Category: General biology
Lúsmý, maurar og fleiri dýr
Nýsköpunarsjóður námsmanna gerir fjórum líffræðinemar og BS líffræðingar kleift að verkefnum um skordýr á Íslandi við Líffræðistofu Háskóla Íslands nú í sumar.
Við höfum áður fjallað um maurarannsóknir en auk þess er kastljósinu nú beint að lúsmýi og ávaxtaflugum. Það eru nýlegir landnemar hérlendis. Lúsmýið er alræmt fyrir bit og almenn leiðindi, en ávaxtaflugur eru dýrkaðar og dáðar vegna fegurðar sinnar og fengileiks. Sumir eru reyndar smeykir við ávaxtaflugur, en þær bíta ekki fólk, bera ekki sjúkdóma og verða bara til ama ef þær verpa í bananann sem við gleymdum undir ískáp.
Í lúsmý verkefninu er ætlunin að kanna hvenær sumarsins þær koma fram, hvort um sé að ræða einn eða tvo toppa klaksins, hvaða búsvæðum flugurnar klekjast helst úr og hver dreifing þeirra á landsvísu er. Beitt verður aðferðum skordýrafræði og stofnerfðafræði. Hér að neðan eru myndir af klakgildrum og vettvangi rannsókna í Kjósinni.
The mesopelagic zone - 5 day course in May.
2 ECT 5-DAY SUMMER SCHOOL COURSE
The mesopelagic zone (between 200-1000m depth) is the habitat of the largest fish biomass in the ocean.
Mesopelagic fish likely hold a key role in global climate change by participating in the largest migration in the animal kingdom, transporting and storing carbon into the deep sea.
Credit: Leif Grimsmo, SINTEF Ocean
About the course
The SUMMER (Sustainable Management of Mesopelagic Resources, 2019-2024) EU project aims to evaluate if and how mesopelagic resources can be sustainably exploited.
To share the knowledge of the mesopelagic zone, experts from the SUMMER project have arranged a 5-day summer school course for 2 ECT credits, with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute and the University of Iceland, in Iceland May 22nd – May 26th 2023.
The course will feature lectures from world-leading experts on mesopelagic research, engaging discussions, as well as hands-on laboratory work on mesopelagic fishes – in addition to the dissection of a marine mammal, apex predator of mesopelagic fish.
After completing the course
Students will be familiar with:
• Biology and Ecology of the Mesopelagic Zone
• Taxonomy and Diversity of Mesopelagic Fish
• Mesopelagic Fisheries (Economy, Governance,
Technology)
• Dissection of Mesopelagic Fish and Mammals
Students will develop valuable knowledge of one of the most understudied ecosystems in the world’s oceans, meet worldwide leaders in mesopelagic research, and study in an international group.
Students will also get to experience Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland in May – during a wonderfully bright spring.
The course itself is free for participatnts, but travel expenses (food, lodgings, and transport) must be covered individually.
International students are encouraged to apply, and housing is available on the university campus.
For more information
Website: www.summerh2020.eu
Email: hrandhawa@hi.is
First results from scanning of charr juveniles
We have started a collaboration with Benedikt Hallgrimsson and his colleagues at University of Calgary, Marta Vidal-Garcia and Avrille Aiello.
They are scanning one year old Arctic charr that Sarah Steele raised in her plasticity experiment. That study focused on comparing morphological differences and plastic responses between derived and ancestral populations of charr, to understand differences in growth, allometric changes in shape and inheritance of these traits.
The pilot project with the Hallgrimsson lab focuses on comparing three morphs, the anadromous charr from Fljota (putative ancestral morph) and two derived morphs from Lake Thingvallavatn, the Large Benthic and Planktivorous charr. They were all raised on the same diet, and are similar in size. First scans from Avrille and Marta, of an LB individual, are shown below.
The top figure is lateral view (with an angle slightly from the front) and the lower figure is a view from the top of the head (first vertebrae can be seen on the right).
The fishes were about 1 year old when killed and frozen. Fixed in 10% NPF for 10 days, prior to CT scanning.
