Today is World Oceans Day with the 2016 theme being “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet”. As part of a the effort by Nature Microbiology to highlight some recent research in marine science, we got the chance to participate with a Q & A section about Aiptasia. Check it out!
Archives for June 2016
OKINAWA 2016: Arigato Gozeimas
By Philipp & Diana
After a busy week taking care of all the Acropora larvae and finalizing our experiments, we went on a final night snorkel with amazing bioluminescence on Saturday. On Sunday, we had our last day at Sesoko which was filled with filtering larvae and packing all of our equipment. We stayed up late to pack the larvae we wanted to bring to Germany as late as possible and finally went to bed after cleaning the lab at 1.30 a.m. On Monday, we got up at 5.30 to get to the airport for our flight back. After a 20 h journey, we got back to the lab in Heidelberg where Liz and Annika waited for us.Together, we unpacked the larvae and put them into new containers and gave them fresh sea water. Most larvae survived and seem to like it in our lab.
Our two weeks in Okinawa went by way too fast. We really enjoyed the field work together with our Japanese collaborators. One highlight was the amazing coral reef by the Sesoko Marine Station and at the South tip of Sesoko. Hopefully, we can come back next year and see some awesome creatures like the octopi, sea snakes, puffer fish and stone fish and cornetfish again. ARIGATO GOZEIMAS.
OKINAWA 2016: Finally the coral babies arrived
By Philipp & Diana:
After waiting for spawning, Annika missed the spawning by two nights. On Thursday night, 2 sick colonies in the water tables spawned. The following day,we went to the East coast of Okinawa to find Mangroves and look for anemones. Unfortunately we did not spot any but we saw some mudhoppers and lots of crabs. That night, a few more colonies spawned and Masayuki and Reyna were able to also collect some larvae in the field.
Interestingly, the following day, all remaining colonies spawned giving us plenty of eggs. On the same day, spawning of A. tenuis and A. gemnifera occured in the field.
Of course that meant that we needed to spend considerable time taking care of all the larvae. Masayuki and his team showed us how to wash them and keep them happy and the following days were spent doing just that.
After a day full of sampling on Sunday, we took Liz to the airport on Monday morning and moved to the guest house at Sesoko. A day later, our Japanese collaborators left Sesoko, leaving just Diana and me to take care of all the larvae. We set up a bunch of infections and had our plate full just taking care of that.
