The first Halcampa arctica Anemone Posted to to iNaturalist! - Observation of the Week, 9/29/19

Our Observation of the Week is the first Arctic Burrowing Anemone (Halcampa arctica) posted to iNaturalist, seen in Svalbard and Jan Mayen by @heather340!

As a child growing up in Maine, Heather Glon was surrounded by family members who were gardeners and birders, and who loved to be outside. Heather herself explored the woods and the beach, and eventually majored in marine biology. She’s now “in my fourth year of my PhD at the Ohio State University studying the biogeography and systematics of sea anemones. 

Though my research is mainly focused on one particular genus, Metridium, I am always on the lookout for other sea anemone species to collect or document, since oftentimes someone else in the lab or a collaborator needs a certain species for their research.

While participating in a recent six week course on Svalbard, Heather heard about a nearby shore dive “[that] had fields of Halcampa arctica.

As my advisor and a labmate are working within this group of anemones for their research, I was anxious to go and collect them a specimen or two!...However, even though the site was easy to access by taking a taxi, we did have to bring along a friend with a rifle and flare gun to be on shore duty, since you are required to have a gun outside of the town limits due to the presence of polar bears in the area. 

Anyways, we started finding the anemones in about 2 meters depth of water, which made for a very easy dive! I was able to collect a few specimens as well as take plenty of photographs, so I was thrilled to be able to have that experience.

Like other anemones, Halcampa arctica has a ring of stinging tentacles surrounding its mouth (which, to put it delicately, is the only entrance and exit of its digestive system). But unlike many of sea anemones , it does not latch onto a hard surface with a pedal disc. It instead burrows into soft sediment to keep itself in place. As Heather described, they can be abundant in some areas, such as in the field seen in this photo. 

Heather (above right, with her dive buddy Ivan at the dive site) tells me she uses iNat “both my research and for personal documentation/ID help on things that I see.” The species she studies, Metridium senile, is pretty common, so Heather will look for iNat observations before a collection trip, and has asked other users to send her some specimens if she’s unable to visit an area. She’s also been in contact with other anemone researchers about her own observations, 

and now we (along with another iNaturalist user) are putting together a manuscript regarding those observations. It’s been fantastic seeing iNaturalist evolve as an essential tool in the toolkit for my PhD research! I have plans to incorporate it into future outreach, as well as integrating it into my teaching with students here at Ohio State to further engage them in the natural world around them.  

Photo of Heather by Jan Phillipp Geissel. 

- You can check out Heather’s website here, and her Sea Anemones of the World project here.

- Longyearbyen Dykkerklubb provided the equipment for Heather’s dive buddy Ivan, and more photos from this dive are posted on their Facebook page. 

Posted on 29 de setembro de 2019, 09:01 PM by tiwane