new paper!

We had a new paper on spawning in Palythoa accepted - congratulations to Mamiko for her hard work!

Mamiko Hirose, Masami Obuchi, Euichi Hirose, James Davis Reimer. Timing of spawning and early development of Palythoa tuberculosa (Anthozoa, Zoantharia, Sphenopidae) in Okinawa, Japan. Biological Bulletin (accepted).

12/9 lab meeting

1. Nasu Satoko(3th student) will become lab. member from next week. (for a month)
2. When you notice that Rising star billding room's smell is bad, please tell it Jaime or Obuchi-san.
3. Now, we don't have a parking lot for Rising star billding.
4. Next week Mondey, Jamie will go to OIST at Uruma city.
                  Tuesday, Jaime, Kris and Nate will go diving to Bise. If you want, tell Jaime.
                  Thursday, a man who is German will come to lab.

5. Printer at Rising star buillding
    1th floor May be buy it...
    2th floor the memory is full now...
   Printer at room 354
    This is full work season. If you notice that printer's condition is crazy or paper will be reduced, 
    please tell it.

new paper!

Another paper of ours was accepted today:

James Davis Reimer, Masami Obuchi, Yuka Irei, Takuma Fujii, Yoko Nozawa. Shallow water brachycnemic zoanthids (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) from Taiwan: a preliminary survey. Zoological Studies (accepted).

11/3 lab. meeting

1. There is a Japan-Taiwan exchange scholarship available for Japanese students. Please go to http://www.koryu.or.jp/tokyo/ez3_contents.nsf/11/5DCEFF0A34290209492577B40013A0D4?OpenDocument if you are interested.
2. Kris goes to Moorea (French Polynesia) from Saturday.
3. Okuto has reported the Science experiment room air conditioner is broken. Does anyone else have any information? Please tell Jamie so we can get it fixed if needed.
4. Takuma will perhaps be on TV this Friday on NHK (19:30-19:55) - watch and see!
5. There may be construction in our lab in the new building as workers try to find why our room smells so bad.

10/27 lab. meeting

1. Typhoon coming.
2. Other lab. was robbed.
3. A habu appeared in the area of a deparetment of agriculture.
4. ATM (Kaihou and Ryuukyuu bank) in our Univ. will be closed 11/10-11/30.
5. Don't park your car beside Rising star building.
 

new paper!

Another paper of ours was recently accepted:

James Davis Reimer, Sohta A. Ishikawa, Mamiko Hirose. New records and molecular characterization of Acrozoanthus (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Zoanthidae) from Taiwan. Marine Biodiversity (accepted).

See you soon!

Pic from CA's goodbye party. We hope to see you in Okinawa again soon! As well, welcome to CA, JM, and SY!

CoML/CReefs press release

One photo of ours from CReefs is linked to this press release, along with some nice images by Yoshihiro Fujiwara from JAMSTEC.

http://www.aolnews.com/science/article/first-census-of-ocean-life-uncovers-6-000-new-species/19659671

cheers,

Lab meeting on Sept. 29th, 2010

1. The party '' See you again Catalina & welcome for Javier, Sung-Yin, and Carey'' starts from 6:30 pm tomorow at Paikaji.

2. There is a meeting (unofficial) of NCB(Nippon Cnidarian Biologists) during Oct. 1st~4th.

3. JCRS (Japanese Coral Reef Society) conference will be held in Tsukuba, Ibraki from Dec. 2nd~5th. The deadline for application is tomorrow (Sept. 30th).
　　
4. Don't leave the lab doors unlocked even for the short time (ex. 5~10 min.) during "Ryudai festival" which is running Oct. 2nd~3rd as many people from outside of the university will come.
　
5. Don't forget to write down your name when you borrow or return lab's diving equipments/card key of the new building,

6. We may have a Oku (north part of Okinawa) camp in Oct. 9th~10th.

Front page of the NY Times!

