Gephyrocapsa: 31 isolates in Caen, more in ETHZ Calcidiscus leptoporus: 6 isolates in Caen, 1 sent from
Tsukuba. Umbilicosphaera sibogae: 1new isolate of U .s. sibogae,
and hopefully one U. s. foliosa from Tsukuba Coccolithus pelagicus: still not in Caen collection, but should
not be a problem. Helicosphaera carteri, Syracosphaera pulchra - no isolates yet
and the only previously isolated strains (Inouye, Tsukuba) have since
died.
2. INFORMATION ON CODENET ACTIVITIES
2.1 Summary of activity by research task (DRAFT)
RT1. Culture isolation and maintenance (ETHZ, U. Caen)
Culture isolation is an essential prerequisite for all other
culture-based research hence this has been the research task which has
received most attention this year. Ian Probert at Caen has concentrated
almost exclusively on this since January. His work has included: (1)
Requesting all relevant strains from culture collections, and reviewing
them which revealed numerous misidentifications and/or contaminations.
(2) Isolating new strains based on material collected during short
cruises by sent to him by other participants. Assistance in this activity
has come from the CSIC, Lisbon and NHM teams. (3) Arranging new water
collecting opportunities - including further cruise participation and
application to several TMR LSF projects. (4) Maintenance of the culture
collection - a rapidly growing task as new strains are added, other
members of the Caen group help here. Isolates so far include 31 strains
of Gephyrocapsa oceanica, 6 x Calcidiscus leptoporus, and
13 x Emiliania huxleyi.
In ETHZ Christine Klaas has continued culture isolation and maintenance
work begin before the CODENET program started. A key recent success
during a visit to Larry Brand in Miami has been isolation of
Umbilicosphaera sibogae var. sibogae.
The CSIC has been assisting Ian's work through local water sampling and
also recently were able to arrange delivery of cultures from Isao Inouye,
(Tsukuba Japan). These should include U. sibogae var.
foliosa.
Summary of success by species (see also separate list of cultures):
RT2. Life-Cycle study (Caen)
The U. Caen work in this area has not commenced yet, beyond
observation of strains in culture. Invaluable new perspectives have,
however, come from observations by Lluisa Cros (CSIC) of combination
coccospheres with holococcoliths and heterococcoliths. A major
publication from this work has been submitted, with co-authors from Caen,
VUA and NHM.
RT3. Molecular genetics (AWI)
YVR, Alberto Garcia Saez has been appointed based initially in
Erlangen working on plastid genome projects. Most time has been spent in
development of facilities, including culture facilities and background
studies. With Linda Medlin 18S rRNA based phylogeny for the haptophytes
has been produced. This broadly supports existing views on their
phylogeny and classification, including separation of Pavlovales and
Prymnesiales, and also provides interesting new insights, e.g.
subdivision of Chrysochromulina into two major groups (one of
which is paraphyletic), strongly polyphyletic origin for the
Isochrysidales (leaving as core group Isochrysis, Gephyrocapsa and
Emiliania). This work was presented at the flagellates conference
in Birmingham. It is intended to extend the work to include as wide a
range of coccolithophorid species as possible, assistance here from other
groups in providing material and checking identifications makes CODENET
an ideal framework for the project.
RT4. Lipid biomarker composition and palaeothermal calibration
(NIOZ).
YVR Hanno Kinkel appointed at NIOZ. Post taken up in May and most
subsequent time spent in learning new skills, having previously worked
mainly on coccolithophorid palaeontology. Research program for study of
lipid biomarkers within CODENET being developed - key priorities will
include checking for presence of biomarkers across taxonomy, study of
lipid biomarker composition in data sets for which taxonomic controls
available - including geological, sediment trap and plankton samples.
There was considerable discussion during the workshops on ways of
co-ordinating this type of sample based work. Culture work is planned to
investigate uk37 temperature correlations across a range of species.
