Session Chair: José Queirós, University of Coimbra, Portugal; Technical Support: Jilda Caccavo, The University of Padua, Italy. The recording of the session is available below.
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22:00 - 22:05 GMT: Introduction
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22:05 - 22:45 GMT: Keynote: The Big Arctic Melt...Outside the envelope of previous experience
James E. Overland
NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory -
22:45 - 23:00 GMT: Antarctic Ambassadors Learning to Love Fjord Phytoplankton
Allison Lee
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, United StatesType: Innovative Communication
Abstract: The remote icy continent of Antarctica is not an easy destination to visit. Yet, it receives more than 40,000 tourists a year outnumbering scientists 10:1. As I developed my research questions—understanding how fjord ecosystems change with our changing climate—I wondered if there was a way I could engage these visitors in my work. With their help, the scientific scope can expand, and participants gain a perspective on ocean life and research they may never have considered. They may even go home as Antarctic Ambassadors, sharing with their network everything they experienced. With that, the FjordPhyto Antarctic Citizen Science project was born. FjordPhyto partners with tour vessels November through March relying on the help of passengers in collecting phytoplankton from various fjords along the Antarctic Peninsula. Rising global temperatures add melted glacier water to the seawater shifting its chemistry. The first organisms to experience these changes are microscopic drifting cells called phytoplankton. They make up the base of the food web and produce over 50% of the Earth’s oxygen! When Antarctic visitors participate as Citizen Scientists in FjordPhyto, they see more than whales, seals, and penguins. Armed with microscopes and plankton nets, they personally see the engine that drives these pristine ecosystems.
With the help of many, we can better understand the changes occurring in this region while engaging travelers in a deeper connection during their journey to the most remote place on Earth.
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23:00 - 23:15 GMT: Antarctic Ambassadors Learning to Love Fjord Phytoplankton
Allison Lee
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, United StatesType: Oral Presentation
Abstract: The remote icy continent of Antarctica is not an easy destination to visit. Yet, it receives more than 40,000 tourists a year outnumbering scientists 10:1. As I developed my research questions—understanding how fjord ecosystems change with our changing climate—I wondered if there was a way I could engage these visitors in my work. With their help, the scientific scope can expand, and participants gain a perspective on ocean life and research they may never have considered. They may even go home as Antarctic Ambassadors, sharing with their network everything they experienced. With that, the FjordPhyto Antarctic Citizen Science project was born. FjordPhyto partners with tour vessels November through March relying on the help of passengers in collecting phytoplankton from various fjords along the Antarctic Peninsula. Rising global temperatures add melted glacier water to the seawater shifting its chemistry. The first organisms to experience these changes are microscopic drifting cells called phytoplankton. They make up the base of the food web and produce over 50% of the Earth’s oxygen! When Antarctic visitors participate as Citizen Scientists in FjordPhyto, they see more than whales, seals, and penguins. Armed with microscopes and plankton nets, they personally see the engine that drives these pristine ecosystems.
With the help of many, we can better understand the changes occurring in this region while engaging travelers in a deeper connection during their journey to the most remote place on Earth.
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23:15 - 23:30 GMT: How do hormones and the skin transcriptome influence molt in a polar pinniped?