TF's image of coral bleaching of Thailand was the front page image for the NY TImes today!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/earth/21coral.html

Congratulations, and thanks to Mark Eakin of NOAA for making it happen.

Lab meeting on Sept 17th, 2010

1. Sampling help for KW. Her specialty is amphipod and she is trying to get more samples. If you bring back some coral rubble when you go diving, it will help her study. Ask KW directly about the detail.

2. JCRS (Japanese Coral Reef Society) conference will be held in Tsukuba during December 1st ~ 5th. The dead line for application is on September 30th.
Check the website for more information.
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jcrs/conference/2010/2010.html

3. We will have the CA's farewell party on September 30th, probably at Paikaji.

4. There will be a NCB meeting (unofficial) during October 1st ~ 4th at the Rising Star building.

5. We have small display at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum during 19th ~ 26th.
Here is the schedule.

18th: Setting JR, MO, TF, YI (13:00~17:00)
19th: MO, HS (9:00~17:30)
20th: TF, YH (9:00~17:30)
21st : closed
22nd: YI, OT? (9:00~17:30)
23rd: JR, MO (9:00~17:30)
24th: JR, MO (9:00~17:30)
25th: MM, HS (9:00~17:30)
26th: JR, MO (9:00~17:30)

another paper

Our recent submission to the journal Contributions to Zoology was accepted!

James Davis Reimer, Mamiko Hirose, Peter Wirtz. Zoanthids of the Cape Verde Islands and their symbionts: previously unexamined diversity in the Northeastern Atlantic. Contributions to Zoology (accepted).

new papers! & update

Slow summer, many people off doing field work.

Two new papers:
1. James Davis Reimer, Frederic Sinniger. Discovery and description of a new species of Abyssoanthus (Zoantharia: Hexacorallia) at the Japan Trench: the world’s deepest known zoanthid. Cahiers de Biologie Marine (accepted).
2. Yoko Nozawa, Kouki Tanaka, James Davis Reimer. Reconsideration of surface structure of settlement plates used in coral recruitment studies. Zoological Studies (accepted).

Also, from September 19-26, our lab will have a display at Okinawa Prefectural Aquarium - part of a Rising Star poster session., Drop by and check it out.

Other news:
1. TF is back from the CReefs Lizard Island trip. Trip details can be found at:
http://www.aims.gov.au/creefs/latest-field-trip-lizard-2010.html

2. Both a recent Epizoanthus paper and a paper in Marine Biotechnology are the cover articles for their issue.

Aug. 25th, 2010 Lab meeting during summer vacation

We will have lab meeting every other week during summer vacation. The date of next lab meeting is September 1st.
Please send e-mail if you have urgent information for MISE members of course, or if you need, we can have casual meeting at any time.

・JR is absent until September 13th.
・Flash diffuser plate of MISE's G11 was broken and new one is on order. It will come on this weekend (around 27th).
・MISE will have a presentation at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum (along with many other research groups) from September 19-26th. Everyone is supposed to introduce about your study. Check your e-mail for the detail and make sure the deadline etc. !

Today's pic- Acanthaster feeding on Palythoa tuberculosa. The photo was taken by MO.

Lab meeting on August 13th, 2010

1. CA will present a defense of her master's thesis on 16th. Please come and listen her talk.
2. JR will be in Australia from August 17th for a month.
3. Onigiri party - August 23rd.
4. CA's farewell party - September 30th.

Lab meeting on Aug. 4th, 2010

1. JR will be in Australia from Aug. 17th.

2. Presentation of Masters' thesis is Aug. 16th. Please come and listen CA's presentation.

3. A Postdoc-Kris and her husband Nathan arrived in Okinawa last night. Welcome to MISE!

4. A researcher from Taiwan-Benny Chan will give a talk about diversity of barnacle.
Date: Aug. 5th (Thursday) 4:00~5:00 pm. Place: Subtropical Science Research Bldg. 3rd Floor.