RT5. Photosynthetic pigment studies. (CSIC)
YVR Kees van Lenning appointed at CSIC. He has previously worked in
the area and has existing datasets and samples to form basis of CODENET
project, which will of course be directed at special study of pigment
variation in coccolithophorids, and especially the six key taxa. Major
culture experiments are planned to investigate the effect of varying
irradiance levels on pigment composition.
RT6. Coccolith ultrastructure analysis (NHM)
This work will be mainly a project of Jeremy Young, extending a well
established collaboration with Prof Steve Mann at University of Bath (a
formally agreed CODENET participant within the NHM team). At Bath Dr.
Sean Davis has a Leverhulme funded Post Doc to work in this area. In
addition the NHM has purchased a new very high resolution field emission
SEM. Current activity includes preparation of review ms, and publication
of detailed work on various species, including C. pelagicus. New work is
planned on the CODENET species as good culture material becomes available
and on holococcoliths from wild material (this will co-ordinate with
morphological work in this area by L. Cros (CSIC) and A. Kleijne (VUA).
RT7. TEM fine structural studies (U. Caen)
Work in this area has not commenced yet but with isolation of
cultures of previously unstudied species obvious research opportunities
are being developed. In particular study of the sub-species U.
sibogae var. sibogae is tantalising since LM observations show
that it is semi-colonial with multiple cells per coccosphere,.
RT8. Phylogenetic synthesis (NHM, AWI)
Work in this area is mainly a late stage project as data from other
studies becomes available.
RT9. Physiological characterisation (NHM, ETHZ, CSIC, NIOZ)
No teams are planning extensive culture experiments purely to work on
physiological characterisation. Relevant culture experiments are however
planned by numerous groups with other primary objectives. These include:
CSIC effects of varying irradiance levels, for pigment studies; NIOZ
effects of varying temperature, for lipid biomarker studies; ETHZ effects
of varying temperature, for coccolith morphology studies; NHM - growth in
light-temperature cross-gradient cabinet for study of coccolith
morphology and characterisation of cell variation between log-phase and
stationery phase.
Culture techniques were well covered in the workshop, especially in the
training session. Co-ordination of culture studies to ensure maximum
benefit is made of the range of studies being carried out was not
discussed adequately.
RT10. Morphological work on cultured samples (NHM, ETHZ, MNHN-UL)
Christine Klaas, ETHZ, has commenced work in this area, comparing
Gephyrocapsa coccoliths grown in culture with those seen in nature -
based on morphotype identification work of Joerg Bollman. Cultured
coccoliths show slight malformation (notably bridges are often
incomplete) but in general the range of morphometric variability is
similar to that in natural clusters. Values of morphometric variation
(especially bridge angle vs coccolith length) do not change significantly
with temperature conditions. These observations broadly support the
hypothesis of predominantly genotypic variation for the observed
parameters, however the actual values seen in culture fall between
clusters seen in nature situation is still somewhat problematic.
Continued work in this area is in hand at EHZ and planned at NHM.
RT11. Plankton assemblages - ecological characterisation (ETHZ,
FdA-VUA, CSIC, MNHN-UL)
This is an area many of the research teams have been working in for a
long time. Studies were presented by Hans Thierstein on time series
studies of the relationship of coccolithophorid assemblages to
physico-chemical parameters and by Mario Cachão and Marta Estrada
on the relationship of coccolithophorid assemblages to physical
oceanography and seasonal succession. Subsequent discussions highlighted
an obvious need for integrated studies combining inverted light
microscope counts of fixed samples total phytoplankton and filter samples
of calcareous nannoplankton. This is particularly so since a comparison
of results from the two techniques by Lluisa Cros (CSIC) and Franco
Novarino (NHM) showed that traditional fixing techniques frequently
resulted in dissolution of coccolithophores.
