Symposium 75th birthday Jörg Ott

More than 100 people came together on May, 12^th to celebrate Jörg Ott’s 75^th birthday. The symposium included presentations on the dark ocean by Gerhard Herndl, ciliate, tubeworm, nematode and plathelminth symbioses by Monika Bright, Silvia Bulgheresi, and Harald Gruber-Vodicka, the history of Marine Science in Austria by Reinhard Kickinger, 1x Calvi and retour – Jörg as travel guide by Michael Schagerl, and an overview on Jörg’s scientific life by Fritz Schiemer. The evening continued with excellent food and great live music by Michael Schagerl’s Band and Rudi Novak on bagpiges.

Master Thesis: Functional patterns of shallow macrozoobenthic communities in a high Arctic fjord (79° N)

The aim of this study is to explore the biological trait patterns of macrozoobenthic communities in the Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen. The master student will analyze data from samples taken in 15 m water depth in summer 2008 and winter 2009, in vicinity and in higher distance to the Kongsbreen glacier (Kędra et al. 2011). Via literature research and the inspection of voucher specimens the student will build a trait database and conduct a biological trait approach (BTA). This master thesis is based on the cooperation with Dr. Monika Kędra from the Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN) in Sopot, Poland, and involves a research visit at IOPAN at the Baltic Sea (funding available). The main part will be conducted at the Department of Limnology & Bio-Oceanography in Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Monika Bright and Dr. Renate Degen.

Requirements: Curriculum Ecology and Ecosystems (066 833) or Zoology (066 831). Successful completion of VO ‘Meereskunde’ and PP ‘Einführung in die Fauna und Flora mariner Lebensräume‘. Additional zoological training and basics in (multivariate) statistics and R will be beneficial.

Contact: renate.degen(at)univie.ac.at

The struggle to survive

Instead of taking up food with the mouth, little gutless tubeworms house sulfur bacteria in their body. They pick them up from the environment as soon as they settle on rocks after dispersing as larvae in the water. Tubeworms provide shelter for the bacteria. They feed their symbionts with inorganic gases so that they can grow like plants on land. In return the symbionts provide food to the tubeworm host so that they grow and reproduce in the absence of a digestive system. Both partners benefit from each other in this mutualistic relationship. However, life may be short because vent fluid eventually ceases. What happens to the bacteria after a tubeworm dies? They are trapped in a dead body that decays without gases to sustain autotrophic growth. Not to die with their host, the symbionts must leave the dead tubeworm.

How they manage we study in high-pressure aquaria where we incubate live symbionts in dead host tissue. We offer them food like sugar to investigate whether they can switch to a heterotroph life style during their escape.  Such experiments were done during the cruise to the East Pacific Rise with the research vessel Atlantis and collecting samples with the submersible Alvin in October 2016.

Go to the blog in facebook hydrothermal vent for more details.

What do anemone, shipworms, roundworms and clams have in common?

The first course in Marine Microbial Symbiosis took place at the Institute of Marine Biology in Piran, Slovenia in July 2016. Supported by the teachers Monika Bright and Silvia Bulgheresi, the tutor Lukas Schuster and the PhD students Gabriela Paredes and Salvador Espada Hinojosa, the eleven students of the course investigate four different symbioses: the anemone Anemonia viridis and its photoautotrophic microalgae, the shipworm Teredo navalis and its nitrogen-fixing bacteria, a newly discovered stilbonematinae roundworm Eubostrichus sp. and its chemoautotrophic ectosymbionts, and the clam Loripes lacteus and its chemoautotrophic endosymbionts.

To follow the course, go to facebook – hydrothermal vent