changing into the future. In particular, I am curious as to how we, as educators and mentors, can better prepare our students to meet these future challenges. I feel equally strong about engaging with Native American tribes on the same issues, and increasing their involvement at UW.
AP: What could we learn about you that isn’t in your CV?
MS: I’m a pretty laid back person with a dry sense of humor. I enjoy spending time outdoors, cycling, skiing, and camping with my wife (AP: Jennifer Scheuerell, MS SAFS 2004) and two daughters. I also enjoy college and professional sports, and my family has become actively involved with the UW Women’s Basketball team through a national nonprofit called Team IMPACT whose mission is to connect children with serious and chronic illnesses or disabilities with local college athletic teams.
Just beyond where conventional scuba divers can go is an area of the ocean that still is largely unexplored. In waters this deep — about 100 to at least 500 feet below the surface — little to no light breaks through.
Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño/University of Washington
A submersible on the surface of the water off the coast of Maui, Hawaii.
Researchers must rely on submersible watercraft or sophisticated diving equipment to be able to study ocean life at these depths, known as the mesophotic zone. These deep areas span the world’s oceans and are home to extensive coral reef communities, though little is known about them because it is so hard to get there.
A collaborative research team from the University of Washington, College of Charleston, University of California Berkeley, University of Hawaii and other institutions has explored the largest known coral reef in the mesophotic zone, located in the Hawaiian Archipelago, through a series of submersible dives. There, they documented life along the coral reef, finding a surprising amount of coral living in areas where light levels are less than 1% of the light available at the surface.
Their findings were published this spring in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.
Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory
Corals that live in the mesophotic zone need very little light to survive.
“Because mesophotic corals live close to the limits of what is possible, understanding their physiology will give us clues of the extraordinary strategies corals use to adapt to low-light environments,” said lead author Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.
Knowing how these deep coral reefs function is important because they appear to be hotspots for biodiversity, and home to many species found only in those locations, Padilla-Gamiño explained. Additionally, close to half of all corals in the ocean have died in the past 30 years, mostly due to warm water temperatures that stress their bodies, causing them to bleach and eventually die. This has been documented mostly in shallower reefs where more research has occurred. Scientists say that more information about deeper reefs in the mesophotic zone is critical for preserving that habitat.
“Mesophotic reefs in Hawaii are stunning in their sheer size and abundance,” said co-author Heather Spalding at College of Charleston. “Although mesophotic environments are not easily seen, they are still potentially impacted by underwater development, such as cabling and anchoring, and need to be protected for future generations. We are on the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding what makes these astounding reefs tick.”
Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory
A researcher prepares to lower the submersible on a dive off the coast of Maui, Hawaii.
Padilla-Gamiño was on board during two of the team’s eight submersible dives off the coast of Maui that took place from 2010 to 2011. Each dive was a harrowing adventure: Researchers spent up to eight hours in cramped quarters in the submersible that was tossed from the back of a larger boat, then disconnected once the submersible reached the water.
Once in the mesophotic zone, they collected specimens using a robot arm, and captured video footage and photos of life that has rarely been seen by humans.Padilla-Gamiño was on board during two of the team’s eight submersible dives off the coast of Maui that took place from 2010 to 2011. Each dive was a harrowing adventure: Researchers spent up to eight hours in cramped quarters in the submersible that was tossed from the back of a larger boat, then disconnected once the submersible reached the water.
“It’s a really unbelievable place,” Padilla-Gamiño said. “What is surprising is that, in theory, these corals should not be there because there’s so little light. Now we’re finally understanding how they function to be able to live there.”
Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory
A robot arm attached to the submersible collects coral from the mesophotic zone off the coast of Maui.
By collecting coral samples and analyzing their physiology, the researchers found that different corals in the mesophotic zone use different strategies to deal with low amounts of light. For example, some species of corals change the amount of pigments at deeper depths, while other species change the type and size of symbionts, which are microscopic seaweeds living inside the tissue of corals, Padilla-Gamiño explained. These changes allow corals to acquire and maximize the light available to perform photosynthesis and obtain energy.
