Students: Research at the ends of the Earth
Transcript
Rhian Waller:
My research program at the University of Maine is looking at reproduction and development of cold-water corals and also looking at the distribution of cold-water corals across the globe.
My research program this year focused in two different areas, one in Alaska up in the north and the other in Antarctica down in the south. Both of these projects were looking at how cold-water corals reproduce and develop larvae and survive and produce populations through time.
Elise Hartill:
I’ve always been interested in the ocean and I’m trying to broaden my horizons. When we’re growing up we learn “dolphins and whales and sharks.” It’s interesting to me that there’s so much out there that most people don’t know too much about.
Maggie Halfman:
The western Antarctic Peninsula is warming very rapidly and the Gulf of Maine is warming, too. In understanding whether or not these species can acclimate to these stresses, we need to know whether the larvae can.
Rhian Waller:
Cold-water corals form the very base of ecosystems. They’re what we call habitat forming. They produce this habitat many thousands of other species use to be able to survive. We have fish that lay their eggs around corals, we have other invertebrates that form a food source for other large organisms.
They’re at the very bottom of the ecosystem. We look at processes from the bottom up. If you destroy that bottom level, the bottom level is no longer being able to survive, then you affect everything else in the ocean. The Poles are an area where warming is happening at a greater rate in certain areas, particularly in Alaska where acidification is happening at a greater rate.
These form areas where we can study processes now that will be happening in the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf of Maine is already starting to warm. What is going to happen to the cold-water coral ecosystems that are here in the Gulf of Maine? That’s where it all ties in.
Ashley Rossin:
We talk about how everything we’re looking at nobody’s ever seen before. We have the baseline information on primnoella and all these other species, and you got to know it. We have to learn. There’s so much to explore. So far we start in Alaska and Antarctica and the Gulf of Maine. If it starts to see effects, it’ll be next.
Rhian Waller:
“Gaining these experiences at an undergraduate level really gives these guys an idea of where they want to go in life, even if it isn’t in marine science. It’s brought a bit of what it takes to be a scientist in the field, to be able to collect that data. You can take that into your next career whatever that might be.
Maggie Halfman:
It took a little while being down there to be like, “I’m at Antarctica. This is amazing.” All of a sudden, we got off the boat to set up this marine mammal camp, and I was like, “I’m standing on Antarctica.” It was kind of bizarre.
Ashley Rossin:
The fjord is beautiful. The water’s this teal color. You can’t describe it. It was so pretty. The two dives that I got to do were amazing, seeing primnoella for the first time, not in a vial. It’s this beautiful branching coral. I knew it was, but it’s 10 feet long and pops out of the wall. It was amazing.
I was excited about going to UMaine and getting to meet Dr. Waller. When I got this opportunity to go and see her in action — not just in the lab, actually doing these things that I’ve read about her doing — it was fulfilling a dream. It definitely made me realize that this is what I really want to do.