5. Finally, wireless is working in the RS new building!

Lab meeting on July 2nd, 2010

① "4th year students' mid term presentation"- July 23rd, 8:45 am~ 3:30 pm
Feel free to come and listen!

②A posdoc is coming to MISE on August 3rd.

③TF want to send some sequences to analyze by 21st or 27th. If anyone want to join, tell JR and TF.

Trendy zoanthids

You likely all know this, but "Japanese deepwater zoanthids" are selling for extremely high prices in the aquarium industry, despite most or all of the specimens not being Japanese or deepwater...

Check out the links:
http://glassbox-design.com/2010/japanese-deepwater-zoanthid/

and

http://coralmagazine.coverleaf.com/coral/20100506?sub_id=DLcNsTdnz17b#pg50

cheers,

JDR

Lab meeting on July 7th, 2010

1. NCB meeting will be held at the university during October 1st ~ 4th. Please participate if you have time. And also feel free to present your research.
It is good chance to discuss with other researchers about your research and get advices/information.

2. For graduate students- If you want to go overseas for your research, look at the frige's door. There is a information about grant funding.

3. For 4th year-students- Official deadline for mid-term presentation's summary is July 16th. Good luck!

Lab meeting on June 30th, 2010

1. There is a Mac G5 in the Rising Star building. Feel free to use!

2. Tell JR or MO if there are any things to order for the new room.

3. 4th year students' mid term presentation- July 23rd.
The dead line of resume is 16th. Please hand your adviser it around 10th, then they have time to check. Also get ready your DNA for sending by 9th.

4. We can get more card keys for the RS building. Tell JR if you want one.

5. Three 3rd year students are coming to MISE.

2nd Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium update

Hello all,

The 2nd APCRS just finished in Phuket, Thailand, and MISE lab members put on a nice showing. Congratulations to TF, who won the "best student poster" for his work, and to all other participating lab members. Here are the titles of the posters and talks:

1. T Fujii, JD Reimer. Phylogeny of undescribed zoanthid species in the Pacific. Poster.
2. C Aguilar, M Nonaka, JD Reimer. The Melithaeidae (Cnidaria: Octocorallia) of the Ryukyu Archipelago: molecular and morphological examinations. Oral.
3. Y Irei, Y Nozawa, JD Reimer. Investigation of distribution of five zoanthid species in Okinawa, Japan. Poster.
4. Y Nakano, M Obuchi, M Nakamura. Physical disturbance of the boulder zone on reef slopes. Poster.
5. JD Reimer.Examining biodiversity of understudied coral reef organisms: recent discoveries of “cryptic” zoanthids (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) in Okinawa. Oral.
6. 58. SY Yang, A Alamaru, AME Noreen, F Stenfani, F Benzoni, D Obura, YT Lein, CH Chen, K Shashank, WKW Loh, A YangAmri, NV Wei, YY Chuang, O Taylor, A Macdonald, JD Reimer, CF Dai, A Abelson, CRC Sheppard, Y Loya, CA Chen. Stylophora pistillata associated with different Symbiodinium clades are deep-divergence lineages: acclimatization or cryptic species? Poster..

Plus, JDR helped organize a workshop on Terpios sponges:
Outbreak of cyanobacteriosponge, Terpios sp., on coral reefs in the West Pacific‐‐‐what, how, where, and consequences of "black disease" in the reefs

and contributed the following presentation:
1. JD Reimer, M Mizuyama. Preliminary results of field surveys of Terpios outbreaks in the Nansei Islands, Japan .

We also observed the very severe bleaching during a dive excursion - and hope the impact is limited, although things look very severe for the short term for Thai reefs.

After the conference, most people are staying in Thailand for diving and research, only JDR came back soon after the conference. Have fun, and congrats on your hard work!

Lab meeting on June 16th, 2010

①Please turn your skype on when you are in labs (Science or Rising star building) to make it easy to contact each other.

②Always back up your laboratory notebook (e.g. photo copy) or your computer, and store them separate from originals.

③The date of mid-term presentation. - July 23rd.

