{"id":31654,"date":"2019-05-28T10:48:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=31654"},"modified":"2019-05-28T10:48:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:48:55","slug":"where-the-larval-things-are-bodega-marine-lab-uses-robot-larvae-to-help-solve-mysteries-of-sea-creatures-life-cycles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/where-the-larval-things-are-bodega-marine-lab-uses-robot-larvae-to-help-solve-mysteries-of-sea-creatures-life-cycles.htm","title":{"rendered":"Where the Larval Things Are: Bodega Marine Lab Uses Robot Larvae to Help Solve Mysteries of Sea Creatures\u2019 Life Cycles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere\u2019s a real contrast between life on land and life in the water in terms of tracking organisms,\u201d says <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bml.ucdavis.edu\/people\/steven-morgan\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Steven Morgan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, whose research is based at UC Davis\u2019 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/marinescience.ucdavis.edu\/bml\/about\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bodega Marine Lab<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cWe\u2019re used to the idea of tracking our kids, or tracking mammals, but we can\u2019t really do that with marine larvae. While we\u2019re used to tracking adult creatures on land, in the water many adult creatures are sedentary. It\u2019s their tiny larvae that do most of the traveling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marine larvae are very small\u2026certainly not good subjects for implanted tracking devices or radio collars. \u201cGiven that we can\u2019t track marine larvae like we would track creatures on land, how do we find out their fates? One thing we can do is make some assumptions about how they travel. We can safely assume that they are transported by ocean currents,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cHowever, we have learned that they aren\u2019t powerless: their activity in the water is genetically regulated behavior. That behavior determines how much time they spend in surface waters or in waters at the bottom of the ocean.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where the larvae are in the ocean water is very important, as the water will transport them differently depending on whether they are closer to the surface or the bottom. \u201cSurface water flows away from the shore, and bottom water flows back to the shore,\u201d Morgan explains. \u201cWhile larvae can\u2019t move independently of the current until a later stage in their development, when they are juveniles, they do have the ability to raise and lower themselves in the current, and due to the different current direction based on location in the water column, they, therefore, have some ability to influence their direction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many marine creatures start as larvae, pass into a post-larval stage where they can swim to some degree and respond to chemical, acoustic, and\/or polarized light signals, then turn into juveniles, where they are essentially the same as adults in terms of their autonomous behavior. \u201cThey find the adult habitat and then adopt the adult lifestyle,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cThese stages occur in most types of marine life, such as fish and crabs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31657\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31657\" class=\"wp-image-31657 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_Sam-urchin-larva-600x451.jpg\" alt=\"larvae\" width=\"600\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_Sam-urchin-larva-600x451.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_Sam-urchin-larva-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_Sam-urchin-larva-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_Sam-urchin-larva.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Sea urchin larvae. (Photo by Sam Bashevkin) <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The larval stage is unique and distinct for these marine organisms. \u201cThere\u2019s an amazing, alien-looking world of larvae not resembling their adult forms at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the lab, Morgan and his team learn about larval behavior by giving the larvae a stimulus, such as light, and see how they react. In the field, they relate the prevalence of different species of larvae in seaward-flowing surface currents and landward-flowing bottom currents to how far they occur from shore. Larvae of many species stay close to shore by spending most of their time in bottom currents, whereas larvae of other species travel far from shore by initially occurring in surface currents before returning to shore in bottom currents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe are trying to understand their pretty complex behaviors,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cIn estuaries, for example with oyster larvae, we see that the larvae do not just passively get swept back into the ocean. Much more is happening. Somehow they get back to their home habitat so their life cycle can happen all over again. We are trying to understand the entirety of their lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a distinction between the larval lifestyle compared to the lifestyle of the adult form. \u201cSome larvae migrate away, then when they reach their post-larval form, they return to their previous home,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe have lots of inferential information that tells us about their lifestyles. It can be hard for people to embrace some of the notions we have. The idea that tiny larvae are directing their lives in some ways can be difficult for people to grasp.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studies of tiny organisms like larvae, such as planktonic organisms, are by no means new. \u201cWooden ships in the 1800s carried silk stocking filters to catch and investigate planktonic species,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cOf course, the studies have advanced a lot since then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of data gathered today, light, sea temperature and ocean depth can all affect larvae and can be related to where the larvae are in the water column. CTD instruments are used to measure conductivity, temperature and depth. An ADCP instrument which has eight probes is also used to measure how fast water is moving across the entire water column, which also affects larval behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since it is not possible to track individual larvae, Morgan relied on the assistance of Tom and Donna Wolcott of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsu.edu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Carolina State University at Raleigh<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to make robot larvae, which would enable them to simulate larval movement in real ocean currents. There were 50 larval robots built for the project, initially funded by NSF. \u201cWe programmed them with known larval behaviors and had replicates for behavioral groups. We arranged it so that there would be 12 robots in the same place at the same time,\u201d Morgan explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31658\" style=\"width: 399px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31658\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE-photo--389x1024.jpg\" alt=\"larvae\" width=\"389\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE-photo--389x1024.jpg 