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BioSuOr
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Videos BioSuOr
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Iata-Piuna
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Rio Grande Rise
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With the support of CNPq, Brazilian Navy (PROANTAR), Chilean Navy and others universities, the BECOOL project (BEnthic COnnections Of high southern Latitudes) will study the effects of climate change on the Antarctic benthic fauna and its connections with the South American continent.
The region of the Martel cove, where the Brazilian Antarctic base Comandante Ferraz is located, has a solid record of data showing a loss of more than 10% of the glaciers in the cove, revealing climate changes in the region. Consequently, changes can occur in the trophic web, and we will study possible changes that have occurred in the Antarctic benthic fauna in the last 20 years, also trying to predict possible future scenarios.
In addition to the many peculiarities already known from Antarctica, its ocean is also unique when compared to the rest of the oceans. Around the entire continent it travels the strongest current on the planet, formed over 30 million years ago, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) can act as a natural barrier to depths greater than 1,000 meters. This causes a high degree of endemism (species that occur in a single location) in the region, since with the exception of birds and mammals, few taxa can be found inside and outside the Southern Ocean.
Some larvae can take advantage of the ACC flow to disperse, so it can also act as a link that connects species from different oceans. Some species found during the BioSuOr Project were also found in the Northeast Pacific Ocean as well, which intrigued the laboratory team. Therefore, in this new project we seek to understand the connectivity between these two oceans through species that inhabit organic substrates in the deep sea. This will make it possible to determine global biogeographic patterns and evolutionary mechanisms of the species that inhabit these substrates.
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Symbiosis in larvae of coral reef organisms
Coral reefs are coastal marine ecosystems that present one of the most expressive levels of biodiversity. Such environments are conspicuous given that their carbon production is mainly related to photosynthetic dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae. These organisms are found in an endosymbiotic association with several marine phyla, especially corals. However, coral reefs are fragile environments that have been affected by climate change, specifically by thermal increase and ocean acidification. These events disrupt the symbiotic relationship, resulting in the death of the hosts in a phenomenon called “coral bleaching”.
While the scientific community has already produced a significant amount of data regarding this symbiotic relationship, most of this information is related to the adult stage of the host. Very few information is available regarding this relationship while the hosts are still in their larval development, which is a critical moment for population dispersal and recruitment.
The project ReSimbio is active since 2012 and its primary objective is to better understand the symbiotic relationship between different clades of zooxanthellae and larvae of Anthozoa (corals), Bivalvia (giant clams) and Gastropoda (sea slugs). All of these hosts present larval stages that acquire zooxanthellae before becoming adults. The project has three main objectives and three peripheral objectives:
Main objectives:
- Determine the moment in which the symbiosis berween zooxanthellae and host larvae is established. Molecular biology and gene expression techniques will be employed.
- Verify the content of fatty acids translocated from symbiont to host larva, through analytical chemistry techniques.
- Test the tolerance to acidification; larvae containing zooxanthellae will be placed in acidified media and the zooxanthellae evasion will be monitored.
Peripheral objectives:
- Map the structure of symbiosis-specific genes expressed by different zooxanthellae clades.
- The establishment of practical guidelines for the culture of symbiotic sea slugs.
- Determine the content of fatty acids produced by zooxanthellae in the tissues of giant clams.
A total of 13 researchers are involved in the project led by Prof. Paulo Sumida and his PhD student Miguel Mies. Six of them belong to the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo (IO-USP), two of the Biosciences Institute of the University of São Paulo (IB-USP), two of the Chemistry Institute of the University of São Paulo (IQ-USP) and three of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Coral Vivo Project.
Biodiversity and connectivity in deep-sea organic islands
Project BioSuOr is a FAPESP funded research that uses landers to study the colonization of deep-sea organisms in whale bones and wood parcels deployed in the deep SW Atlantic Ocean. Landers were deployed in different latitudes and depths to allow the comparison of the community structure along and across depth gradients. Data collected in the SW Atlantic will be also compared with results obtained in the NE Pacific, where identical structures were implanted. This will permit researchers to make regional and inter-basin comparisons of fauna and its biogeographical relations.
The project includes researchers from the Oceanographic Institute and the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo, Espírito Santo Federal University, University of Hawaii and Auburn University (USA).
Project BioSuOr Study area – the landers were deployed at 1500 and 3300 meters depth in several latitudes along the Brazilian SE continental margin.