{"id":482,"date":"2019-05-25T10:12:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T10:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/?p=482"},"modified":"2019-05-24T14:15:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T14:15:42","slug":"catch-it-if-you-can-amphipods-in-the-deep-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/2019\/05\/25\/catch-it-if-you-can-amphipods-in-the-deep-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch It If You Can! – Amphipods in the Deep-Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Tasnim Patel, RBINS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in the deep-sea is no picnic and dedicating your life to studying our last truly unexplored wilderness isn\u2019t easy either. To sample fauna in the abyssal plains requires courage, expertise, commitment, financial backing and in my case \u2026a pinch of luck. I\u2019m studying deep-sea scavenging crustaceans, which are not only exceptionally interesting morphologically and genetically, but also quite evasive little critters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are few\npapers on deep-sea amphipods, unsurprising given the challenges of sampling\nthis remote environment. I am faced with trying to sample and deploy equipment\nin high hydrostatic pressures and low temperatures, a feat which would be\nimpossible without the joint initiative set up by JPIOceans and spearheaded by\nthe brilliant minds at the GEOMAR institute (Kiel, Germany).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with the\nROV and Elevator teams, I am able to deploy baited traps at 4500 m depths to\nattract my species of interest from the Lyssianasoidea family.  I am investigating whether deep-sea mining of\nmanganese nodules and subsequent sediment plumes, would affect the biodiversity\nand recolonisation ability of these crustaceans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My samples are\nfrom two abyssal basins, in the NE and SE Pacific. Firstly, the\nClarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ, six million km2, 7000 km wide), an\neconomically important manganese nodule field in the NE Pacific, comprising\nseveral different contractor claim areas and nine designated Areas of Particular\nEcological Interest (APEIs) and secondly, the DISturbance and re-COLonisation\n(DisCOL) Experimental Area (DEA, 11 km2, 4 km wide), a mining disturbance proxy\nin the Peru Basin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working at sea\ncan be challenging, but I am always happy to retrieve my traps and find some\nLyssianasoidea specimens within. The catch can range from 50 \u2013 1000\nindividuals, contingent on the productivity of the area. On retrieval, time is\nof the essence. DNA can degrade fast, so the specimens must be sorted,\nidentified, measured, photographed, dissected and appropriately fixed in a\nmatter of hours. Since this is the case, nights can blend into days but it\nhonestly flies by if you\u2019re having fun at the microscope! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amphipods have\nbeen around since the Eocene, and are an important part of the deep-sea\nnutrient cycle. Thus far, I have been able to study the Cytochrome Oxidase I gene\nfor two deep-sea amphipods. I can now use these reference sequences to design\ncustom nuclear primers and then use Next-Generation Sequencing techniques, to\nanalyse several Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) at once. This process\nwill allow me to investigate their evolution and mutations for adaptability in\nextraordinarily fine detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"One
One of the Amphipods under a microscope. Photo: Tasnim Patel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nI think they look like little dragons, but most will say they resemble \nshrimps. Despite this, I don\u2019t recommend eating these carrion-feeders. \nInstead, let the RBINS team make you the yummy chocolate version!\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The chocolate version. Photo: Tasnim Patel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tasnim Patel, RBINS Life in the deep-sea is no picnic and dedicating your life to studying our last truly unexplored wilderness isn\u2019t easy either. To sample fauna in the abyssal plains requires courage, expertise, commitment, financial backing and in my case \u2026a pinch of luck. I\u2019m studying deep-sea scavenging crustaceans, which are not only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8,7,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deep-sea","category-human-impact-on-the-oceans","category-menschlicher-einfluss-auf-die-meere","category-tiefsee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/eadsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}