Additionally, the corals at deeper depths are likely eating other organisms like zooplankton to increase their energy intake and survive under very low light levels. They probably do this by filter feeding, Padilla-Gamiño said, but more research is needed to know for sure.
The researchers hope to collect more live coral samples from the mesophotic zone to be able to study in the lab how the symbionts, and the corals they live inside, function.
Ray Boland
Researchers motor back to the town of Lahaina, West Maui, near their dive site.
“The more we can study this, the more information we can have about how life works. This is a remarkable system with enormous potential for discovery,” Padilla-Gamiño said. “Our studies provide the foundation to explore physiological flexibility, identify novel mechanisms to acquire light and challenge current paradigms on the limitations of photosynthetic organisms like corals living in deeper water.”
Other co-authors are Celia Smith at University of Hawaii at Mānoa; Melissa Roth at UC Berkeley; Lisa Rodrigues at Villanova University; Christina Bradley at Salisbury University; and Robert Bidigare and Ruth Gates at Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.
The study was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.
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For more information, contact Padilla-Gamiño at jpgamino@uw.edu or 206-543-7878.
For over 40 years, Ted Pietsch has been committed in creating the most comprehensive work on fishes found in the Pacific Northwest’s inland marine environments. The University of Washington (UW) School of Aquatic and Fishery Science (SAFS) professor emeritus along with James (Jay) Orr, a research biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and UW SAFS affiliate professor, collaborated to publish the ambitious three-volume Fishes of the Salish Sea Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. All 260 featured species are presented in vibrant detail by renowned fish illustrator Joseph Tomelleri. In addition to the striking images, this definitive work details the ecology and life history of each species, as well as recounts the region’s rich heritage of marine research and exploration.
“Art and science collide magnificently in this monumental three-volume celebration of the 260 species of fishes that infuse the inland marine waters of Washington State and British Columbia, with hidden beauty, remarkable diversity and intriguing ways of living. This long-awaited work is a must-have not just for serious scientists and devotees of exquisite natural history artistry, but for any and all who find joy in exploring the wonders of nature.”
Sylvia Earle
National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Founder, Mission Blue
The impetus for the book began back when Pietsch was first hired at SAFS in 1978. While teaching the Biology of Fishes class he noted that there was no encyclopedic resource to show his undergraduate students the extensive biodiversity of fish found in the local waters. Opportunely, as the curator of the Burke Museum Ichthyology Collection, he also had access to one of the world’s largest fish collections. This combination lead Pietsch down a path where he, and former student Jay Orr, would set out to document all of the marine and anadromous fishes of Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca.
Rows of specimens at the Burke Museum Ichthyology Collection
Throughout the lengthy process, being able to verify all of the individual specimens through the Burke collection proved to be invaluable. Pietsch and Orr had access to not only the physical specimens, but also the specific details regarding their capture such as location, depth, time of day, and even water temperature. “Without the documentation that goes with the specimens it [the book] would not have been possible,” Pietsch says. In addition to the Burke collection, they also examined samples and records from other collections from the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at University of British Columbia, the Royal BC Museum in Victoria B.C., and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
One of the more challenging aspects of the project, at least initially, was finding a captivating way to depict all of the unique species. Pietsch explains that preserved specimens often loose their color and markings over time and do not accurately represent how each fish would have looked when it was alive. Fortunately, the duo were able to recruit the talents of Joseph Tomelleri, who Pietsch describes as the “best living illustrator of fishes,” to realistically capture how each fish would appear in the wild. Pietsch believes the fantastic illustrations will contribute to the book’s broad appeal, drawing in naturalists, students, divers, and anglers. He even jokes that the fish look so good that “some might even might pull them out to put on the wall!”