Continuing studies are in hand by various teams, these are mainly being
carried out in the context of other projects, e.g. CANIGO (ETHZ, Bremen)
and MATER (CSIC, NHM). opportunities are being taken, however, to refocus
these studies to address CODENET objectives. For example Markus Geisen
(NHM) will participate in a CANIGO cruise collecting samples for
integrated lipid analysis and coccolithophorid counts. Similarly other
teams outside the original core-funded group are arranging to participate
in the CODENET project paying special attention to the CODENET species
within their studies - this includes work in Milano (Elisabetta Erba, )
and Firenze (Simonetta Monechi, Marco Pozzi).
Opportunities for small scale CODENET cruises are being pursued by the
Lisbon and NIOZ groups. Literature synthesis studies are being carried
out by Annelies Kleijne (VUA) and various ETHZ scientists.
RT12. Sediment trap studies - flux rates and seasonal succession.
(ETHZ, FdA-VUA, NIOZ)
The VUA team have been working intensively in this field over the
last several years in connection with the GEM project, with emphasis on
quantifying the role of coccolithophorids in sediment fluxes. ETHZ has
also been actively studying sediment traps, notably in the context of the
CANIGO project.
A summary of available sediment trap samples has been produced by
Patrizia Ziveri and synthesis of data on distribution of the CODENET taxa
in previously studied samples is in hand.
Planned research, focuses on use of time series data to study seasonal
succession and related morphological variability including: (1) Patrizia
Ziveri (VUA), U. sibogae, S. pulchra, H. carteri. (2) Sabrina
Renaud, Christine Klaas (ETHZ). (3) Karl-Heinz Baumann (Bremen) and Mario
Cachão (Lisbon), Coccolithus pelagicus. (4) Hanno Kinkel
(NIOZ) - lipid biomarkers.
RT13. Holocene sediment samples - global biogeography. (ETHZ, FdA-VUA
MNHN-UL).
A common sample set of about 50 samples is being selected to provide
a broad sampling of global biogeography and of the major oceanographic
regimes (upwelling zones, marginal seas etc.). This work is being
co-ordinated by the ETHZ group and the first approx. 30 samples have been
prepared during the CODENET geological sample preparation workshops. They
have been distributed to the ETHZ, NHM, VUA and Lisbon groups who will
carry out assemblage analysis, calculation of specific flux rates, and
morphometric studies of the key species.
RT14. Geological sample studies - microevolution and ecological
response. (NHM, ETHZ, FdA-VUA, MNHN-UL).
A set of samples has been requested from the ODP and prepared during
ETHZ sample preparation workshops. The sample set is from 6 sites, with
god oxygen isotope stratigraphy. At each slice samples have been selected
from approx 0Ma, 1.0Ma, 2.0Ma, 3.0Ma and 4.0Ma, using the isotope record
to select a pair of samples reflecting climatic maxima and minima. The
samples will be studied by Sabrina Renaud (ETHZ), Markus Geisen (NHM),
and Mario Cachão (MNHN-UL). This sample set will allow
investigation of (1) paleobiogeography (2) the effect of climate (3)
reconnaissance of major evolutionary developments. Large (10 cc) samples
were requested from ODP, to allow comparative study of planktic forams
(ETHZ and probably Michal Kucera, University of California, Santa
Barbara), these samples should also be suitable for lipid study (NIOZ). A
complimentary sample set from sections in Southern Italy is to be
collected from Utrecht, on the suggestion of Gerard Versteegh (NIOZ).
Extensive experimentation was carried out to compare different
quantitative preparation techniques (spraying, filtration and settling).
Two techniques mss are in preparation based on this.
RT15. Macroevolutionary studies - divergence times of the lineages.
(NHM, ETHZ).
Work on this is planned to take place via collaboration between
specialist nannofossil palaeontologists not otherwise actively in the
project, notably Paul Bown (UCL), Katharina von Salis (ETHZ), Ben Prins
(VUA). Relevant recently completed work includes the new syntheses of
"Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy" (Bown 1998, ed.) and nannofossil
taxonomy (Young & Bown 1997). Emanuella Matioli (Perugia) will be
carrying out detailed analysis of critical events in early Jurassic
placolith evolution at the NHM (funded via the TMR LSF program
BIORESOURCE).