Algae Group Expeditions: 2014

Saturday 13 December 2014

Marine biology / phycology field course at the University of the Aegean (Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece), Sept. 22-Oct.2, 2014 Frithjof Kuepper

This year saw the 2^nd edition of our international field course, which we had launched last year (http://www.algae-group.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/marine-phycology-course-in-greece-april.html). Energized by the success of the first one, we managed to run it over 10 days (with a relaxing weekend for explorations of the island in between), for undergraduate and graduate students from both Aberdeen (6) and Mytilini (16). Lecture subjects were an Introduction to Phycology, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics for Algal Research, Algal Ecology, Algal Pathogens, Seaweeds of Polar Regions, Invasive Seaweeds, Sea Grasses, Algal Culturing (and the Germling Emergence Method) as well as Seaweed Mariculture. Frithjof Kuepper, Alexandra Mystikou & Kyle Fletcher from the Algae Group gave lectures together with Akira Peters and Kostas Tsiamis.

During the first week of the course, we visited 3 field sites for surveys and collections from the shore or by snorkelling, which also provided a large range of materials for subsequent practicals in the well-equipped lab of the Marine Science Department at the University of the Aegean.

During the second week, we conducted two day-long field trips including very attractive scuba dives, exploring unspoilt seagrass meadows (a prime example for blue carbon sequestration!), Cystoseira forests, sea urchin barrens, a small sea cave and a site dominated by alien / invasive seaweeds (due to insurance reasons, this can at present only be offered to Greek students – the local Marine Science Department has a very active students’ dive unit) – one by boat from Plomari along the scenic south coast towards Panagia Kryfti and Cape Agios Fokas, and another one by car to the beautiful bay of Agios Ermogenis.

Student responses (we conducted a survey at the end of the last lecturing day) were enthusiastic, even though some of the feedback forms received suggested offering fewer lectures and more field work (which will be taken on board if there is a future edition of the course). Mytilini has a very attractive cultural and night life for students (while being very affordable by any standards), and it seems that strong bonds have formed among several of the course participants and faculty.

Lesvos with its capital of Mytilini is a very beautiful, largely unspoilt island, with an interesting diversity of coastal marine habitats within easy reach including sandy and pebble beaches, extensive seagrass meadows, sandy and rocky bottom, pristine / climax Cystoseira forests, sea urchin barrens, other sites dominated by invasive seaweeds (Caulerpa racemosa and Stypopodium schimperi) as well as 2 large inlets, the Gulfs of Geras and Kalloni, both with extensive salt marshes and a number of mariculture facilities. Besides an active marine science department at the host institution, the University of the Aegean, Lesvos has also been repeatedly visited for seaweed-related research by two of the course faculty (FCK and Kostas Tsiamis) in recent years.

Also on land, the island of Lesvos is an interesting and attractive place. With historic sites from the Ancient Greeks and Romans to the Byzantines and Ottomans, mountain villages conserving their traditional culture, vast olive groves (most of which operating with organic farming methods), internationally significant bird breeding and overwintering sites, large forests, a petrified forest (unique in Europe), Lesvos has a lot more to offer than an exciting marine environment. Turkey / Asia Minor is within sight and easy reach for a day trip.

Our thanks go to our host, Dr. Maria Karadanelli-Kostopoulou, who organized much of local access to facilities at the University of the Aegean, accommodation and local student enrolment, and who extended her hospitality to 2 of the faculty in her home despite a very heavy workload on other fronts.

We are very grateful to the EU ERASMUS program (managed by the British Council) for funding the travel expenses of 3 teaching staff from Aberdeen (FCK, AM and KF), without which this endeavour would not have been possible either. This helped to keep the cost to participating students within very tolerable limits - we did not need to charge a participation fee, since there was no requirement to support travel of faculty and no charge by our Greek hosts at the University of the Aegean for use of facilities (which is even more admirable considering the dire funding situation for higher education in Greece). Also, compared to other field courses on offer at the University of Aberdeen (especially for study areas in the UK or USA), travel to Mytilini and almost every other aspect of the course are very inexpensive for students and faculty alike due to the availability of direct charter flights and the generally low cost of accommodation, food and local transportation on Lesvos Island. The international study environment (with faculty from the UK, Greece, Germany and France and students from the UK, Greece and Chile) was an added plus.

We are also grateful to the Hellenic Phycological Society (ΕΛΦΕ) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR / EΛΚΕΘΕ) for their support.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the students of this course, without whose enthusiasm this endeavor would be much less rewarding or even pointless.

