Collaborator of the Month: Thomas Brey

For 25 years now, Dr. Thomas Brey has been a Senior Scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI), Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (Bremerhaven, Germany). Currently, he is also the Head of Biosciences Division and Deputy Head of the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity in Oldenburg. 

Piqued by his interest in marine benthic invertebrates, he completed his PhD thesis, “The impact of physical and biological factors on structure and dynamics of the sublittoral Macoma-community in Kiel Bay,” from 1986 to 1988.  He then started his post-doctoral fellowship at  AWI in 1989, and, after heading several working groups, became the head of section “Functional Ecology” in 2009 [1].

His current research interest revolves around building geo-referenced marine ecological information systems, with focus on marine benthic invertebrates of Polar Seas, climate change, population dynamics, trophic ecology, mollusk sclerochronology, and scientific management among others [2,3]. As of 2018, he has written over 190 publications and overseen 46 PhD theses, 38 MSc and Diploma theses, and 15 BA theses.

Thomas Brey has been a SeaLifeBase collaborator since 2009 and has contributed population dynamics data, specifically substantial data on mass conversion factors. 

Early 2018, through a funding from the Alfred Wegener Institut, FishBase and SeaLifebase—global biodiversity information systems on all marine fish and non-fish of the world—have started to improve the coverage of marine biodiversity of the Polar Seas.Led by Thomas Brey, the project started in January 2018 and, as of August 2018, around 892 references were used to assign fish and other marine metazoans. With the teams' effort and support from collaborators, 7,025 species have been documented in the region and made available through FishBase and SealifeBase: 497 bony fishes, 21 sharks, 199 vertebrates, at least 6186 invertebrates, and 78 plants. This has been a good start, since, to date, more than 8,000 marine species have been estimated in Polar Seas.

-------------

[1] Alfred Wegener Institut. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2SfPkxy

[2] ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2q8gTvM

[3] Google Scholar. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2z4wY9W

Collaborator of the Month: Dr. Charlie (J.E.N) Veron

If you have worked on corals and coral reefs, then you're probably well acquainted with the most comprehensive resource for corals there is, the 3-volume Corals of The World by John Edward Norwood Veron or as cited in the scientific community, J.E.N or Charlie Veron. Can you imagine your life without such a valuable resource? The thing is, Charlie Veron almost did not become a scientist. 

He is known today as the "Godfather of Coral" and likened by David Attenborough to Charles Darwin.

In his memoir A Life Underwater, Charlie chronicles his love for marine life as a child, his long holdup (how he almost didn't make it back to the sea), how one chance helped him pursue his true passion, and how he became a revolutionary self-taught coral specialist.

His work has been instrumental in our present understanding of coral reefs, from how they reproduce to how they evolve, and how they, in the light of climate change, have been dying. "Without his early work we wouldn't have had the basic benchmarks to see the nature of the changes that we are now seeing. He provided that baseline to put everything in context," says the scientist Tim Flannery [1].

Veron's contributions to coral reefs and marine biology are monumental. He was the first to compile a global taxonomy on corals. Also, contrary to common notion, he shed light that the the Indo-Philippines archipelago has the most diverse corals in the world, not the Great Barrier Reef. He is also known for his seminal theory, Reticulate evolution, on how corals have evolved [1]. 

To date, he he has worked on all the major coral reef regions of the world and has over 100 research publications, including 12 books and monographs on corals and coral reefs. 

Among his many books, his three-volume Corals of the World (2000), with his permission to use data and photos, has been invaluable to documenting the diversity of reef-building corals in SealifeBase. 

Over his 50-year career, Veron hasn't only been an insatiable learner of corals. He's been fearless in protecting the marine life he has reveled in his whole life. 

In his memoir, his adventures urge us not only to guard scholarly independence, but more importantly to learn to be persistent and take risks. He explains why today is the most pivotal time to protect our incredible marine life.

You may purchase Charlie's delightful memoir through this link.

_______

[1] Elliott, T. (2017, July 14). Live near the beach? Coral reef expert Charlie Veron has some advice for you. The Age. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2vFfOMo

Collaborator of the Month: Lucas Brotz

Photo courtesy of Lucas Brotz

Lucas Brotz holds a Bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics and a Master’s degree in Oceanography. Currently, he is undertaking his doctorate in Zoology at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries under the guidance of the esteemed Dr. Daniel Pauly. He is also working with the Sea Around Us.

