University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory News Release
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FOR RELEASE JANUARY 22, 1998
For Immediate Release
Ecology Lab Researchers Discover New Species
AIKEN, S.C.--What animal is red, white, and blue and as tiny as a speck of dust? It is a new found species of copepod, a tiny, aquatic crustacean. Recently discovered by Dr. Barbara E. Taylor and colleague Adrienne DeBiase of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, the newly described species was first collected in freshwater, temporary wetlands called Carolina bays on the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS). The discovery is featured in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
The new species is one of the most common kinds of copepods found in the shallow, wetland ponds in the area, says DeBiase. "We saw it before in a 1987 survey of the bays of the site, but we thought it was a different species," she says. The researchers realized after closer examination--and verification from their colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution--that what they had was quite distinct from the other species of copepods they encounter in their work.
Taylor and DeBiase study invertebrate communities of freshwater wetlands and try to understand the ecology of these microscopic, and biologically important, animals. Taylor points out that the communities of invertebrates in natural wetland ponds have been poorly studied.
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"The only other published studies in this area before this was work by Turner in 1910," says Taylor, an associate research ecologist at the University of Georgia laboratory where she has studied the invertebrate communities since 1983. She says that although her research interests are in population ecology, descriptive work has become necessary simply because ecologists often do not know what animals they are dealing with.
Copepods are microcrustaceans and are among the thousands of crustacean species that can be found in marine and freshwater environments. Copepods are the most abundant multi-celled organism in the world, says DeBiase, research coordinator at the Ecology Lab. They are an important part of plankton communities, forming the foundation of the food chain; thus, many fish, whales, and even other invertebrates rely on them for food.
The copepod is very colorful, as are most copepods that occur in habitats with few fish. On the other hand, says Taylor, in areas where fish are plentiful, the copepods are "clear, small, and skittish."
Although the new species has been found only on the Savannah River Site, DeBiase does not rule out their occurrence in other places, where perhaps they have not yet been found. "We have not done extensive collecting off-site," she says.
But, DeBiase points out, "their occurrence [at the Savannah River Site] is not related to nuclear activities. They generally occur in old, natural habitats that are not exposed to the effects of radiation or industry," she says, noting that the site is a designated a National Environmental Research Park, and as such, enjoys a degree of protection.
"There is extraordinary diversity here compared with temporary ponds elsewhere in the world," says Taylor. "There are more copepods here than in some parts of the whole country" she says.
The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory is a research unit of the University of Georgia under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct ecological research at the Savannah River Site, a nuclear materials processing facility near Aiken, S.C. ###
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