Bringing myself up to speed on marine biology

[DropkickMurphy]

I am in hopes that some of you might have suggestions for me regarding good texts or electronic resources on any aspect of the marine life of the Bahamas, particularly the area around Long Island. I have been invited down there to do research at some point (yet to be determined) after June of next year and need to prepare.

 

[archman]

Uh, you forgot to mention what your own research expertise lies in. That's kinda important.

What specific marine taxa? And what aspects of such taxa?

It would also be nice to know if the research you would be doing is primarily laboratory or field based in nature.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Uh, you forgot to mention what your own research expertise lies in. That's kinda important.

What specific marine taxa? And what aspects of such taxa?

It would also be nice to know if the research you would be doing is primarily laboratory or field based in nature.

I'm a biology student, but my area of research knowledge is toxicology.

My primary interest for this project is in mollusks and anemones. We haven't narrowed down it anything past that, and even other taxa might be worked with depending on availability and other factors. We are planning on gathering specimens in the field (hence my trip and why the professor was excited to learn I am a diver) and then working with them in a lab.

 

[archman]

For field ID's, get the Humann Reef Invertebrate Guide (2nd edition).

I assume your prof will acquire the Bahamian Ministry permits to perform research and collect animals while on scuba. Anemones and most gastropods do pretty well in aquaria... the bivalves can be iffy and I assume you don't want anything to do with chitons or cephalopods.

Your prof's specific expertise will best determine what you'll be doing with your animals. That and whatever equipment you either have down there or are lugging down. Plus whatever grant research is ultimately funding the trip in the first place. Is the research ecological, environmental, physiological, taxonomic, genetic, conservation, behavioral, nutritional, or something else? If you're toxicology folks, you'll likely be taking tissue samples or measuring pollutants in the water or sediments.

Bahamians are obsessed with queen conch. There are reams and reams of research on those things. So unless you plan something particularly novel or a continuation of earlier work, stay away from that species.

The Bulletin of Marine Science often carries a large percentage of Caribbean and Bahamas-based research. So does the Caribbean Journal of Science. These are both fairly general.

It sounds like you've got things backwards. A location to do work, but no clear idea of what that work will be. That really puts a limitation on our ability to give you useful advice. What you might try is visiting this site:
http://www.amlc-carib.org/en/index.html?&L=0

Go here to download a listing of current member laboratories.
http://www.amlc-carib.org/en/networking_opportunities/index.html?&L=0

From these, look around to see what current research is being conducted, or what sorts of collaboration you might hope to get in with. Some of the labs may also have a list of prior research performed at their facility. Finding patterns in subject titles may give you ideas. I recommend going to NURP's Perry Island facility website first, as they're fairly high-tech and U.S.-backed.
http://www.perryinstitute.org/index.htm

You can also of course check out NOAA's CoRIS site, but really they're more focused on natural resources, corals, and fish. But it's a big site, and you may find something useful.
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/

 

[DropkickMurphy]

The reason we're doing it effectively backwards is because the idea of working with the local critters came up- from myself, not my professor (who is a biochemist by the way)- when he mentioned where he was relocating to. I've had a week so far to try to proceed with the leg work on figuring out what there is down there that we could investigate. The research I am looking at doing is probably best described as physiological with possible pharmacological implications.

Funding shouldn't be a problem, my school alone hands out $10,000 grants like they are going out of style to any student with an idea that even seems mildly plausible.

Thank you for the references......

 

[archman]

Realistically for any scientist, it'll probably take at least a few months to hone in on specific ideas or game plans. Once you start tracking down suitable references, and the next step, refining references from those references, there will a lengthy *correspondence period* with various researchers, government officials, and facility managers to:
-verify that no one else has already done said research (wouldn't that suck?)
-that said research is legal and feasible given resources, expertise, and time
-correct inevitable stupid assumptions and answer inevitable stupid questions (I hate this part but it is tremendously important)
-update you on most current news (ongoing research, corrections, science changes, etc...)

