Sampling the Atlantic depths
As part of the Census of Marine Life, an international collaboration of plankton specialists has joined forces under the banner ‘Census of Marine Zooplankton’, or CMarZ. Janet Grieve describes their research voyage down the Atlantic coast of Africa.
What lies beneath? To find out, a group of 30 researchers hitched a ride aboard PFS Polarstern from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Capetown, South Africa, as the ship headed south for the Antarctic research season. Our mission was to study zooplankton throughout the entire water column (from the surface to the seabed) to depths greater than 4000 m. We were intent on investigating waters south of the equator, with a particular focus on the poorly known mesopelagic (middle depth) and bathypelagic (deepest) realms. Our plan was to identify the zooplankton species genetically while still at sea, as we coasted along Africa from late October to late November 2007.
The team had participants from Canada, Chile, Germany,Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, UK, and USA. There were 16 people under the age of 30, although it was noticeable that several experts on board were retired or near retirement.
All at sea
The research concentrated on analysing the samples on the ship, and our scientific team included taxonomic experts, molecular specialists, and students. We collected zooplankton with two sizes of the MOCNESS and used the MultiNet for vertical collections (see ‘Gearing up’). We analysed the samples using traditional taxonomic approaches and molecular systematic analysis, including DNA sequencing of a target gene portion for each species. The US contingent provided the sea-going DNA laboratory, including all of the equipment needed to carry out gene sequencing of identified species.
And back on land
Follow-up molecular analysis and expert taxonomic evaluation and description of any new or undescribed species will be made in association with the CMarZ Taxonomic Network. The material will be held in two places: alcohol-preserved samples at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and Polar Research in Bremerhaven, and the formalin-preserved samples atWoods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, USA. All these samples will be available for research.
Teachers’ resource for NCEA Achievement Standards or Unit Standards:
Biology Level 1 AS90162
Science Level 1 US6349, AS90187, Level 2 AS90771