His research focuses mainly on changing jellyfish populations and jellyfish fisheries, as well as the economic impacts of jellyfish blooms. A study that he published in 2012 together with UBC scientists was the first attempt to identify changes in global jellyfish abundance. Analysis of available data from 1950 to the present confirmed a remarkable rise in their populations. This was evident in 28 of the world’s Large Marine Ecosystems, or 62 percent of the regions analyzed.  

Consequently, this study has immense implications for humans and ecosystems. Negative impacts of this global phenomenon are felt on human activities like fishing, aquaculture, tourism, power generation, and desalination, among others. Aside from exploiting jellyfish as a food source, people may have to resort to creative ways to reduce economic loss. No single factor is responsible for increasing jellyfish blooms, but mounting evidence suggests that pollution, aquaculture, fishing, shipping, global warming, and coastal development are likely to contribute to this observed rise. UBC scientists urge that subsequent studies on jellyfish populations and awareness are vital to make sure we still have fishes, and not just jellyfishes, on our plates.

Lucas Brotz makes use of SeaLifeBase for jellyfish taxonomy as well as FishBase, since he is also studying the dynamics between jellyfish populations and fisheries. He has contributed data on taxonomic updates of jellyfish, photographs of jellyfish, and scientific papers on jellyfish populations as well as the results of his MSc Thesis.

Cheers to more years of collaborating with you!

________________________

The University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre . http://www.fisheries.ubc.ca/students/lucas-brotz [Accessed 6/29/2015]

The University of British Columbia. http://news.ubc.ca/2012/04/18/jellyfish-on-the-rise-ubc-study/  [Accessed 6/29/2015]

Written by:

Collaborator of the Week: Denis Lepage

Denis Lepage’s most notable work is his creation of a massive online resource on birds, the Avibase. As a passionate birdwatcher, it all started as a personal endeavour of having a catalogue for his own sightings. Eventually, it became more than that. The database is standing for more than 20 years now and it has been available online since 2003. It hosts an astounding 14 million records - encompassing 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds with details on their taxonomy, distribution and synonyms in many languages.

Aside from overseeing the database he founded, he is currently a Senior Scientist at the National Data Center, Bird Studies Canada. His resolve in creating the database is rooted in a disciplined organization of the entire bird taxonomy, with the utmost goal of  mapping out the evolution of bird taxonomy and devising concrete solutions for inconsistencies in taxonomic concepts and scientific names. In response to these nomenclature intricacies, he submitted a paper in ZooKeys (http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=3906)whereby his concepts are integrated in Avibase and can then be utilized by other taxonomic groups.

Furthermore, over 10,000 checklists from different countries and regions can be accessed in Avibase. This database encourages people to actively participate by contributing data and sharing their experiences. No doubt that many birdwatchers, along with educators and enthusiasts alike, find his database very useful and interactive.

Being a collaborator of SeaLifeBase, he has supplied invaluable information on seabirds. For that, we are grateful and hopeful for more years of collaborating with you. 

____________________

Biodiversity Heritage Library. Avibase, The World Bird Database. http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2014/08/avibase-world-bird-database.html [Accessed 4/19/2015]. 

Written by:

Collaborator of the Week: Dr. Bertrand RICHER de FORGES

“There’s no real retirement for a marine biologist, we have so many things to do.” [1]

A core statement from a retired marine biology expert, Dr. Bertrand Richer de Forges. His words emphasized an aspect of a man’s character that is very strong and unchangeable with regards to his profession.

Dr. Richer de Forges was born in France and studied marine biology in Paris VI University. He finished his first thesis in biological oceanography on the crab of Kerguelen Island, Halicarcinus planatus in 1976 and eventually, his second PhD thesis in Marine Biology from the Museum in Paris in 1998.  He is known as a taxonomist of deep-sea crabs from tropical zones and author of extensive publications including several books on the Coral reef fauna. His career has been ceaseless for the past 40 years, 5 years of which were spent at sea, sampling the deep sea benthos of the Indo-Pacific.

In 2008, he retired from French Institute of Research for Development (ex-ORSTOM), a public research institute sharing its best in development, policy, practice and research [2]. He also became a member of Census of Marine Life in several groups, mainly in CenSeam, and as well as in the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos (ex-MUSORSTOM). Certainly, even in retirement he still links himself in global networks of researchers and experts dedicated to assess fauna of the world’s oceans.

_______________________

[1] Chua, G. Biodiversity expert on board S’pore marine expedition. The Strait Times. 25 September, 2012.

[2] Institut de recherche pour le développement, IRD (ex-ORSTOM). www.eldis.org.