389w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE-photo--114x300.jpg 114w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE-photo--583x1536.jpg 583w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE-photo-.jpg 683w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">The Autonomous Behaving Lagrangian Drifter (ABLE). (Photo by Steven Morgan)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The robot larvae were built out of casings of refurbished fire extinguishers. They are 21 centimeters tall, with 15 centimeters of antenna mast. \u201cThe reason these are acceptable larval simulations is because regardless of size, they would move at the same current speed. We outfitted them with instruments. They are not perfect simulations of larvae, of course, as you can\u2019t perfectly emulate micro-turbulence. But they are adequate for our needs,\u201d says Morgan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The instrumentation on the robot larvae communicates their position to satellites. \u201cWe can get reports on their movements on our cell phones or computers,\u201d Morgan mentions. \u201cWe can tell them to come to the surface. They have VHF and GPS so we can track them underwater also. It\u2019s also possible to listen for them with hydrophones or find them with LED. The LED is essential at night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The robots can be easily scooped up with a dip net when needed. \u201cWe have them programmed to come up every four hours, surface, then descend quickly,\u201d Morgan adds. \u201cThey can rise and descend because oil is pumped between an internal oil reservoir and outside tubing making an artificial swim bladder. Many organisms rise and descend using a similar bladder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The robot larvae also have an internal gyroscope with an external pinwheel that makes the robot spin. The spins are then translated into the speed that it is moving. The robot larvae are recording salinity, temperature and depth, and profiling the structure of the water column. In addition, they have a dongle on a toggle switch. \u201cWhen it touches the bottom, the robot is programmed to swim up two meters,\u201d says Morgan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the larvae can control their depth in the water column, the post-larvae can also use chemical signals to determine where to go. \u201cIf there is a flood tide, for example, they know to swim down,\u201d Morgan notes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have been experimentally demonstrating that larval behavior is effective for helping them move and complete their life cycles,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cIn the work I have done with John Largier, we have shown that we can use robots to demonstrate what we thought was happening in terms of larval behavior. We have also been able to group behaviors to emulate real species. The larvae only show seven main behaviors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31656\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31656\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31656\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_labeled_ABLE-600x487.jpg\" alt=\"larvae\" width=\"600\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_labeled_ABLE-600x487.jpg 600w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_labeled_ABLE-300x244.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_labeled_ABLE-768x623.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ABLE_labeled_ABLE.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31656\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">A labeled diagram of the ABLE. (Photo by Steven Morgan)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While they have been able to document onshore\/offshore larval behavior, they do not know how far larvae are being transported along the shore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe also have used different, indirect approaches to study larval behavior, such as chemical tracking and genetic testing. Genetics has become more popular as the techniques have become more powerful,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cHowever, there are limits, since you can\u2019t sample all populations. There\u2019s a bit of a needle in a haystack problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chemical tracking consists of using water chemistry and natural elemental markings in organisms. \u201cFish ear bones have daily growth rings,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cWe can use a laser to go from the start to the end of the bone growth and see its composition. From that, we can make inferences about where it has been.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morgan has been a professor at UC Davis for 20 years. Previously, he was a professor at Stony Brook University. In his time at Bodega Marine Lab, Morgan has been pleased with how the larval behaviors have been shown to be correctly captured by the robots they have developed. \u201cWe have also been surprised at how tightly clustered larvae stay if they have the same behavior,\u201d he says. \u201cThis summer, we plan to emulate dispersal of real species.\u201d Morgan also specifically acknowledges the excellent work of his doctoral student, Connor Dibble, in the larval project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morgan got into the phenomenon of larval transportation when he discovered that larvae and adults lead very different lives and that they can look completely unlike each other. \u201cTheir entire life cycle is very interesting and more complicated than many people realize. Knowing about their whole life cycle gives us a better management perspective,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cTypically, people study the ocean currents or study the adult organisms. But if you do that, you are only capturing half of their life cycle. We are trying to look at interdisciplinary fields to get the whole life cycle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The robot larvae have a few limitations: they have a three-week battery life, and they can beach themselves if there is a programming error.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is a really challenging system to understand,\u201d says Morgan. \u201cBut with each technological breakthrough, our understanding is improved. We are currently working on difficult questions, such as how larvae connect different populations. We are also looking at the effects of climate change. It\u2019s not something that can be modeled only by looking at the physics involved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bodega Marine Lab in California discovers more about the fascinating journeys of oysters, crabs, and other marine creatures by simulating part of their lives using robot larvae. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":31659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,79,6,8,44],"tags":[1686,1701,1681,60,1698,1696,109,1700,1119,1695,1699,1022,1697],"class_list":["post-31654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquatic_species-htm","category-featured-articles","category-monitoring-gear-2","category-monitoring_tech-htm","category-newsfeed","category-oceans-coasts","tag-bodega-marine-lab","tag-chemical-tracking","tag-currents","tag-featured","tag-larval-stage","tag-marine-larvae","tag-news-ticker","tag-robot-larvae","tag-robots","tag-steven-morgan","tag-tom-and-donna-wolcott","tag-uc-davis","tag-water-column"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ 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