④For Master students, please help 4th year-students for their mid-term presentation as well as JR and MO. (Check their resumes or presentations.)

・OT⇒MO
・MK⇒TF
・HS⇒YM
・TN⇒YH
・MM⇒YI


Photo: Acrozoanthus from Ningaloo Reef, Australia.

Good post...

On the problems facing taxonomists...

http://www.johnehrenfeld.com/2009/08/who-is-linnaeus-anyway.html

Lab meeting on June 11th, 2010

1. Terpios research trip in Miyako Island in mid-August/ Talk to JR if you are interested.

2. For 4th year-students-Turn in your title for the mid-term presentation ASAP!

3. JR will guide beaver scouts on a reef-walk on June 13th at Toguchi Beach. Come and help him if you can.

4. JR will give a talk at OIST on June 15th from 16:30-17:30. Tell JR if you want to come.

5. SD card for the lab common camera (G11) is missing! Return it immediately if you have it!

6. Please keep a log before you borrow lab common items. Logbook is on the cork board in student room.　

7. The date for throw away bulky refuges is June 21st.

Pic- Sunset view from Ningaloo station

Creefs

Even though CA and YI are back safe and sound from Ningaloo, there stories are now getting posted.

Check;
http://www.aims.gov.au/creefs/latest-field-trip-ningaloo-2010.html


More later, this month looks busy with the Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium coming up.

Ningaloo update

Hi all,

If you want to check out what is happening with CReefs Ningaloo 2010 expedition (with YI and CA participating), go to;

http://www.aims.gov.au/creefs/latest-field-trip-ningaloo-2010.html

cheers,

JDR

May 19th meeting

Not so much news this week.

1. Be professional, keep your experiment logs, and always record all data! Don't be slack, this could lead to big problems down the road.
2. For master's students, there are scholarships for conferences available.
3. If you wish to participate in the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar, the deadline for application is June 21st.
4. New building, we need LAN paperwork to connect to the net!
5. Anna's goodbye party - May 28th - yakiniku! HS is the organizer.
6. Next week, MO is in charge of the meeting (JDR will be on holiday likely).
7. Put things back exactly where you found them in the lab - scissors and vinyl tape are missing.

May 12th meeting

Lots of news this week:

1. Job openings: Active Ranger on Ishigaki and in Naha Mangrove Wetlands.
2. Please shut all lids in the lab tightly!
3. May 19th - new building has internet and phones.
4. 3rd years: two people have been decided on, and will enter the lab. MN and SN.
5. Part time jobs available: a) Sperm Conference - see Takemura-sensei.
b) Toxicology conference - June 16-18th - see Yamasaki-sensei.
6. May 29th - English school kids walk on the beach at Toguchi- who wants to be a volunteer guide?
7. June 25th, Nishihira-sensei will give a special presentation on coral reef biodiversity.

Lab meeting May 12th

We held the lab meeting in the new RS Research Building - very nice!

Points of discussion:
1. Active Ranger jobs available in Naha and on Ishigaki. Ask Tsuchiya-sensei for details.
2. Part-time jobs for conferences: a. Sperm conference, June 24-29 - ask Takemura-sensei.
b. Toxicology conference, June 16-18th - ask Yamasaki-sensei.
3. We can "officially" move into the new RS building on May 19th, when internet and the phones are connected.
4. Two 3rd years (MN, SN) have unofficially entered the lab, we still have space for one more.
5. May 29th - English children's reef walk and picnic at Toguchi, if you are interested in helping see JDR.
6. Don't forget to keep your shoes out of the middle of the hall for the cleaning lady to be able to move her cart by our lab.
7. June 25th, Nishihira-sensei (famous coral reef biologist) will give a special presentation on coral reef biodiversity.
8. Taiwan summer exchange program - (see poster above), if you are interested contact JDR.

New paper!

Our first sponge paper was accepted at Zoological Studies!