Joseph R. Tomelleri, used with permission of the artist
Pietsch explains how a lot of people think of the Pacific Northwest as cold, dark, and rainy with not much color, but the fish can be the opposite of that. “People will be surprised and amazed by how colorful these fish actually are,” he says. Image: Artedius harringtoni (male)
Pietsch shares that while the book contains every known species of fish in the Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca, that for some species their life history still remains a mystery. “I think people who take a close look will be shocked to see how little we know. For some species, there is nothing known about their reproduction, what eats it, and what it eats.” Pietsch is optimistic that this work will inspire more scientific inquiry and discovery from its readers. “Who knows, maybe a student can look through this and find a future project?”
View the gallery below for more illustrations from Fishes of the Salish Sea Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca and click here to order your copy.
In a small room on the sub-level of the Fisheries Teaching and Research Building, families and friends crowd together, not unlike the countless jars of fish that pack the nearby shelves. In the center of the room is a table arranged with colorful posters and a group of girls who are excitedly answering questions. The eager onlookers are here to support their students, daughters, and friends, who are taking part in the Burke Museum’s Girls in Science (GiS) program. This science-fair style celebration is an opportunity for this quarter’s group of high school girls to present their findings after a rigorous six-week course where they identified “new” species.
High school girls present their posters on the final day of the Girls in Science program
GiS places pre-teen and teen girls in labs and classrooms across the University of Washington campus, where they work side-by-side with each other and with female scientists and students in a number of STEM fields.
“Though we are still far from overcoming the gender gap in STEM fields, you wouldn’t know it by looking around the room,” says Andy Clark, Youth and Family Programs Manager at the Burke Museum. “That’s really the point of this program—to help expand students’ vision of what science can look like and to make sure that vision includes them.”
Throughout the program, the girls gain familiarity with scientific disciplines, processes, vocabulary, and equipment, while also building connections and mentorships with women in active research positions. GiS gives them an expanded sense of their intellectual and professional possibilities and begins to teach them the skills needed to make those possibilities a reality.
This quarter’s group explored the Burke Museum Ichthyology Collection with Katherine Maslenikov, the collection manager, and undergraduate and graduate students from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS). The largest of its kind in North America, the collection provides a wealth of strange and fascinating specimens to examine and is an ideal place for scientific discovery.
“This is the third time we have taught the Girls in Science program in the Fish Collection, and it has been such a wonderful experience,” said Maslenikov. “I think the best part for me is watching our SAFS undergrad and graduate students mentoring the high school girls. Our undergrads are only a few years older than the students, so watching them get to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for our field is really inspiring.”
For their project this quarter, the girls were first assigned a preserved fish specimen at random, with all labels and markings removed from the jar. They were then tasked with analyzing it as if it was a newly discovered species, locating two similar fish within its genus from the collection, and even renaming their specimen based on their findings. SAFS students helped the girls throughout the process and showed them how to navigate the collection, handle the preserved fish, and use various scientific instruments.
One of the high school students carefully measuring her fish specimen
Over the course of six sessions, the girls (divided into groups of three) collected their own data by examining the various features of their fishes. Using microscopes and digital calipers, they measured fin length and counted spines and rays. Based on their observations, the groups “renamed” their species after each fish’s distinguishing features. One group’s specimen was aptly “renamed” Pholis lunae or the crescent moon gumel. The girls were able to identify its correct genus (Pholis) and gave it the specific name lunae, which means “crescent moon” in Latin, due to the crescent moon shapes that run along its spine.
“It was awesome to see how every little intricate detail on a fish has meaning,” one girl said. “Every random idiosyncrasy has some evolutionary point to it, and fish are constantly keeping themselves up to date to survive in their oceanic or freshwater environments.”
When it came time to present their findings, the aspiring scientists made research posters, which included a full write-up—from introduction to acknowledgements. They even practiced their art skills by illustrating the key morphological differences between their species. Parents and friends in attendance were given a special tour of the Fish Collection by the program’s student instructors.
