I was quite excited recently to receive an alert about this new paper by Nomaki et al. The authors ‘labelled’ phytoplankton – microscopic algae – with the carbon stable isotope 13C, which is quite easily done by adding amounts of the isotope to a batch of growing algae, who will happily incorporate it into (among other things) the fatty acids they contain. The tracer can then later be detected in the algae and any organism that eats them. Nomaki et al. then fed these labelled algae to foraminifera living on the seafloor in Sagami Bay, Japan, at a water depth of 1450 m.
Building (among others) on this and this previous work with their approach, Nomaki et al. were able to show that foraminifera don’t just selectively ingest the tastiest bits of algae that may sink to the seafloor after a phytoplankton bloom at the ocean surface – they also modify certain components of it. This means that they don’t just change the availability of fresh, yummy food to other benthos by ingesting it, they also change its composition – so, even if someone eats the forams, they might not get the prime bits.
Globobulimina affinis. Courtesy Dr. Hidetaka Nomaki
Even if you don’t know what foraminifera or benthic organisms are, this may still interest you because foraminifera are used as proxies for productivity in palaeoceanography, meaning that people use them to make inferences on past productivity patterns of the surface ocean. Of course, the more you know about the proxy you’re using, the better your chance of getting it right – and, considering what past surface ocean productivity can tell us about climate patterns, this is important information to have.
If I still haven’t convinced you, it’s probably because you just don’t care. But I do. Which brings me to the more personal part of this post.
We all have something we think is really interesting/important/absolutely-groundbreaking-and-will-change-the-way-we-see-things. This is one of those things for me, and it’s the kind of work I would have loved to be doing now if I was still active in science myself. Instead, I am very happy that Hidetaka is making steady progress in this area. I wouldn’t be able to compete with him anyway – when I met him at a conference three or four years ago, I seem to remember him saying that they actually have technicians at JAMSTEC who do the fatty acid analyses for them (yes, even for postdocs). No way would I have been able to work fast enough to keep up with that, especially since I had to scrub down the entire clean room every time before I could even start after some other PhD students had messed it up with filthy goo from ginormous organisms like sea cucumbers (you know who you are!!!) while – in comparison – I was trying to look at minute amounts of material {sigh}.
So, just as I am about to finally turn my back on marine science (future strange turns of fate or luck notwithstanding, and of course I’ll still pursue it as a hobby – or as a kind of female ‘gentleman scientist’) to work here, I am happy that someone is carrying the torch. Especially since Hidetaka (please forgive me for saying this, it’s only because I’m finally out that I want to say it!!) actually called me the ‘pioneer’ in this type of work :)
Going a few steps further, it would now be interesting (what am I saying: essential) to nail down the effect the uptake and degradation of fresh phytoplankton material has on the stable isotope signature of foraminiferal tests.
Please, Hidetaka?
Nomaki, H., Ohkouchi, N., Heinz, P., Suga, H., Chikaraishi, Y., Ogawa, N., Matsumoto, K., & Kitazato, H. (2009). Degradation of algal lipids by deep-sea benthic foraminifera: An in situ tracer experiment Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2009.04.013
Update from Friday, 19 June 2009: I had an e-mail from Hidetaka who would like to make sure people know that, although there is a research technician at JAMSTEC who maintains the machine, he extracted and separated all the lipid compounds and measured isotopic compositions himself. He is grateful for the assistance of the staff and the access to the facilities at JAMSTEC.
Hidetaka, I wish you all the best and continued success with your research!!
Your enthusiasm shines through. Cheers to the pioneer!
I wish someone would call me a pioneer. I think the closest I’ve got is “tea fascist”.
I too was thrilled to learn that a different group had followed up on one of my pet postdoc projects – and relieved to read that they agreed with my findings!
I feel incredibly flattered, but would have never thought of myself being a ‘pioneer’ – as it always is, it was really a combination of me being obsessed with forams, someone else – Dave Pond 1 – starting to do fatty acid work in Southampton at the time, and someone else again mentioning in passing that I could maybe ‘do a little bit of that’. Oil on the fire, I had my ideas. Regardless, Dave was a bit faster than me with the very first paper, but he didn’t directly compare the foram profile with their potential food.
But enough of that :)
Cath, it’s almost freaky how similar our posts and sentiments are!!
1 Dear British Antarctic Survey, why are your staff profiles completely blank?
I’ll call you a pioneer if it makes you feel better, Cath. You have pioneered the art of tea fascism.
Steffi, maybe that’s because they’re snowed under? (badoom TISH).
Heh – Richard, I don’t know: is there snow in Cambridge right now?
@Cath: did the tea story have anything to do with licorice-flavoured tea, by the way?…
That was just one incident, among many… I am on a mission to get Canadians to understand the art of proper tea making.
See? Pioneering.
It’s tough out here on the frontiers. Some of my comrades have retreated back to the homeland in defeat.
Cath, what is your opinion on Tim Hortons’ steeped tea? (Mine, as a non-British person, is: yes, well, it’s steeped alright, but at some point you’re done steeping. Some point before the tea got to room temperature…)
Sorry Steffi – this is an important matter that needs to be discussed in your blog.
To quote Bart Simpson, “I never thought it was humanly possible, but this both sucks and blows.” I had one cup, once, at an airport. Never again.
Although maybe it’s decent if you catch it while it’s still hot…
Sorry guys, I was out today – bbq with my lovely new colleagues yesterday and working in our brand new allotment today :)
Please feel free to discuss tea on my blog any time.
…and I had an e-mail from Hidetaka who would like to make sure people know that, although there is a research technician at JAMSTEC who maintains the machine, he extracted and separated all the lipid compounds and measured isotopic compositions himself. He is grateful for the assistance of the staff and the access to the facilities at JAMSTEC.
Hidetaka, I wish you all the best and continued success with your research!!
Thanks for the welcome, Steffi! Thanks for sharing this…those labeling experiments are interesting. :)
I look forward to reading your posts, Trisha! :)