James Davis Reimer, Yoko Nozawa, Euichi Hirose. Domination and disappearance of the black sponge: a quarter century after the initial Terpios outbreak in southern Japan. Zoological Studies (accepted).

Another paper....

James Davis Reimer, Frederic Sinniger. Unexpected diversity in Canadian Pacific zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia): a molecular examination and description of a new species from the waters of British Columbia. Marine Biodiversity.

Stay tuned for even more papers...

New paper!

Just accepted at Zoological Science.

James Davis Reimer, Mamiko Hirose, Taiki Nishisaka, Frederic Sinniger, Gyo Itani. Epizoanthus spp. associations revealed using DNA markers: a case study from Kochi, Japan. Zoological Science.

Lab meeting on April 21st, 2010

1. Please download skype on your computer!

2. Please upload homepage!

3. Opening ceremony of the new building will be held on April 27th. Time: 1:30 pm~2:00 pm.

4. Moving to the new building- microscopes, samples etc..

5. Inoue scholarship- Please check the information if you are interested.

6. Make sure dive rulues.

7. Diving! on Thursday (contact JR) and Saturday (contact OT).

New paper!

Another paper of ours was accepted:

James Davis Reimer, MD Mafuzur Rahman Shah, Frederic Sinniger, Kensuke Yanagi, Shoichiro Suda. Preliminary analyses of cultured free-living Symbiodinium isolated from the oceanic Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Marine Biodiversity.

Stay tuned for more news!

Lab meeting on April 14th, 2010

1. Please download Skype on your computer!

2. Please organize your folders in the lab common computers.

3. Be careful in the field!

4. Registration for classes- Please make sure that the number of class is correct if you take more than 27 classes.

5. Explanation of Sesoko station- April 27th at 10:00~12:00

6. Writing class (every Wednesday)- feel free to join!

Lab meeting on April 7th, 2010

①Some students start to move to Rising Star's new building from the beginning of May (YH, YM, and some other master students, etc...).
②Maintain lab common items correctly after using! (diving gears etc..)
③Rules of using budget for diving tanks are changed. Ask JR for details.
④Next lab meeting starts from 4:45 pm.
⑤Master's seminar -every Friday at 12:50 pm~
⑥Writing class -open to all in lab. (probably every Wednesday's evening)

Happy new school year! -let's work hard + have fun!

Another paper! and sayonara to some students

April, a new school year for Ryudai. Four students graduated, and while two remain with us for their studies, two have left for the next step in their future. YS and MH will be missed, and hopefully their work will become papers soon. Stay tuned.

Also, another paper accepted, this one by CA. It's her first paper with us at MISE.

Catalina Aguilar, James Davis Reimer. 2010. Molecular phylogenetic hypotheses of Zoanthus species (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) using RNA secondary structure of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2). Marine Biodiversity (accepted).

Congratulations!

Welcome to MISE!

A researcher from Spanish museum, Anna Maria Addamo came to Okinawa on March 14th and will stay at Mise for two and a half months for her research. She is studying about deep cold coral systematics and phylogeography. She is mainly working on Desmophyllum dianthus.

New paper!

Another paper of ours was accepted:

James Davis Reimer, Takuma Fujii. 2010. Four new species and one new genus of zoanthids (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) from the Galápagos. ZooKeys (accepted).

We describe a new genus, and some species from the Galapagos.

More posts coming soon on the Nansei Island trip, graduation, and our new lab member!

New paper!

A small paper of ours was accepted:

MDMR Shah, JD Reimer, T Horiguchi, S Suda. Diversity of dinoflagellate blooms in reef flat tide pools at Okinawa, Japan. Galaxea (accepted).

Once it is out please check our homepage for details!

JDR

Lab meeting on Feb. 10th, 2009

1. Tanks & Cleaning: OT
2. Please make your own web-page for MISE homepage.
3. Water clarification apparatus in room 354 is broken.
4. Packing for Terpios sampling trip -on Feb. 27th or 28th.

