Coleen C Suckling

Session Theme 9: Ocean acidification

Convenors: Richard Bellerby, Norway; Coleen Suckling, UK; and James Orr, France

In response to perturbations of the global carbon cycle, driven mainly by fossil fuel emissions, the Southern Ocean is exhibiting rapid, yet regionally distinct, ocean acidification. In the coming decades, modifications to carbonate speciation and reductions in seawater pH and saturation state will influence Southern Ocean functioning from the physiological to the climate scale. The Southern Ocean is a dominant climate regulator and a potentially enormous marine resource and so improved knowledge is required on the resilience of the system to ocean acidification. Presentations are invited on new Southern Ocean understanding (from observational, experimental and modeling approaches) on the scale of past, present and future ocean acidification; responses of marine organisms and ecosystem structure, functioning and biodiversity; perturbations to biogeochemical cycling and feedbacks to the climate system; and the societal and policy challenges of ocean acidification.

Conference information and details for abstract submission can be found at http://scar2012.geol.pdx.edu/themes.php

It is important to note that abstract submission closes in February, and that the first 200 student participants to have abstracts accepted will have the registration fee waived.

For more information please contact Richard Bellerby (Richard.bellerby@uni.no)

The workshop I organized ‘High latitude biology, ecosystems and the future; A multidisciplinary approach’ ran for 2 days mid November in the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). This was the first  biology based workshop from the UK Polar Network’s career development series which saw twenty-three early career stage participants arrive to network in Cambridge.

Excellent talks were provided by keynote speakers discussing multi-disciplinary science and future insights for the Arctic (Ray Leakey; Scottish Association for Marine Science; pictured above), Antarctic (Andy Clarke; BAS) and acclimations and adaptations on the polar regions (Melody Clark; BAS). Some of which will soon be available to view on the APECS website. The participants were given opportunities to network through producing media aimed talks on their fields. Using information generated from the talks and the skill sets of the participant’s mini-mock grant proposals were generated on mutually agreed important polar questions. Future insights on these questions were discussed to determine how approaches proposed to answer them today may change over the next decade. Interestingly the participants drew to similar conclusions – molecular and satellite applications will become increasingly important in the future! Participants also presented their work to each other through a poster session.

Alan Rodger (Science Leader, BAS) closed the meeting with his inspirational talk ‘Where is environmental science going?’. He informed the participants that the 21^st century is the century for biologists due to the urgency to understand the repercussions of rapid climate change on ecosystems and highlighted the importance on utilizing a multidisciplinary approach.

I would like to thank everyone who helped and participated in the workshop, particularly to the British Antarctic Survey for their support.

High latitude biology, ecosystems and the future; A multidisciplinary approach

•  Are you about to embark in polar research or currently touch on polar topics?

•  Are you researching a topic which is biology / ecosystems focussed but crosses the   boundaries into other scientific disciplines?

•  If the answer is yes, then this is the workshop for you!

The UKPN is going to hold another exciting opportunity for early-career scientists to network in the workshop ‘High latitude biology, ecosystems and the future; A multidisciplinary approach’. This event will be hosted in the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge on Thursday 17th-Friday 18th November 2011.

This workshop will present a platform for networking with colleagues in these multidisciplinary fields which include group discussions on the future of science in this field, current issues and a mentoring panel for ‘Succeeding in polar biological sciences’. Keynote speakers such as Andy Clarke and Ray Leakey will present holistic talks on high latitude areas and you’ll get to have a peak at the Antarctic aquarium. Participants are asked to bring a poster on their work/interests for a poster presentation opportunity as part of their networking, as well as chance to win a prize for the best poster. As part of the UKPN Career Skills Workshop Series, this is the first biology/ecosystems based workshop. Therefore take advantage of this exciting opportunity!

For details on how to attend this workshop visit the UKPN website. Applications close on the 7th October. UKPN is the UK branch of APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientist – www.apecs.is).

