Tag: field work

Sampling dormant bryozoan from lake mud! – a field trip around the Broads 12th-15th March 2015

The Lake BESS team has just spent four full days on the water to collect bryozoans statoblasts from 14 different Norfolk broads. You will find more information about our work on bryozoans in this previous post.

The aim of this sampling is to gather evidence regarding how connectivity between lakes influences the movement of aquatic biodiversity, in particular bryozoan population genetics.

We were extremely privileged to be shown around by Geoff Philips, who greatly facilitated this field work with his knowledge of the area and of the people managing The Broads – at the Broads Authority, the Norfolk Wildlife trust, etc.

Last summer, we collected similar samples from the Upper Lough Erne region, Northern Ireland. With this trip in the Broads we completed the sampling of bryozoans for our project. We used an Ekman grab from our boat to retrieve lake surface sediment, i.e. oozy mud.

We collected bags and bags of oozy mud, from which we are isolating the tiny bryozoans statoblast (less a 1 mm!), from which DNA will be extracted.

But collecting the mud is only the first step of the sampling. Back on the shore, our bryozoans expert Beth screened the sediments through a microscope to pick out individuals statoblasts (the dormant phase of bryozoans measuring less than 1 mm in diameter). These individual statoblasts are going to be sent off for their DNA to be extracted.

We are expecting to find out that isolated broads have bryozoans population with more distinct genetics than those from broads connected to the river systems. But we are really not sure how the gene flow within the Broads will compare with that experienced within the Upper Lough Erne region, so we are looking forward to get our results – and we are hope to be surprised!

Many thanks for the many people who helped making this sampling possible!

Back from the field!

We’re just back from our very successful field work around the Upper Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. We managed to survey nearly 20 satellite loughs for aquatic plants, water chemistry and bryozoans (see this previous post).

Corracoach Lough
Access to some of the lough was sometimes tough but always rewarding. Photography by Helen Bennion.

The help we received from volunteers and project partners was absolutely tremendous! Over the two week we have been a dozen of us actively involved in this research campaign. We’d particularly like to thank Hannah, Robert, Tim and Stephen for joining our team at this occasion and also all the land owners who were kind enough to grant us access to the lakes we had targeted.

Battling through reed beds to get onto some of the lough with our boats was one of the striking aspects of this field work! But it was worth the effort and the diversity of aquatic plant observed over the two week is very impressive. For instance we have sightings for at least ten different Potamogeton species (see this previous post), an extremely good score!

We’ll post more picture and reports from this field work in the coming weeks.

P. perfoliatus
Potamogeton perfoliatus (Photograph by Ben Goldsmith)