Lab meeting on Feb. 3rd, 2009

1. Tanks & Cleaning: HS

2. Lab cleaning- on Feb. 24th

3. Feb. 5th~March 14th- There is a exhibition about Coral Reefs in the Okinawa Prefectual Museum.

4. JR is absent from the university during Feb. 4th~6th.

5. We bought a book about scientific word. Feel free to use it!

6. A researcher from Spain will come to MISE from March 15th.

7. A building for Rising Star Program should be completed at the end of March.

8. Schedule
Feb. 5th- Title deadline for master thesis
10th- Deadline for master thesis
16th- Doctor's presentation, deadline for undergraduate thesis
18th- Master's presentation
19th- Printing 4th-year students' posters
23rd- Undergraduate's presentation

Lab meeting on Jan. 28th, 2009

1. Tanks: MK

2. JR will be absent from the university during Jan. 28th~Feb. 5th for attending JAMSTEC cruise.

3. Feb. 5th is the title deadline for master theses.

4. Please use Drop Box for sharing Terpios information.

5. Be careful about your shoes! Some were stolen....

6. The deadline of APCRS's abstracts extended to Mar. 1st.

Rising Star Symposium 2010

The Rising Star Symposium 2010 was held at the University of the Ryukyu's Main Hall last Friday. MO, MH, and TF gave poster presentations, and JDR gave an oral presentation. As well, several members attended the after party.

All in all, it was a good chance to organize our research thoughts and discuss things with other researchers here at Ryudai.

Otsukare sama!

Lab meeting on Jan. 20th, 2009

1. Tanks & Cleaning: YH

2. For 4th years, YM: Tell your plans, survey at Employment Center (online).

3. Rising Star Symposium on 22nd, 2009
　・JR's presentation in Fukugoto 102, 13:15-13:30
　・MO, MH, and TF's posters in Daigaku Kaikan ３F from 14:30-15:30.

4. Russia exchange information - please check the website for detail.
　　　www.jrex.or.jp/ja/09_fellowship-jpyoukou/0.html

5. New Year Party! will be held on 26th (Monday).

Lab meeting on Jan. 13th, 2010

1. Tanks & Cleaning: YH

2. There is a Rising Star's Symposium on Jan. 22nd. Poster presentation starts at 15:15.
Please fill out the application If you want to join.

3. A researcher from Spain will come to MISE for three months from March 1st.

4. We will have a New Year party at the end of January.

5. Big Clean of the lab rooms- at the end of February.

6. Sampling in Okinoerabu- Mar. 4th~11th.

Cool movie!

Check out this video by Coral Morphologic - a Floridian friend of JDR who sends us some zoanthid samples from time to time. It really is quite cool!

http://coralmorphologic.com/b/2009/12/10/reel-09-american-airlines-arena

and then also:
http://www.morphologicblog.com/

check out the videos!

cheers - j.

Lab meeting on Jan. 6th, 2010

1. Tanks & Cleaning: YS

2. Sampling in Okinoerabu -around March 8th~ 15th.

3. Cleaning up of lab rooms -at the end of Feb. or Mar.

4. For 4th year students, please make early reservations for poster printing. 　

5. Budget deadline is Jan. 25th.
Please tell JR before then if you need something to use for your experiments.

6. The sequencer on 5th floor works well. If you need COI sequences ASPS, ask MH or JR.

first paper of 2010!

Just accepted at Galaxea:

Shusuke Ono, James Davis Reimer, Yoko Nozawa, Junzo Tsukahara. Long-term changes of infra-littoral zooxanthellate cnidarians in the Taisho Lava Field, Sakurajima, Kagoshima, Japan. Galaxea (accepted).

Also, FS's great Parazoanthidae paper is now available on the net for download from the homepage for Marine Biodiversity.

cheers!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 - here's hoping we all have a great year and accomplish lots of nice research!

Also, nice review of our new Singapore zoanthid paper here:

http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2009/12/monster-marine-issue-of-raffles.html

cheers,

JDR