“We ask a lot of them in a short amount of time, but they were engaged, focused, and enthusiastic during every class session,” said Maslenikov. “I’m so proud of what they accomplished, and I hope this experience allows them to move forward with confidence as they pursue their interest in the sciences.”
Katherine Maslenikov works with a student who is handling a preserved fish specimen.
The GiS program has proven to have a lasting impact on the high school girls who participate— they gain increased confidence, particularly in their ability to do science and speak publicly, and they often go on to [MOU3] pursue additional topics in STEM through volunteer and internship opportunities in fields like biology and medicine. Some girls have even enrolled multiple times in the program in order to experience different lessons and different scientific fields.
“Program alumnae often describe GiS with words like optimistic, ready, confident, and excited—which is exactly how I feel about the future of STEM with these capable young women at the helm,” says Clark.
At the end of the event, as the students broke down their displays, one girl shared what the GiS experience meant to her: “It was awesome to see women doing this exceptional work, and it made me think I can too—I want to be a marine biologist.”
Special thanks to this quarter’s student instructors: Jennifer Gardner, Master’s student with the Tornabene Lab; Jena Barrett, SAFS senior; Katlyn Fuentes, SAFS graduate (fall quarter); and Sarah Yerrace, SAFS graduate (winter quarter).
Five seals rest on the frozen surface of Iliamna Lake in Alaska.
Hundreds of harbor seals live in Iliamna Lake, the largest body of freshwater in Alaska and one of the most productive systems for sockeye salmon in the Bristol Bay region.
These lake seals are a robust yet highly unusual and cryptic posse. Although how the seals first colonized the lake remains a mystery, it is thought that sometime in the distant past, a handful of harbor seals likely migrated from the ocean more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) upriver to the lake, where they eventually grew to a consistent group of about 400. These animals are important for Alaska Native subsistence hunting, and hold a top spot in the lake’s diverse food web.
Scientists now know these “colonizing” seals must have found the lake suitable enough to stay and raise their offspring. Generations later, the lake-bound seals appear to be a genetically distinct population from their ocean-dwelling cousins — even though they are still managed as part of the larger Eastern Pacific harbor seal population.
But if the lake seals are distinct and show signs of local adaptation to their unique ecological setting, this would mean that their conservation — especially in the face of the rapidly changing climate of western Alaska and proposed industrial developments — should differ from that of nearby marine populations.
Jason Ching/University of Washington
One of the Iliamna Lake seals seen just off a gravel beach on the east end of the lake, the seals’ primary habitat.
Lifelong chemical records stored in their sequentially growing canine teeth show that the Iliamna Lake seals remain in freshwater their entire lives, relying on food sources produced in the lake to survive. In contrast, their relatives in the ocean are opportunistic feeders, moving around to the mouths of different rivers to find the most abundant food sources, which includes a diverse array of marine food items in addition to the adult salmon returning to Bristol Bay’s nine major watersheds. These findings are described in a paper published online in March in Conservation Biology.
“We clearly show these seals are in the lake year-round, throughout their entire lives,” said lead author Sean Brennan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “This gives us critical baseline information that can weigh in on how we understand their ecology, and we can use that information to do a better job developing a conservation strategy.”
Jason Ching/University of Washington
Iliamna Lake, Alaska’s largest freshwater lake, is situated in the Bristol Bay region. The islands on the east end of the lake are the seals’ primary habitat.
This new study comes at a time when federal agencies are considering whether to permit mining activities in Bristol Bay, a region teeming with wildlife, including Alaska sockeye salmon. Iliamna Lake, and the seals and other animals that live there, is located in the heart of the proposed Pebble Mine project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this spring released a draft environmental impact statement that analyzes the project’s proposal, presents alternative plans and gives the public a chance to comment. Ultimately, the document will help decide whether the controversial mine is approved.
Because of their current conservation status, the Iliamna Lake harbor seals aren’t assessed as a distinct and ecologically significant population in the project’s draft environmental impact analysis. If the seals are determined to be a distinct population, that has important implications for how the Iliamna Lake system is managed, the study’s authors said. The lake and its resident fishes would then be considered critical habitat for seals.
