Background & Aims

Darwin Projects

Darwin Initiative projects are funded by the UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR).

The Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species seeks to help safeguard the world's biodiversity by drawing on UK strengths in this area to assist those countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to fulfill their obligations in the Biodiversity Convention.

The Darwin Initiative does this by supporting projects to assist countries via training, collaborative research and technology transfer.

Participants of Darwin workshops and projects are expected to be part of a Darwin legacy whereby the training they receive and skills they develop will be passed onto others in their country for the future.

Background

Meiofauna have evolutionary and ecological characteristics which distinguish them as a group from other benthic species and which make them extremely useful indicators of environmental stress. Small, easily handled samples can yield 1000's of individuals from highly diverse communities in all marine habitats from estuaries to the deep sea.

As experts in marine meiobenthos The Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) are frequently approached by marine biologists from other countries for assistance in meiobenthic taxonomy, either to provide training or to identify specimens. Globally, an increasing number of researchers are using meiofauna to estimate the health of the environment. Outside of Europe and the US most of these analyses are to major taxa level i.e. phylum. At PML and the NHM we are often asked to referee papers describing these studies which have been submitted to scientific journals. Usually, very little meaningful information can be extracted from these surveys, they do not aid in environmental management and they do not further local or regional knowledge of biodiversity.

There is now a requirement for a rapid increase in the number of biologists able to identify meiofauna and utilise this ecological information for monitoring of the local environment and empowering local management decisions, particularly with respect to pollution. Most coastal pollution in resource limited countries occurs in the poorest regions affecting local economies by harming fisheries and aquaculture as well as tourism prospects. In many situations the local people do not have the necessary skill base to make assessment of their coastal environment and hence influence management decisions to alleviate the pollution.

The free-living marine nematodes are usually the dominant phylum in the meiofauna. Their communities are highly diverse, abundant in almost all habitats and also extremely productive. Yet the expertise to identify them to putative morphological species is found only amongst a handful of researchers, the majority of whom are based in north western Europe. The term putative species is used because outside of European waters it is estimated that only between 0.4% and 0.04% of marine nematode species have been described.

Main Objectives of the project

1.

Development of an easily accessible and updateable internet key (sensu Darwin internet polychaete key) which will initially act as a tool and guide for identifying meiofaunal nematodes but will be extended to act as a database for putative species descriptions until formal taxonomic descriptions can be made. The Darwin Taxonomy on the Internet site will be further developed to include nematodes. In this taxonomic system, which has already been developed using polychaetes, the tools for identification are made available on-line in a form which is suitable for a non-specialist. The communication system can be used interactively to add descriptions of putative new species which will be checked by trained taxonomists who will then update the site. A virtual museum containing full descriptions and drawings of all new species will be gradually created - established by the users and verified by trained taxonomists.

2.

Provide a UK based advanced training workshop in meiofaunal identification and specifically in nematode taxonomy for 15 biologists from all over the world. This first workshop and the Darwin internet nematode taxonomy site will train people to identify nematodes to at least a practicable level necessary for pollution monitoring and provide them with internet access to suitable taxonomic keys.

3.

Provide a UK based advanced training workshop on statistical analysis of community data which will aid environmental management. Trainees will be encouraged to analyse their own meiofaunal data collected in the year following the nematode workshop of year 1. This second Darwin workshop will provide training in the analysis of ecological data collected during pollution monitoring surveys. Trainees will consequently be able to collect and analyse data that will aid in the assessment of environmental quality.

4.

Collaboration on specific regional local environmental monitoring/biodiversity censusing projects in Poland (industrial and domestic pollution in the Baltic, biodiversity in the Arctic) and Brazil (industrial and domestic pollution, biodiversity studies) providing further advanced training and thus developing local facilities and expertise.