Instant recall
Friends, as you may remember, I had a project this summer examining dispersal and recruitment of larvae at shipwrecks in Massachusetts. I deployed fouling panels and larval traps at two shipwrecks and a natural hard-bottom site (which turned out to be buried in sand), and I collected them months later. Back in the lab, I've been analyzing those samples to figure out what species colonize shipwrecks and how their larvae disperse around Cape Cod Bay.
I spent yesterday and part of today at the microscope, sorting and identifying the species that were collected by my larval traps. One in particular caught my eye. Sometimes when I look at a sample, I have to sort through the individuals slowly, examine them closely, and spend hours trying to identify them. Sometimes, I have a vague idea what I'm looking at but can't remember the name. But every once in a while, I open a sample and recognize a species right away - because I've seen it before.
That happened to me today when I opened my sample. It was from the Josephine Marie wreck, near Provincetown, MA. I poured the liquid preservative and the larvae it contained from the trap into a dish, slid the dish under the microscope, flipped on the light, and peered through the eyepieces. I spotted a small white bivalve, and immediately its name came into my mind. I heard it more than thought it: Hiatella arctica.
I had seen Hiatella before, because it was one of the most common species on the fouling panels I deployed in Svalbard in 2014 - 2015. I had come to recognize it very well, and I was pleased to notice how easily my brain recalled it.
As I picked Hiatella individuals out of my sample, I remembered that another species, the bryozoan Lichenopora sp., had been on my fouling panels from the Josephine Marie and also on my panels from Svalbard. I paused.
Is it really possible that the same species are offshore of Massachusetts and in the high Arctic? I thought. That would be a big range - and a huge range in temperature!
I may not be able to answer that question today, but I have the tools to figure it out. I'm planning to use molecular methods (DNA sequencing) to identify each of my recruits to species, and then I'll be able to see if the recruits I'm catching in Massachusetts are the same species I was seeing in Svalbard. At this point, I'm confident in identifying each of them to genus (Hiatella and Lichenopora), but I don't know for sure if they're the same species (for example, Hiatella arctica versus Hiatella somethingelse). The DNA sequencing will show me.
Identifying larvae and recruits is fun for me, because I never know what I'm going to find. I'm glad for the specimens that I have and looking forward to learning their secrets!
I spent yesterday and part of today at the microscope, sorting and identifying the species that were collected by my larval traps. One in particular caught my eye. Sometimes when I look at a sample, I have to sort through the individuals slowly, examine them closely, and spend hours trying to identify them. Sometimes, I have a vague idea what I'm looking at but can't remember the name. But every once in a while, I open a sample and recognize a species right away - because I've seen it before.
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| A specimen of Hiatella sp. from my larval trap |
I had seen Hiatella before, because it was one of the most common species on the fouling panels I deployed in Svalbard in 2014 - 2015. I had come to recognize it very well, and I was pleased to notice how easily my brain recalled it.
As I picked Hiatella individuals out of my sample, I remembered that another species, the bryozoan Lichenopora sp., had been on my fouling panels from the Josephine Marie and also on my panels from Svalbard. I paused.
Is it really possible that the same species are offshore of Massachusetts and in the high Arctic? I thought. That would be a big range - and a huge range in temperature!
I may not be able to answer that question today, but I have the tools to figure it out. I'm planning to use molecular methods (DNA sequencing) to identify each of my recruits to species, and then I'll be able to see if the recruits I'm catching in Massachusetts are the same species I was seeing in Svalbard. At this point, I'm confident in identifying each of them to genus (Hiatella and Lichenopora), but I don't know for sure if they're the same species (for example, Hiatella arctica versus Hiatella somethingelse). The DNA sequencing will show me.
Identifying larvae and recruits is fun for me, because I never know what I'm going to find. I'm glad for the specimens that I have and looking forward to learning their secrets!
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