In this phase of the project we will scan 20 fishes per morph, and characterize the diversity in shape of the feeding related bones, snout area and the cranium.
And hopefully be able to scan the other treatment, wild fishes and progeny from crosses in the future if funding becomes available.
Contributions to the Icelandic Ecology Conference
Several members of our lab and students we help supervise contributed to the Icelandic Ecology Conference in April 2021.
Lasius niger ant dragging a larvae. Picture taken by Marco Mancini.
Marco Mancini - Unveiling the myrmecofauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Iceland. A survey of invasive ant species diversity and distribution
Arnar Pálsson - Unleashing of cryptic genetic variation by environmental challenges and genetic assimilation studied at level of gene expression
Sarah Steele - Correspondence of morphological divergence across genotypes in response to diet follows evolutionary divergence of ecologically specialized morphs
Sebastien Matlosz - DNA methylation in Arctic charr: Epigenetics to explain resource polymorphism.
Are there ants under Reykjavík?
Are there ants under Reykjavík?
"Most Icelanders probably think that there are no ants in Iceland, just as I did when I first arrived here, but our research has revealed five different species that have settled here. Four thrive in houses due to the heat and the humidity, but one species lives outside in gardens," says Marco Mancini, master student in biology at the University of Iceland and a member of the antsquad at the University's Institute of Biology. The squad maps the distribution of ants in Iceland, and examines whether there are giant ant colonies in the city's sewage system.
The project is called Ants in Iceland (Maurar á Íslandi) and is linked to Marco's master project. The project is conduced under the supervision of Arnar Pálsson, professor of bioinformatics and Mariana Lucia Tamayo, associate professor in Environment and Natural Resources. Andreas Guðmundsson, BS student in biology is also involved in the project.
Ant queen.
Master of Science (MS) program on aquatic biology and fisheries
The oceans are fundamental ecosystems on the planet and source the most important resources for Icelands economy. The University of Iceland (UI) and the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) collaborate to offer a multidisciplinary two-year Master of Science (MS) program on aquatic biology and fisheries, emphasizing freshwater and marine ecology and fisheries in sub-Arctic environments. The program will be instigated in 2020 as a specialization within MS in Biology.
Students can take projects at the Institute of Biology, the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute and also at other affiliated institutions and research centers. Students are admitted based on merit (see University of Iceland webpage) and will find a project and supervisor in the first year of study.
Picture of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from the University of Iceland collections.
The Marine and Freshwater Research Institute has many research areas, including but exclusive to Fish tagging, Lumpfish research, Oceanography, Seabed mapping, Seal research and Whale Research.
The Institute of biology studies many aspects of marine and aquatic biology, spanning questions of ecology and evolution, to toxicology and behavioral biology.
See for instance a list of previous MS projects in the fields of marine-, aquatic- and fish biology.
Some examples of the research topics and potential supervisors are listed below.
- What is the population structure and diversity of fisheries stocks? Einar Arnason, Steve Campana, Gudrun Marteinsdottir, Snæbjörn Pálsson
- How do fishing stocks respond to fishing and climate change? Einar Arnason, Steve Campana, Gudrun Marteinsdottir
- How did freshwater amphipods survive million years under the glaciers? Snæbjörn Pálsson
- How do cod stocks evolve and change over the last century? Einar Arnason, Steve Campana
- Which genes and environments explain the diversity of Arctic charr? Sigurdur S. Snorrason, Arnar Pálsson, Zophonías O. Jónsson
- How related are different populations of Arctic charr and Brown trout in Iceland? Sigurdur S. Snorrason, Arnar Pálsson, Zophonías O. Jónsson
- What explains the diversity and distribution of whelk in subartic waters? Snæbjörn Pálsson, Zophonías O. Jónsson
- What influences changes in the biota of freshwater streams? Gísli Már Gíslason
- What are the migration dynamics of birds in the Arctic? Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson.
- Which microbes live in the intertidal? Eva Benediktsdottir