Written by:

In Memory of Claude Monniot

On 12 July 2008, the world of marine research lost a great and passionate colleague. Claude Monniot, a French marine biologist and a specialist on ascidians died suddenly from stroke at the age of 72.

Photo from Ascidian News*

Claude was born in 1936 at Fontenay/sous/Bois (Val de Marne). He used to read, and a book written by Y. Le Danois, “La vie étrange des rivages marins” seized his interest to marine biology. He earned degrees in Botany, Geology and Zoology. He took a specialization in biological oceanography and pursued a master’s thesis about ascidians. Eventually, he also finished his doctoral thesis, “Étude systématique et évolutive de la famille des Pyuridae”.

C. Monniot showed eagerness and passion to increase knowledge and to discover more on ascidians around the world as he involved himself in numerous cruises and expeditions. He, together with his wife Françoise published over 160 publications in relation to oceanography, biogeography, marine ecology and taxonomy including describing and naming new species of tunicates.

Over the years, he was not only an academe, a professor at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, and assistant director in the laboratory of marine invertebrates, but also a loving husband for his wife, Françoise, a great father for her daughter, Nadine, and a caring grandfather for his two grand daughters.

Source:    Ascidian News*

Written by:

Edited by:    Nicolas Bailly

Collaborator of the Week: Dennis P. Gordon

Dr. Dennis P. Gordon is based at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) at Wellington, New Zealand, where he is Principal Scientist and Manager of the Marine Biodiversity and Biosecurity Group. He is a distinguished global authority on the biology, paleobiology, systematics and evolution of phylum Bryozoa. Aside from collaborative environmental projects done for commercial clients, he is one of the leading biodiversity figures in New Zealand, specializing in marine biodiversity.

Within the span of his research career, he has primarily focused on the biology, paleobiology, systematics and phylogeny of Cretaceous to Recent Bryozoa. His work in these areas covered vast applications to biosecurity, biotechnology, conservation, fishing impacts and evolution, among others. Along with dedicated colleagues, he has described 687 new taxa, including 431 recent bryozoan species, 105 new fossil species and 144 higher taxa of Bryozoa. His key role as a biodiversity scientist led him to work on the total Phanerozoic biodiversity of New Zealand and global classification of life for biodiversity management. This milestone brought forth a 1758-page trilogy encompassing New Zealand’s entire living (> 56,200 species) and fossil (>14,000 species) biodiversity. Even with the bulk of his commitments, his passion for conservation extended his contributions to assessing marine adventive species, biosecurity risk and human impacts in the marine environment.

Having 45 years of research experience, he has written an astounding number of peer reviewed publications, forged ties with important local and international scientific and conservation institutions (serving on committees of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System, Catalogue of Life and World Register of Marine Species), and garnered numerous awards and recognition.

He has been a collaborator of the SeaLifeBase project since 2012 and made a noteworthy contribution for the Kermadec Island work at the same time. He provided us with references and validated bryozoan species for the Kermadec Island, which helped complete our coverage for this group of species.

We are indeed thankful and looking forward to more years of collaborating.

Written by: 

Collaborator of the Week: Roberto Pillon

Roberto Pillon is an Italian underwater photographer and naturalist whose photos are published in several books. He has a degree in Economics and though he is not a marine biologist, he is considered a great connoisseur of marine species identification from photographs. He is very passionate of the techniques in proper identification of marine organisms and has studied major publications as well as analyzed a large amount of photos to acquire the knowledge and skills needed in this field. In his most comprehensive study entitled "Astropecten of the Mediterranean Sea", he was able to distinguish six species of sea stars including Astropecten aranciacus, A. jonstoni, A. irregularis, A. spinulosus, A. bispinosus, and A. platyacanthus using methods of photo-identification. In this unique manner of classification, he basically observed distinct features in comparison to the descriptions described by the species authors. Other than sea stars, he also applied this technique to identify fishes and other echinoderms of Mediterranean Sea.

Since 2008, he has been a collaborator of SeaLifeBase and has contributed over 400 photos of different marine organisms taken mostly from Croatia, Greece, Italy and France. He also perpetually and promptly reports errors in photo identification. Likewise, he collaborates with many admired experts and other sites like Fishbase, WoRMS, DORIS, Naturamediterraneo, Hippo-ATLAS, etc.

