Introduction
Considering animals most people think about vertebrates and thereby especially mammals and birds. These are often considered the most sophisticated and evolutionary successful animals on Earth. However, this is not true taking into account evolutionary history, biodiversity, ecology or biomass. Invertebrates outshine vertebrates in all these categories. Moreover, invertebrates have evolved novel structures and inhabited habitats unoccupied by vertebrates. Hence, invertebrates have much to teach us about evolution in general and in particular. On the other hand, except for a few flagship species and groups, invertebrates are heavily understudied, especially considering marine invertebrates. The latter is especially important as all animals live depends on water and originated from the marine realm. Hence, understanding the evolution of marine invertebrates will help us to understand evolution at much more detailed and complete level.
The topic of this thesis will build upon the results of the ArtsDatabanken-project “Biodiversity in the marine algae belt”. The marine algae belt comprising kelp forests, seagrass meadows and rocky reefs with coralline red seaweeds is one of the most active primary producing environments in the sea. It also harbors a great diversity of animals including sea squirts, ribbon worms, nick worms, serpulid worms, spionid worms and skeleton shrimps. The species of these groups occupy important ecological functions as herbivores, predators and filter feeding organisms and can be sessile or agile as well as solitary or colonial. Globally these taxa comprise more than 7,000 species with around 250 species documented from Norwegian waters. This is why we conducted a field inventory and collected species of these taxa in Norway (from the Skagerrak up to Troms?). With morphological and molecular methods, we determined species and learned more about their distribution and their association with Norwegian nature types. These efforts resulted into the record of 624 collection samples with 944 specimens of 73 species from these animal groups and 43 localities in Viken, Tr?ndelag, Vestland, and Troms og Finnmark comprising 19 Norwegian nature types. Our results show that we have found 3 species and 1 subspecies, which are new to Norway, and at least 10, which are new to science, but there may be 7 additional ones. However, the first analyses concerning the new species also showed that much more detailed studies on these are necessary. This is where this Master project will work on.
Entoprocta (or Kamptozoa) are one of the smaller animal phyla with only about 200 described species. They are sessile or colonial filter feeders and are mostly exclusively marine. Especially, the colonial forms can live attached to various substrates, which include different forms of algae, but also shells and rocks. Accordingly, they should be found in all three targeted habitats, but predominantly in rocky reefs with coralline red seaweeds. We found them only on red and brown algae, but not on kelp or seagrass.
We found two species at two localities. One of the two species is most likely a species new to science as the molecular data revealed. Morphologically, it is similar to Barentsia matsushimana, but it is most likely new species as it is about 15% different to B. matsushimana sequences in BOLD. It occurs at one locality in the Bergen at different algae associated with a seagrass meadow. You will apply a genome skimming approach to obtain additional data. You will also collect additional specimens in Bergen to include additional colonies. Detailed morphological investigations will also be included using among others DIC microscopy. Additionally, you will review the literature to investigate B. matsushimana has already been reported as an invasive species, in case it should not be a new species.
What you will learn:
You will learn to conduct taxonomic identification, genomic approaches and morphological investigations. This will include among others molecular barcoding and DIC microscopy. You will apply programs for phylogenetic reconstruction and conduct statistical analyses of your results.
What we offer:
First and foremost, we offer a friendly and kind mentoring environment. We offer a membership in ForBio (the research school in biosystematics) where you will be able to take courses in several places in Norway. You will potentially be able to attend international courses if they fit with the objectives. You will be able to participate in a national conference (ForBio meeting) and potentially in an international conference depending on funding. If you are interested, we will be able to discuss travel opportunities and a travelling period abroad.
What we expect from you:
Commitment and dedication
Outcomes:
One (or more) scientific publications, conference communication
Supervision and teaching:
You will be supervised by Torsten Struck, and Ana Teresa Capucho (both UiO).
For further inquiries, please contact Torsten Struck (t.h.struck@nhm.uio.no)