Separately, federal regulators have considered whether the lake seals should be named a distinct population, but scientists have been unable to agree on whether the seals are both distinct, and ecologically and evolutionarily significant, mainly because little is known about their ecology — including whether adult lake seals potentially migrate to the ocean to feed each year.
Jason Ching/University of Washington
An aerial view shows swarms of adult sockeye salmon returning to the island beaches of Iliamna Lake in the fall to spawn.
Brennan was a doctoral student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when he heard about early efforts to evaluate whether the lake seals were a distinct population. Chemical tracing methods he was using to track the life patterns of salmon could also work for the seals, he realized.
“The light just went off in my head,” Brennan said. “What I was doing for salmon was directly applicable to this population of seals.”
Brennan and collaborators at the UW, University of Utah and University of Alaska Anchorage looked at the chemical signatures present in the teeth of lake seals during each year of their life to better understand where they moved and what they ate. Specifically, the scientists drilled into the growth lines of the seals’ canine teeth, then measured the ratio of heavy and light isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and strontium present in each growth layer.
Because of the young bedrock geology of the Kvichak (QUEE-jak) River watershed, which encompasses Iliamna Lake, strontium isotope levels in the ocean are consistently much higher than in the lake. Unlike other elements, strontium signatures in mammal teeth directly reflect what animals assimilate from their environment, in particular, what they eat. Therefore, by looking at the strontium isotope ratios over the course of a seal’s life, the researchers saw that the ratios were consistent with lake signatures — meaning these seals only live in Lake Iliamna, depend principally on fish produced within the lake, and do not migrate to the ocean.
They also determined that young seals eat very little adult sockeye salmon. But later in life, the seals shift to supplement their diets with the seasonally abundant sockeye salmon that return each summer to the lake.
Brennan was a doctoral student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when he heard about early efforts to evaluate whether the lake seals were a distinct population. Chemical tracing methods he was using to track the life patterns of salmon could also work for the seals, he realized.
“The light just went off in my head,” Brennan said. “What I was doing for salmon was directly applicable to this population of seals.”
Brennan and collaborators at the UW, University of Utah and University of Alaska Anchorage looked at the chemical signatures present in the teeth of lake seals during each year of their life to better understand where they moved and what they ate. Specifically, the scientists drilled into the growth lines of the seals’ canine teeth, then measured the ratio of heavy and light isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and strontium present in each growth layer.
Because of the young bedrock geology of the Kvichak (QUEE-jak) River watershed, which encompasses Iliamna Lake, strontium isotope levels in the ocean are consistently much higher than in the lake. Unlike other elements, strontium signatures in mammal teeth directly reflect what animals assimilate from their environment, in particular, what they eat. Therefore, by looking at the strontium isotope ratios over the course of a seal’s life, the researchers saw that the ratios were consistent with lake signatures — meaning these seals only live in Lake Iliamna, depend principally on fish produced within the lake, and do not migrate to the ocean.
They also determined that young seals eat very little adult sockeye salmon. But later in life, the seals shift to supplement their diets with the seasonally abundant sockeye salmon that return each summer to the lake.
Jason Ching/University of Washington
Rainbow trout (front) and sockeye salmon are seen in Iliamna Lake. The new study shows that the diverse resident fish community in the lake are the principal prey of seals.
The researchers say this method could be used to better understand the life patterns of other elusive mammals around the world, such as river dolphins in the Amazon or the Mekong Basin. Broadly, marine mammals in coastal regions are among the most endangered animals on Earth, Brennan said.
“In terms of the broader picture of aquatic mammal conservation across the globe, I think we show that strontium isotopes can be really powerful because they collapse a lot of uncertainty. This method is completely underutilized across the world,” Brennan said.
This study was funded by Alaska Sea Grant, Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative, North Pacific Research Board, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association and Bristol Bay Science Research Institute.