Coleen C. Suckling, Rachael C. Symonds, Maeve S. Kelly, Andrew J. Young

Abstract:

During two 12 week trials, groups of edible sea urchins, Psammechinus miliaris, were fed artificial diets containing carotenoid pigments. The aim was to improve both the biomass and the colour of the sea urchin gonad in terms of its acceptability as a human food-stuff in the European market place. The pigmented artificial diets, based on the formula used by Robinson et al. (2002), increased gonad index (GI), pigment deposition and improved gonad colour from that of the initial samples. In Trial I gonad β-carotene levels increased > 2 fold, echinenone and total carotenoid > 7 fold. Trial II showed greater increases. Diets containing high levels of β-carotene (500mg per kg dry weight of diet) gave rise to the highest percentages of marketable gonad colours (61 – 73 %), and GI of 18.87 – 19.81 %, (Trial I and II respectively). There was some variation in the results for this particular diet treatment across the two trials presumably reflecting individual urchins varying capacity to ingest, deposit or express the carotenoids in their diet. Providing additional lipids in the diets gave no improvement to gonad colour (56 % acceptable) or GI (15.95 %) suggesting the lipid content of the basic formulation is adequate. Utilizing an esterified form of lutein and zeaxanthin as a pigment source gave no significant improvement in gonad colour (30 – 63 % acceptable) suggesting that this form of xanthophyll cannot be assimilated by P. miliaris. Female urchins had acceptable gonad colouration more often than males. The dominant carotenoid in the successful diets was β-carotene and this was successfully metabolized into echinenone, the dominant carotenoid in all gonad samples. Total levels of echinenone positively correlated with acceptable gonad colour scores. This study demonstrates that 12 weeks is sufficient to effect the desired change in gonad biomass and colour in cultivated P. miliaris.

Full Citation:

Suckling, C.C., Symonds, R.C., Kelly, M.S., Young, A.J. 2011. The effect of artificial diets on gonad colour and biomass in the edible sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris, Aquaculture, 318: 335-342.

I’ve just been invited to present my research at the BFWG (British Federation of Woman Graduates) on May 21st at their head quarters in Battersea, London. If you’re in London and fancy seeing what some of today’s budding Graduate Women are up to in research then come to this multidisciplinary day. To attend then read the link here.

Have a look at the UKPN website if you’re a young researcher (spanning from undergraduate to post-docs/young lecturers) and join the mailing list for up to date news in the polar world.

The UKPN is a voluntary group which provides networking opportunities for early career polar researchers; promotes polar issues to a wider audience through education & outreach; disseminates information about polar issues.

 UKPN Career Development Workshop Series: Some of the workshops are free /partly funded. They offer a great opportunity not only to meet other young reserachers and encourage new collaborations, but also increase your technical & scientific knowledge. Have a look at the UKPN website for more details on future workshops. I went to the their Science Communications workshop in Aberdeen in January 2011 and had a great time! I learned an enormous amount about various methods of communicating your science and met some great fellow young researchers, some of whom I have managed to form collaborations with for my PhD! There was even some funding available from UKPN to reimburse my train journey and some of my accommodation costs!

I did note that there seemed to be a large focus of the other available workshops on non-biology based fields of research. Therefore after joining the committee this year I have negotiated some funding to run a biology/ecosystems based workshop in hope to fill this niche and pool more researchers in this area together and int the UKPN. SO watch this space for further news of the workshop which hopefully will happen in Autumn/winter…….

The UKPN is the UK branch of APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists).

www.apecs.is

Look out for the new edition of ‘Marine Ecology: Processes, systems and impacts’ by Michel Kaiser et al. coming out June 2011.

After invitation to contribute by Professor Michel Kaiser (Bangor University), I provided a ‘Hot topic information box’ explaining ocean acidification. The box includes information about what ocean acidification is, how it is caused, the ecological consequences and a summary of it’s research and observations.