{"id":3669,"date":"2017-09-08T21:47:48","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T18:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2018-01-12T12:47:54","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T09:47:54","slug":"training-course-on-baltic-sea-zooplankton-identification-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/en\/2017\/09\/08\/training-course-on-baltic-sea-zooplankton-identification-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Training course on Baltic Sea zooplankton identification"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rhythmic clicking sound of counters echoes in the seminar building when we count the Bosmina longispina\u00a0maritima water fleas from the samples.\u00a0The glass slide I\u2019m viewing under the microscope is full of life as rotifers and cladocerans battle for space. Every now and then, a large shadow covers my field of view \u2013 under themicroscope, even a small copepod looks like a giant. \u201dMust be either Acartia or Eurytemora\u201d I think in my mind and a more careful examination of the species head, antenna and other anatomical structures prove it as the latter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Zooplankton is a central part of marine and freshwater ecosystems, a link between different trophic levels of the food chain. For research and monitoring purposes it is crucial that the samples are\u00a0analyzedaccurately and correctly. However, zooplankton species identification is not easy and mastering the skill takes many years of practice. Nevertheless,\u00a0few advanced courses exist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This week,\u00a0a training course on Baltic Sea zooplankton identification<\/a>, an advanced transnational course, was organized in Seili by the Institute. During the course, participants from various countries got to deepen their identification skills under person to person guiding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After arriving in Seili on Monday morning, we started with the basics, the morphology and identification of copepods, and moved on to smaller organisms, cladocerans, rotifers, protozoans and nauplii, as the week progressed. The words P5 (the fifth leg), segment,\u00a0hair, and furca were repeated often. The teachers, the recently retired research director of the Institute Ilppo Vuorinen and the Institute\u2019s trusted plankton analyst, Satu Zwerver from\u00a0Plankton Zwerver<\/a>, patiently explained and showed the differences between the species with the help of the Institute\u2019s\u00a0own zooplankton guide<\/a>(in Finnish) and Telesh et al. (2009)\u00a0\u00a0Zooplankton of the\u00a0<\/a>Open Baltic Sea<\/a>\u00a0Atlas. A sampling cruise with r\/v Aurelia to the Archipelago Sea gave the participants a \u00a0deserved break from microscopes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Due to the brackish-water of the Baltic Sea, we observed and identified both marine and freshwater species. The\u00a0theory was put into practice when we started to\u00a0analyze the samples. We quickly discovered that the species identification is not as easy as it might\u00a0seem.\u00a0We learned the tricks of the trade but an experienced analyst can quickly identify a species from its appearance. Experience and knowledge were transferred with lively conversation when we compared cuvettes, and subsampling and counting methods.<\/p>\n

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On our final day, we discussed the many pros and cons of zooplankton imaging techniques, the future of zooplankton identification. There was also a rare treat when we got to analyze an Eastern Mediterranean sample that one of the participants had brought from Israel.\u00a0For us more familiar with the Baltic Sea zooplankton it was fun to notice that even though the species are different, it was relatively easy to do a rough classification of the animals.\u00a0We were also lucky to observe some Arrow worms (Chaetognatha), which are absent from the Northern Baltic Sea.\u00a0Alas, nothing lasts forever and\u00a0after presenting\u00a0the group assignments it was time to sum up the week, pack our bags and move away from the microscope, but just for now..<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The course was supported by The\u00a0Finnish Foundation\u00a0for\u00a0Nature Conservation, Rafael Kuusankoski memorial fund.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rhythmic clicking sound of counters echoes in the seminar building when we count the Bosmina longispina\u00a0maritima water fleas from the samples.\u00a0The glass slide I\u2019m viewing under the microscope is full of life as rotifers and cladocerans battle for space. Every now and then, a large shadow covers my field of view \u2013 under themicroscope, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[363,368,612,667],"tags":[378,678,672],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archipelago-sea","category-baltic-sea","category-teaching","category-zooplankton","tag-baltic-sea","tag-summer-school","tag-zooplankton","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3678,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions\/3678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/seili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}