We very much hope that we will be able to repeat this course and that it can ideally become a regular, annual or biannual constituent of the curricula at Aberdeen and Mytilini. Indeed, we have received a strong expression of interest from the University of Konstanz (Germany) to participate in future sequels of the course, which would make it a trinational event.

from the left Vivian Louizidou, Kostas Tsiamis and Alexandra Mystikou

Akira Peters in a class at the University of the Aegean

Alexandra teaching bioinformatics

Amerssa and Vivian learning how to assemble and align sequences

Poly Eleni Maria and Vivian in seaweed ID lab practical

evening in Mytilini

getting exhaust pipe fixed during field excursion

boat excursion to Panagia Kryfti on S coast of Lesvos

excursion boat off S Lesvos

fireworm

Dictyota

Dive excursion exploring seagrass meadow ecosystem w students of the Univ of the Aegean

diving and snorkeling excursion to seagrass meadow

Elina and Ioanna exploring seagrass meadow

Intact seagrass meadow ecosystem at Agios Ermogenis southern Lesvos

invasive brown alga Stypopodium schimperi

Ioanna pointing out a fireworm

look into a sea cave

fireworm

Sunset in Plomari

the scenic S coast of Lesvos

with participants of the field course during boat excursion

the course participants at one of the field trips

Friday 29 August 2014

Exploring the seaweeds of Europe’s largest artificial reef (Frithjof 29/08/2014)

Three diving marine scientists from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) came to Scotland for a 10-day trip in order to explore the hitherto-unknown seaweed communities of the Loch Linnhe Artificial Reef in western Scotland (July 19-29). The project was hosted by the UK National Facility for Scientific Diving (NFSD), headed by Dr. Martin Sayer. Maria Salomidi, Kostas Tsiamis and Vasilis Gerakaris flew to Aberdeen, where they visited Frithjof at Oceanlab and in his home overlooking the Ythan Estuary. After one night there, they hit the long road from Aberdeen to the scenic West Highlands.

The Loch Linnhe Artificial Reef was built between 1998-2006, led by Martin Sayer and Tom Wilding at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, in cooperation with Foster Yeoman Ltd, operators of the Glensanda quarry in Morvern (http://www.sams.ac.uk/tom-wilding/overview-artificial-reef ). This large “superquarry” produces agglomeration for worldwide exports. This operation produces a fine powder as byproduct, which has no commercial value. In the late 1990s, this led to the idea of using it in a mixture with concrete for producing a type of breeze block-like elements which would be deployed in piles (termed “modules”) on the seabed of Loch Linnhe east of the Isle of Lismore. The rationale was that this would enhance structural diversity in a low-diversity soft-sediment area, resulting in locally increased biodiversity, standing stock of biota – in particular also of species of commercial interest. Even though the animal biodiversity and ecology, hydrology, biogeochemistry and other aspects of the reef had formed the centre of interest so far, no studies at all had considered the seaweeds of the reef.

The team managed to conduct a total of 25 diving operations, exploring the seaweed communities of the artificial reef from around 27 to 10 m depth and at natural reefs from 18 m to the surface. The wreck of the Breda, sunk in WW II by German bombers, was also surveyed – de facto it is an artificial reef which has been in the sea for over 70 years. The team was incredibly lucky with the weather: During the week of diving, the sea was flat calm and the sky mostly cloudless. Temperatures reached a record high ever recorded for Oban.

A total of around 50 seaweed species were recorded. It was also observed that on all except the modules > 20 m deep, seaweed standing stock exceeded animal standing stock by a large margin. Seaweed specimens were conserved on herbarium sheets; the communities on the reef were also amply documented by quadrat photographs.

We would like to thank Martin Sayer, Andy Mogg, Elaine Azzopardi and Hugh Brown at NFSD and the crew of the RV Seol Mara for their excellent support to the project which involved rather complex logistics and long working hours for everyone. Special thanks go to Martin and Jane Sayer for their legendary hospitality. The team would also like to acknowledge the EU program ASSEMBLE for funding this project.

A most memorable and worthwhile week in Oban!

