A molecular inventory of Malta's seaweeds based on DNA barcodes

I am Angela Bartolo, a Maltese scientist who has just embarked on a new adventure of starting my PhD in Marine Biology at the University of Aberdeen. My PhD is focused on DNA barcoding of macroalgae. The first survey of my PhD has just been completed this June 2017 in sunny Malta, Gozo and Comino. It consisted of an intense 2.5 weeks of scientific diving (divers: Frithjof C. Kuper and Eleni Kytinou) as well as late nights of lab work as well as morning work preparations together with Akira F. Peters, Frithjof and Eleni. This expedition also included transects for Eleni’s PhD in marine food webs since both Eleni and myself have just started our PhDs. This research expedition included Frithjof, Eleni, Akira and myself, however we found lots of help from family and friends in Malta who took us around the island by boat. 

(Click on the images for a full-screen, high-resolution view.
You can browse by using the cursor buttons. The photographers' initials are marked in parentheses:
Angela Bartolo - AB, Eleni Kytinou - EK, Frithjof C. Kuepper - FCK)

 

 Stopover in Amsterdam on the way to Rome and Malta (FCK)

Our first dive site on the SE side of Gozo (FCK)

Our first dive on the SE coast of Gozo (AB)

On the boat after a dive (AB/ selfie)

SW coast of Malta (FCK)

Bubbles (EK)

Capers, near St. Paul's Bay (FCK)

Collecting capers (FCK)

 

Capers, near St. Paul's Bay (FCK) 

Spider on its web on a caper shrub, near St. Paul's Bay (FCK)

 

Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardh var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman and Procaccini
(EK)

Collecting seagrass (Posidonia) leaves with epiphytes for a metagenomics study

(EK)

Collecting a substratum sample for algal isolation work (Germling Emergence Method
- Akira Peters)  (FCK)

Cuttlefish (EK)

Cystoseiretum (EK)

Brine outfall of the Cirkewwa desalination plant (EK)

Μια χαρά (Akira) και δυο τρομάρες
at the Brine outfall of the Cirkewwa desalination plant (AB)

The rocky infralittoral of the Maltese islands is characterized by vast communities of Dictyopteris

(EK)

Eleni diving on a shipwreck near Marsaskala (FCK)

Eleni conducting visual surveys along a transect (FCK)

Eleni conducting visual surveys along a transect - Malta's underwater topography features many stunning dropoffs, cliffs and caves (FCK)

Eleni conducting visual surveys along a transect (FCK)

Colourful Symphodus species (EK)

Felimare (Hypselodoris) tricolor eating its favorite spongemeal
(EK)

Fertile Cystoseira (EK)

Port of Mgarr, Gozo (FCK)

Misuse of a historic cannon in the port of Mgarr, Gozo (FCK)

Apogon imberbis Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Pelagia noctiluca refflection (EK)

Polychaete Eleni please add a caption (EK)

Sargassum with dense epiphyte cover (EK)

 

 Zonaria typus in a sea cave

Is Codium bursa very tasty, Eleni? (FCK)

 

Good to see that people in Malta like hedgehogs - near Xemxija (FCK)