Collaborator of the Week: Guido T. Poppe

Photo from wikipedia.org

Guido T. Poppe is known for his contribution in conchology research and an author of more than 20 books and publications that mainly focus on families Volutidae and Trochidae. At a young age, he has had a great interest in the oceans and the different forms of life living in it.  His fascination led him to develop a career as a malacologist. While in this field, and in numerous years of diving in European waters and tropical seas, he was able to compile an extensive collection of photographs of seashells and other marine organisms [1, 2].

In 2003, Guido Poppe decided to move from Belgium to the Philippines and continued his profession as a conchologist. He described over 130 of new molluscs species [2] and mostly on the Philippine malacofauna [1]. In fact, there are more than 30 species that have been named after him having the epithets poppei, “guidopoppei” or guidoi [2].

In 2010, he together with his son Philippe Poppe, became collaborators of SeaLifeBase and have contributed over 2,000 photos as well as 2 volumes of their book “Philippines Marine Mollusks”. They also have an online database of digital pictures, the POPPE-IMAGES, aiming to document the marine life in the Philippines [3]. This information system provides over 70, 000 online images [3]. Also, they created the journal, Visaya, a rapidly growing periodical specialized in the taxonomy of mollusca. [2].

TRIVIA: Guido Poppe named among the over 300 shells he already described, the topsnail Calliostoma mariae after his mother Maria Peyskens, and three other sea snails species Calliostoma philippei (Poppe, 2004), Calliotropis philippei (Poppe, Tagaro & Dekker, 2006) and Bayerotrochus philpoppei (Anseeuw, Poppe & Goto, 2006) after his son [1].

___________________________

[1] Guido Poppe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Poppe [Accessed 03/05/2015].

[2] Guido T. Poppe. http://www.poppe-images.com/?t=5 [Accessed 03/05/2015].

[3] Poppe Images About Us. http://www.poppe-images.com/?t=2 [Accessed 03/05/2015].

Written by:

Collaborator of the Week: Dr. Cornelia E. Nauen

Dr. Cornelia E. Nauen is one of the scientist advocates for ocean restoration, conservation and its sustainable use [3]. She is known for her involvement in policy development and support to various research projects concerning aquatic biodiversity and marine pollution [2]. For 6 years, she worked at the Department of Fisheries of FAO in Rome. In 1985, she joined the Development Directorate General of the European Commission in Brussels. In that function, she oversaw the funding of the first years of FishBase development combined with capacity building in 50 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In 2000, she moved to the EU's International Science Cooperation [1,2]. 

Today, she is the president of Mundus maris – Sciences and Arts for Sustainability, a non-profit organization aiming to save the ocean [1,3]. The organization promotes critically engaged science, facilitates access of citizens to research results and seeks to combine this with “other ways of making sense of the world” in the arts and traditional knowledge systems. Many activities aim at instilling curiosity and love for the ocean in young people and schools to realize their dreams of healthy oceans and being the architects of their futures [3].

CE Nauen has been a FishBase collaborator from the early days and has published about the importance of FishBase as a shining example of open access knowledge repositories that empower the public [4,5] now followed by SeaLifeBase. In 2013, FishBase and SeaLifeBase databases collaborated with Mundus maris in order to increase public awareness about marine biodiversity and important issues in fisheries [6]. This collaboration helped to develop the knowledge and understanding of different people for the advocacy in fisheries management and regulation. MM Information materials emphasize FishBase and SeaLifeBase.

Mundus maris is currently collaborating with FIN and several other organizations to celebrate World Oceans Day 2015, June 08, through a youth story telling contest and events in different countries on the day itself.

__________________________

[1] Cornelia E. Nauen. https://be.linkedin.com/pub/cornelia-e-nauen/97/259/480 [Accessed 02/20/2015].

[2] Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sustsci/ists/TWAS_0202/participants/Nauen_bio.htm [Accessed 02/23/2015].

[3] MM Self presentation. http://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/about/self [Accessed 02/23/2015].

[4] Nauen, C.E. (ed.) in collaboration with C. Bogliotti, N. Fenzl, J. Francis, J. Kakule, K. Kastrissianakis, L. Michael, N. Reeve, D. Reyntjens, V. Shiva, J.H. Spangenberg, 2005. Increasing impact of the EU’s international S&T cooperation for the transition towards sustainable development. Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 26 p.

[5] Nauen, C.E., 2006. Implementing the WSSD decision of restoring marine ecosystems by 2015 – Scientific information support in the public domain. Marine Policy, 30:455-461.

[6] FishBase, SeaLifeBase and Mundus maris: Science and art combined! http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/2013/09/fishbase-sealifebase-and-mundus-maris.html [Accessed 02/23/2015].

Written by:

Edited by: Cornelia E. Nauen