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!

Things to remember while JDR is in Aus!

All lab members: Get Skype, then we can talk for free while I am in Australia! Ask MO, CA, or YI for my Skype address.

Things to remember while I am in Australia:

1. JCRS presenters (MO, YM, TF, YI): If you have a poster, do not forget to a. check it with me, and b. make a reservation to print it. You can print it using my "公費（教育）” that the Biology Office manages.
2. All lab members: Please help with formalin clean-up. Today's participants know how, so ask them. As well, we may be able to pay some money for helping!
3. YI: you are the chair for the next seminar on December 2nd. Don't forget the posters and PDFs!
4. Jobs in December - we will do paperwork in November by email while I am in Australia. Please remind me if you get the chance, I may forget!
5. M.Hirose will start work from November in the lab; please help her if she has any questions.
6. Work for lab members while i am gone:
a. MO - lab management, etc. Also, the freezer if it arrives.
b. YM - sclerites, DNA (COI, ITS, MutS) complete data sets (pink, purple, green morphs). Begin thesis!
c. TF and YI: continue as is. TF and YM need to help with my class (Nov. 18, 25).
d. CA - continue as is.
e. MH - check DNA data; begin thesis!
f. YH - data collection, begin thesis!
g. YS - DNA analyses, begin thesis!
h. HS - sampling! If you want, begin DNA (ask someone to help you).
i. MK - DNA extraction, examining Symbiodinium DNA.
j. OT - continue snail and host sampling.
k. TN - learn sampling and field ID.
l. MM - DNA results? Also, begin cnidome analyses if you want (ask TF or YI to help).

Good luck!

Swimming off to the distance at Manza.

Lab meeting Sept. 9, 2009 and updates

Summer!

Everyone is out in the field, or so it seems. Still, we need to update the blog. Here is the latest info:
1. Taiwan expedition and symposium: JDR and MO participated along with Hirose-sensei in sampling in both southern and northern Japan. We all also gave presentations at the special symposium (see posting earlier). All in all a great trip; we need to visit there more often! Big thanks to Shanky, Chen-sensei, and Nozawa-sensei for all their help!

Stay tuned for updates on this topic.

2. YK09-12 cruise at the Japan Trench: FS, CA, and TF finished the cruise with many samples despite the bad weather. In particular, many octocorals were collected.
3. 5th NCB: Being held in northern Japan now. TF and YI are participating, as well as sampling in the Japan Sea! Brrr.... Next NCB will be here in Okinawa.
4. JDR is now an associate editor of WoRMS - more info later.

Lab meeting today:
1. Tanks this week: YS
2. DNA classes next week: MO, MH, YS, MM participating!
3. YI wants a cheap new automatic car. Anyone with info please contact her.
4. Diving Friday at Sunabe: JDR and MH.

Have a great week!

Today's pic: Acrozoanthus in Kenting.

Ignored fauna workshop

As part of JDR's JSPS grant and in collaboration with Academia Sinica, there will be an "ignored fauna workshop" in Taiwan next month.

Check here for the link:

http://coral.biodiv.tw/2009a/Default.aspx

Thanks to everyone at Academia Sinica, and especially Shanky for all their hard work! MO and JDR will attend September 3rd-8th.

http://www.shonai.ne.jp/kamo/

This is the link for the 5th NCB, which YI and TF will attend next month!

JCRS update

One more short note. It looks like JDR, YM, YI, and TF will all attend the 11th JCRS Conference in Shizuoka. Great news!

ICRS update 2

Hello -

more updates. Perhaps too much to write here, but I have been meeting and talking to lots of great researchers. It looks like our lab will be swamped with more samples! Details when I return to Japan.

Also, FS and my presentation is reviewed here...

http://coralmorphologic.com/b/2008/07/08/zoanthids-etc-at-the-icrs-day-2

Talk to you soon!

JDR

ICRS update 1

Hello everyone,

JDR here at Ft Lauderdale. I have been busy busy but having a great time. Here are some updates and news from this huge conference (2500 people):

1. ES - I have some info on Palythoa spawning in the Caribbean from Dr. Acosta.
2. FS - I am certain we will be getting many more samples! Now working on Isozoanthus samples from Ireland.
3. I have been talking a lot with Symbiodinium people too, and have some interesting experiment ideas.
4. Met Tim Swain (check out his 2007 paper), we had a great zoanthid talk.

Presentation yesterday went great, I am now free to relax, watch talks, and have beer with some great people and researchers.

See you next week!

sincerely,

JDR from Ft Lauderdale