Amy Kirkham1, Roxanne Beltran1, Skyla Walcott2, Michelle Shero2, Donald Thompson Jr3, Julie Avery4, Jennifer Burns2
1University of Alaska Fairbanks
2University of Alaska Anchorage
3Louisiana State University
4University of North FloridaType: Oral Presentation
Abstract: Pinnipeds replace their fur each year in an annual pelage molt, the timing of which is tightly regulated to conserve energy. Recent cases of disrupted molt in Arctic seals have highlighted how little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this key life history event. To characterize the drivers of healthy molt, we examined hair cycling in 121 prime-age female Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) during the Antarctic summer (Nov-Feb). At each handling (n=1 or 2 per female), skin biopsies were collected to determine hair cycle phase (i.e., anagen, catagen, telogen) by histology, and hormone concentrations and body composition were measured to test for endocrine and nutritional effects on molt. Hair follicles became active in Nov/Dec, at least a month prior to the onset of visible shedding, and did not complete growth until late Jan at the earliest. Elevated prolactin appeared to delay molt, while body condition did not impact molt timing. To identify gene expression changes between three hair cycle phases, skin transcriptomes were profiled using Illumina RNA-Seq (n=9). Over 4000 genes were differentially expressed between hair cycle phases. These included hormone receptors and genes involved in wound healing, suggesting skin's response to hormones and its healing capacity changes across the molt. Our novel findings on endocrine and transcriptomic control of molt indicate how this process may be impaired, as well as how altered hair cycling may impact integumentary health.
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23:30 - 23:45 GMT: High beta diversity of microbes in Southern Ocean abyssal water masses
Swan Li San Sow1,2, Levente Bodrossy1, Thomas Trull3, Philip W. Boyd2,3, Eric J. Raes1, Jodie Van De Kamp1, Mark V. Brown4, Andrew Bisett1
1Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
2Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
3Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre
4School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleType: Oral Presentation
Abstract: The Southern Ocean (SO) is known to be an important site for carbon dioxide sequestration and dominates many key biogeochemical nutrient cycles through microbially driven processes. The pelagic dark ocean hosts up to 60% of heterotrophic activity, but knowledge on the community structure of these heterotrophic microbes and their interaction with the surface community is still scarce. This study greatly expands our understanding of SO microbes within the deeper water masses with interest on the roles of ocean circulation in structuring microbial biogeography. At two multi-latitudinal transects from the Indian (71-99°E) and Pacific sector (170°W) of the SO, we sampled seawater from the full water column at 8 depth points and examined bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic community compositions through high resolution 16S and 18S rRNA tag sequencing. We found the biogeographical distribution of microbes were explained in part by distinct water masses hydrographies, but bacteria and archaea from deeper (Antarctic bottom-lower circumpolar) water masses, which spread across a wide range of latitudes, displayed niche communities with varying abundances of specific phylotypes that were not explained by hydrography or geographical distance. The abrupt changes in phylotype abundances corresponded with crossing frontal zones in surface waters, suggesting that the varying communities of surface water masses influences community compositions in deeper water masses.
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23:45 - 24:00 GMT: Assessment of regime shift dynamics in Southern Ocean ecosystems
Delphi Ward
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, AustraliaType: Oral Presentation
Abstract: Abrupt regime shifts are fundamental changes in ecosystem structure and function that can result from very small changes in environmental conditions pushing the system over a tipping point. The potential for this type of unexpected catastrophic change is of great concern for Southern Ocean ecosystems. However, so far there is no unifying approach for ecologists and ecosystem managers wanting to evaluate an ecosystem for evidence of past regime shifts or the risk of future regime shifts.
We reviewed both the theoretical and ecosystem case study literature to identify ecosystem qualities that increase risk of regime shifts, and current capabilities for predicting and detecting regime shifts. We particularly aimed to identify methods that are currently available, and to highlight improvements in methodology or data collection which are required to improve our capability in predicting or detecting regime shifts.
In this presentation, I provide a framework for assessing the likelihood of regime shifts in ecological systems. I focus on some particular challenges for Southern Ocean ecosystems, including that ecological data for this region tend to be patchily distributed in time and space. This presents a problem for assessment for regime shifts, because most methods for predicting and detecting regime shifts require highly resolved long time series data, usually from multiple concurrent variables. I identify methods which could currently be applied to Southern Ocean ecosystems and recommend improvements to methods needed to increase our capacity to conduct risk assessments of different Southern Ocean ecosystems, and to predict regime shifts in the Southern Ocean.
APECS Online Conference 2018 - Session 4 from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.