You wouldn't imagine that the cottage enclosed by the gates of the marine station houses state-of-the-art laboratory and aquarium equipment, a highly efficient seawater distribution system supplying a dozen insulated tanks and a 100,000 litre mesocosm tank to replicate and observe the North Sea fauna. Stepping into the clear-roofed research aquarium at the back of the house, the purring of electrical machinery and the puddles of water were the first things to meet the eye and ear, perhaps because we were immediately made aware of danger zones surrounding the electro-magnetic field radiating system. This is currently used to perform research on the effects of such fields on the behaviour and development of commercially important crabs, and clearly fenced off when switched on. There are nine exhibitory tanks displaying the potential inhabitants of rock pools in the area, a large tank of crabs to be tagged and released after experiments have been conducted, tanks dedicated to various species of molluscs and last but not least, hopper tanks for lobster larvae. I have had a chance to work with most of these animals during the past two weeks, as well as help a second year PhD student with his research and understand ongoing laboratory research.
I've now understood that I need not be shy to ask for jobs around the station, there is always something to do even if everything on the volunteer to do list has been crossed out. While most of our tasks on the first couple of days were cleaning (tanks, filters, fridges, floors, etc.), we are now trusted with crucial tasks such as feeding, identifying and tagging crabs, looking after the larvae and so on. In at 9 a.m., everybody disperses to their morning activities such as measuring the salinity and temperature of each tank, recording weather conditions and tides, changing the juvenile whelks' water, setting up the lab. In the office upstairs are posters explaining the why's and how's of completed research projects, all of them investigating the effects of acute anthropogenic noise or electro-magnetic field sources on marine benthos (species living on seafloor sediment), especially commercially interesting species.
Anemones in the St Abbs visitor centre tank minutes before feeding
The urchin extends its tube feet to catch the food particles floating past
While the lobsters from a hatchery in Eyemouth are bred exclusively for release into the wild, the commercial importance of the European lobster (Homarus gammarus) calls for a better understanding of anthropogenic disturbances such as from marine renewable energy devices and the effects on larval development, migration patterns and physiology. The same is true for the edible crab (Cancer pagurus) as both species live on the seafloor where subsea cables create electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). Recent research suggests the adverse effects could include geomagnetic field orientation disruption during seasonal and feeding migrations, which if confirmed must be incorporated into spatial and stock management schemes. In the aquarium and the lab, this project is currently taking up most of us volunteers' time. I am not as heavily involved in laboratory work as with the more practical aquarium tasks, which include identifying the eight crabs (sex, weight, carapace width, condition index, photo ID) that are then exposed to 24 hours of EMF, or not in the case of controls. Cameras are set up above each tank to analyse behavioural changes, mostly side selection (EMF or non-EMF) and a preference for cover. Blood samples have been taken to quantify glucose and lactate levels in stress-subjected crabs as opposed to crabs held under identical conditions save EMF. When the 24 hours are up, the crabs are tagged and released off the harbour wall in a rather uncivilised manner, but I am told drilling a needle through their carapace and lobbing them out into sea with the occasional spin is not in the slightest detrimental to them. There is a reward for fishermen if they bring tagged crabs back to the station with the trap coordinates, which gives an idea of distribution patterns.
Resisting the pinching and force of crab appendages has become almost second nature, the feistiness of some females especially, points to different personalities. These two weeks have greatly raised crabs in my list of esteemed animals as handling them has become a daily activity.
Wearing white was a mistake when cleaning the oyster tank!
Craig from Edinburgh Napier university is in his second year of PhD research, focusing on prawn larvae development under stresses such as noise and chemicals. Having set up a complicated system of beakers in which to house and investigate them, his day during my first week consisted in changing the water while keeping the same chemical concentration and making note of survival rates. The afternoon I spent working alongside Craig was filled with ideal scenarios opposed to realistic experimental constraints: the limited number of water samples it is affordable to send off for testing which makes pooling necessary, the underlying bias in only analysing the biochemistry of surviving larvae (rather than looking at the deceased too) and inevitable mix-ups, to cite only a few. Craig gave up his job as a government advisory ecotoxicologist when it became clear to him that the lack of three lettres was holding him back from research management positions. After a conversation with the marine station supervisor about her ambitions, it seems to me that the 'doctor' title is of higher importance in the scientific community that I thought and a serious career boost in the research field.
At the back of the station is a metal staircase descending to the rocks where juvenile crab transect surveys are conducted at low tide. We go down with buckets and a measuring tape to scrape through algae, flip rocks and dig into sediment for baby edible crabs, which are then recorded and released. This helps in assessing the condition and abundance of juveniles along the shore, the next generation of fisherman's catch. There is much less field work than I expected, at least not work accessible to short-term volunteers like myself. An ongoing summer-long project is investigating oyster spawning times in Loch Ryan in a joint conservation effort to recruit larvae. The loch water is sampled every week at eight locations on the seabed, mid-water and at the surface to detect a sudden increase in larvae, but all I have witnessed are the samples stacked in the fridge for future microscopic analysis.
I am hoping to do some more laboratory work in my time left at the station so as to get a full impression of the research done here, so far I have enjoyed the practical work so much that I have hardly budged from it. Whatever I get up to, I will write an update in a further blog post!
Sascha
