Blogg
Communicating science is an important component of the projects supported by Artsprosjektet (Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative), and one we as scientists enjoy – who doesn’t like to inform others about the cool things we study? That is basically what writing scientific papers is, after all!
But to communicate outside our niche audience of other scientists who have a deep background knowledge of our chosen organisms is to tell a different story. In writing, we can do so with the aid of images, like we do on our @NorDigBryo Instagram account – Mali’s excellent scanning electron images enable us to see details that are invisible to the naked eye.
...Om nom nom nom!
Did you know that some marine critters view bryozoans as a snack? Nudibranchs is a good example. They will search for bryozoan colonies and once they have found one, it is snack time!
An example is Onchidoris muricata, which is the round lump you see in the video. Here it enjoys a Membranipora membranacea colony.
Video: Mali Ramsfjell
Reference:
Bakken T, Evertsen J og Skauge C. Onchidoris muricata (O.F. Müller, 1776). www.artsdatabanken.no/Pages/313967. Downloaded <22/02/2024>
When part of your work consists of identifying organisms, you gradually learn which characters are important to know whether it is that species or another. This also applies to bryozoans, which have a number of features that are important for identification.
Here I will talk a little about which characters are often used when it comes to identifying bryozoans belonging to the order Cheilostomatida. There other features that you can use, but in order not to make this text infinitely long, I have limited it to contain the most common characters.
Shape and growth
The shape and growth form of a bryozoan colony are both important features to use when determining what kind of families/genera/species you are dealing with. For example, you have the family Bugulidae where you have species that form erect, often fragile and flexible colonies (Fig. 1). While in the family Escharellidae, you often find species where non-flexible colonies ...
The NorDigBryo project is now officially underway! Together with our partners in Bergen (The University Museum in Bergen) and Trondheim (NTNU University Museum), we will map bryozoan species that have been collected along the Norwegian coast!
The early stages of the project
So what has happened since we started up the project (which happened to be in April)? Well, we have borrowed bryozoan samples from the University Museum in Bergen (many thanks to Katrine and Jon!) for processing. Processing involves the sorting of material, identifying species and photographing the ones we find.
After going through the samples from Bergen, we have already received a rather long list of species that we have been able to identify, and many have been photographed with a scanning electron microscope. This makes species identification easier, since some of the characteristic features of the bryozoans can be so small that you actually need an electron micros...