Marine Biology Senior Researches Deep Ocean Fauna from Water Columns Off Coast of Japan

imageThe earth's biosphere is mostly composed of water, which covers 70 percent of the Earth with an average depth of about 4,000 meters (2.5 miles). Yet scientists know relatively little about the habits and diversity of animal life in the ocean waters below 200 meters.

Most marine animal research uses scuba techniques and towing nets, explains Krissy Forman '04, a University of New England marine biology and environmental sciences double major. "But you can only go down so far in SCUBA gear. And, although you can use nets to pull up animals, you never know with great precision where they came from in the ocean, and most of them are gelatinous so they get shredded or destroyed in the nets."

New Technologies
In recent years, however, new technologies, such as submersibles and remote-operated vehicles, are opening up deep-ocean research, allowing scientists to study intact specimens of fauna in their natural environments at great depth.

Forman is participating in this new field of research at the University of New England, working on a research project with Jay Hunt, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences.

This semester, Forman is spending several hours a week watching videotapes of two columns of water from off the coast of Japan: videos of one water column within a deep-sea caldera spout (an underwater volcano) and of another column nearby the caldera but outside its influence.

Identifying Marine Fauna
She is identifying and recording the marine fauna that she observes in the tapes. Later this year, she will compare and analyze the data to draw some conclusions about the two ocean environments. The research comprises her senior honors thesis.

"The question is simply what are the differences in who lives where," Dr. Hunt explains. "We know virtually nothing about these animals, and nobody has ever correlated these data in the way we are attempting to do here with submersible vehicles. It is becoming apparent that animals can and do choose local conditions that favor them. How these differences arise and are used is completely unknown, but likely important before we can understand much of anything about the ecology of open ocean systems."

The videos Forman is working with were shot by colleagues of Hunt at the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, who used remote-operated vehicles to videotape the deep-sea animals while also recording physical and chemical information on water depth, temperatures, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and other factors.

"A lot of the animals are very small, almost a dot on the screen," Forman says. "You have to pause the tape and go frame by frame. … It's exciting when you see something shoot across the screen, or when I can bring something I learned in class to identifying the animals."

Growing Up on Long Island
Forman's interest in marine biology began when she was a child in New York. "I grew up on the Long Island south shore with ocean and beaches. I loved it," she recounts. "I came to UNE because of the Marine Science Center. It wasn't built when I came but it opened my sophomore year."

She explains that the labs at UNE's Marine Science and Research Center and Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center have running saltwater, which allows for a lot more hands-on work in and out of the classroom. "The profs bring actual animals that you can work on," she says.

For one of her semester projects, the saltwater labs allowed her to set up an experiment, comparing the effects of different water salinities on green crabs. The Center's necropsy lab also made it possible for one of her classes to watch a veterinarian dissect a seal.

Passion for Soccer
Apart from marine biology, Forman's other passion is soccer. "I learned how to kick a soccer ball before I could walk," she says.

Her freshman year she was selected all conference player, and she has been the women's team leading scorer all four years at UNE. For total points for all women who have played soccer for UNE, she is number two, and she is number one in total points among women who have played since UNE became a member of the NCAA, Division III conference.

As she conducts her research this year, Forman will also be applying to graduate schools in the fields of marine conservation and marine biology. Although she isn't certain of her ultimate career plans, she intends to eventually earn a Ph.D. She believes the research she is conducting will help distinguish her from other applicants for the graduate programs to which she will be applying.

Her deep-ocean research is also providing her with "an opportunity from the experience to find out what I want to do," and it is contributing to her sense of being a scientist, breaking new paths in knowledge.

"The ultimate goal of the research is to find out what's going on in the ocean," she says. "My research is just one component that will be added to the knowledge of the ocean. We basically don't know much about the deep ocean. We know stuff about the coast and the intertidal zones and the beaches, but we barely know anything about the deep ocean because we've never really been able to get down there. There's only a handful of scientists that have been doing this research. It's exciting - it's uncharted territory."

(Last updated 10/03)

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