Andy Mogg readying underwater camera

Grey seal at Eilean Dubh

Laminaria hyperborea

Soft corals on Loch Linnhe artificial reef

Tritonia on a resupply mission

Vasilis and Maria ready to dive

Vasilis Maria and Frithjof on the Seol Mara

Vasilis Maria and Martin discussing on Seol Mara

Addition in January 2020 - this study has just been published:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10811-019-01918-2

Thursday 5 June 2014

Gentoo Penguins at Sea-Lion Island - Dec 2013 (Melina 05/06/2014)

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Orcas at Sea lion Island - Dec 2013 (Melina 04/06/2014)

Friday 16 May 2014

A taste of Polynesia: Exploring Easter Island

Another AlgaeGroup blog entry written in flight (this time en route from Santiago SCL to Atlanta ATL): We had an awesome time exploring and enjoying one of the world’s most remote islands – Easter Island. After 5 hours flying westwards out of Santiago over the endless expanses of the Pacific, this small island appeared on the horizon. I had a window seat and as we flew over it, Easter Island looked very green. After a short loop west of Hanga Roa, the B767-300 landed at Hanga Roa’s Mataveri Airport. Only LAN Airlines fly here, giving them a comfortable monopoly.

As we climbed out of the plane, the hot humidity and exotic scents of this almost tropical island descended upon us. We had pre-booked a beautiful cottage (cabaña) on the outskirts of the island’s capital and only town, Hanga Roa. After relaxing a bit, we took our rental car to drive to the island’s beautiful beach at Anakena, lined with coconut trees and with a ceremonial platform (Ahu) of the island’s famous statues, the Moai. I could not resist the temptation to go swimming in the beautifully transparent and warm waters (and found some Sargassum sp.). The next day, Melina and I drove around most of the central and eastern part of the island, exploring the quarry of Moai statues on the slopes of the Ranu Raraku volcano, the impressive Ahu Tongariki with the biggest series of Moai (re-erected thanks to Japanese generosity), beautiful petroglyphs and other treasures of the island. The next day took us diving in the amazingly transparent waters off the Motu islets (SW of Easter Island proper) and into and around the Three Windows underwater cave. Visibility around Easter Island reaches around 70 m for most of the year – the sea here is ultra-oligotrophic: The lack of terrestrial dust input and land runoff limit the availability of iron, making it a limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth. In consequence, there are very few fish – but corals (even though low in species numbers, compared to the western Pacific) thrive beautifully.

Human presence has dramatically altered Easter Island’s biodiversity and ecosystem (and the history of its ecological demise debunks the myth that first nations are more benign to a region’s environment than “civilized” European settlers). Easter Island was first colonized by Polynesians (most likely originating from the Gambier Islands, now in French Polynesia) around 1200 A.D.. Population increased and a fairly highly developed society evolved, erecting hundreds of the famous Moai statues and other monuments. Gradually, the island was deforested and most breeding birds were wiped out. Deprived of most of the island’s original resources, the human inhabitants found themselves increasingly restricted in their life style – with decreasing availability and diversity of food, and lack of construction materials for seagoing canoes (cf. my previous blog chapter and in particular the chapter in Jared Diamond’s book COLLAPSE), limiting both their food supply, mobility and communication with the outside world. Western contact did not bring much positive change either, at least initially – while Easter Island was unclaimed by any nation, Peruvian slave traders abducted most of the Polynesian population to work in Peru’s guano mines (also wiping out the intellectuals of this society – the wise men capable of reading and writing the unique Rongo-Rongo script which remains non-deciphered to this date), missionaries eradicated much of the original, Polynesian culture and a Scottish farming company converted the whole island into a sheep farm for several decades from the late 1800s. At present, Easter Island lives entirely of its tourism due to its worldwide, mythical fame - I would argue that after all, the island is currently in one of the better chapters of its history. Despite the loss of much of its terrestrial biodiversity (including the world’s largest palm tree), it is a very pretty island. The whole land surface outside of Hanga Roa is a national park which is very well managed, the historic sites are indeed well protected and cared for, and what is left of the Polynesian cultural heritage is revered and valued.

All this makes Easter Island a very beautiful and interesting place to visit. We had a great time exploring some amazing cave systems, Ana Te Pora– essentially volcanic lava tunnels similar to the Three Windows Cave which we had already seen under water a few days earlier. Just above the latter – and above the water and in the sea cliffs – there is a Two Windows Cave, which offers spectacular views over the sea. Another cave, Ana Te Pahu (“Banana Cave”), extends for kilometres underground – it obviously provided refuge for hundreds of Polynesian inhabitants during troublesome times in the past; relicts of underground dwellings and other structures are still clearly visible. Our visit was concluded with another very beautiful dive in a reef off Hanga Roa (including a visit to a sunken Moai replica).

Six weeks away from home, California, Chile and Easter Island – what a trip! I am returning energized and in high spirits for the remainder of the university term.