At previous WAML meetings it was agreed that we would start with a specific set of projects that would allow quick analysis and facilitate publications within the first two years. This is the first year of the partnership and we tried two separate projects: one for a coordinated collection of samples at marine labs to be examined by taxonomic experts and then sequenced, and a second to leverage expertise in Invertebrate Biology courses that were being taught at marine labs.
Dr. Steve Weisberg, Director of SCCWRP (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project) and past President of WAML, coordinated a research effort for three separate types of invertebrates and reported on the progress of this effort at our meeting. Fifteen marine labs had agreed to participate in the project, but only ten actually sent in samples. Dr. Regina Wetzer from the L.A. Museum of Natural History (our newest WAML member!) showed a phylogenetic tree of all of the specimens collected so far. When considering one group, the spheromatid isopods (think: marine roly-polys), they fall into distinct groups from all along the West Coast of the U.S. There was good sampling from marine labs all up and down the West Coast, but we would like more specimens from Oregon and Alaska. This will be a publishable study, as it shows how the diversity of these animals changes from Washington to southern California. There were interesting principles learned in the process, such as adults are really necessary for taxonomic identification. Sometimes a species was misidentified but then the specimens were reexamined, and it was realized that the juveniles are more difficult to identify.
There were two Invertebrate Biology courses given at WAML member labs where the Biocoding invertebrates were part of what the students learned: one course at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) and one at Friday Harbor Laboratories. Dr. Richard Emlet reported the results from his Spring course at OIMB with Dr. Maya Watts, and what their identification success rate was. Dr. Kevin Kocot joined the WAML discussion by video chat to report on how his summer course at FHL went with co-instructor Dr. Joie Cannon. We discussed lessons learned from each course and what instructors would do differently next time. WAML is hoping to have more invertebrate courses involved in the project in the coming years.
Dr. Chris Meyer, from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (SNMNH), has been an integral part of the Biocode project and attended the annual NAML meetings to report there the successes of the first project year and how we might better partner with the Smithsonian in the next two years. A multi-pronged approach was discussed and we look forward to these results in the coming years:
- BioBlitz – Dr. Gustav Paulay was a proponent of targeted BioBlitzes, bringing taxonomic experts to a particular place for 1-2 weeks to have them collect and process samples continuously.
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ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring System) – WAML will work together with the Smithsonian Institution to put settlement plates out in triplicate for a year at a time to directly compare invertebrate biodiversity at different sites. Ben Ruttenberg, new WAML member from CalPoly, offered to coordinate training on the use of ARMS by WAML.
- Smithsonian Institution student Biocode projects – Steve Weisberg, Billie Swalla and Karina Nielsen will work together to establish the protocol for doing projects.
Finally, Dr. Neil Davies from the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station in Moorea spoke about networking the WAML Biocode results into global genomic observatories. We are thinking about how to gather metadata to make the invertebrate genomic data even more valuable. We were also fortunate to have Dr. Maria Kavanaugh speak to us about MBON (the Marine Biodiversity Observing Network) and how they are developing data management structure and platforms to compare large datasets.
FHL was pleased to host the WAML meetings and we look forward to this continued collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution in order to leverage the expertise at our individual marine labs and establish a biocode of marine invertebrates.