So you have PLENTY OF TIME.

The "physiological to pharmacological" slant is actually a pretty good choice, and quite popular (particularly in central in south america). It allows you to focus on very specific taxa, and even better, only narrow attributes of such taxa. Off the top of my head, there's ongoing pharmacological research with:
-sunscreens (mostly corals or algae I think)
-painkillers (cone and turrid snails, jellyfish)
-anticancer
-sponges (for something I cannot recall)

Not being a biochemist, I have no idea how you people do any of this stuff. All I know is, it's a solid field and most researchers are lab flunkies limited by their ability to collect wild specimens. Ha, maybe you can track down some of these labs and become a local "supplier" for in-demand Caribbean fauna. After all, somebody has to have the collecting permits.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Realistically for any scientist, it'll probably take at least a few months to hone in on specific ideas or game plans. Once you start tracking down suitable references, and the next step, refining references from those references, there will a lengthy *correspondence period* with various researchers, government officials, and facility managers to:
-verify that no one else has already done said research (wouldn't that suck?)
-that said research is legal and feasible given resources, expertise, and time
-correct inevitable stupid assumptions and answer inevitable stupid questions (I hate this part but it is tremendously important)
-update you on most current news (ongoing research, corrections, science changes, etc...)

So you have PLENTY OF TIME.

The "physiological to pharmacological" slant is actually a pretty good choice, and quite popular (particularly in central in south america). It allows you to focus on very specific taxa, and even better, only narrow attributes of such taxa. Off the top of my head, there's ongoing pharmacological research with:
-sunscreens (mostly corals or algae I think)
-painkillers (cone and turrid snails, jellyfish)
-anticancer
-sponges (for something I cannot recall)

Not being a biochemist, I have no idea how you people do any of this stuff. All I know is, it's a solid field and most researchers are lab flunkies limited by their ability to collect wild specimens. Ha, maybe you can track down some of these labs and become a local "supplier" for in-demand Caribbean fauna. After all, somebody has to have the collecting permits.

I believe the sponge research is also looking at antineopalstic agents, since one of my friends is working on research like that at Georgia Tech.

I am in no hurry to get this going (although the sooner I get to dive in water with good viz, the better, especially if someone else is paying for it LOL) and I was counting on a lengthy lead time for it since every other project I have done has had a similar start up.

Thank you for all your advice though

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I am reminded, after looking through websites of AMLC labs, just how many totally pointless and mind-numbingly boring research projects there are out there. It seems like the majority of the marine labs out there are not doing anything very productive with all the money being thrown at them. It's rather sad.

 

[archman]

It seems like the majority of the marine labs out there are not doing anything very productive with all the money being thrown at them. It's rather sad.

These generally are not U.S. facilities, and don't operate the same way. Most of these places fund themselves by operating as "researcher bed and breakfasts". Only trickles (I mean this literally) of government money, if any at all.

So much of the research going on at these places are little short-term projects by visitors, or lightweight local monitoring stuff. There usually isn't any fancy equipment on site... you're often lucky to just have reliable air conditioning in your "work space". This places marked restrictions on the type of research that can be performed on site. Most people use field stations merely to collect specimens or environmental data, to take back to their *real lab*.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I was talking about the ones I was in the US as well. How many people does it take to investigate coral bleaching for crying out loud? Or, even worse, the ones who are spending their time and funding on something so esoteric that it will never prove useful. I know people have to do research to get tenure, but they should have to prove that its productive in some tangible way. Granted, I feel this way about about half of the research that goes on at universities.....who cares about genotypic vs phenotypic differences in fence lizards* and how is it going to make my life (or anyone's for that matter) better?


*- I used this as an example because my BIO 101 prof at my old school was researching this and I had to sit through a 90-minute presentation on it. It was so dull that if I had had my pocketknife with me, I would have slit my wrists.