Visiting Team of Mangrove Killifish Reseachers

When I first arrived at Blackbird, I had an opportunity to work briefly with a team of Canadian, American and British researchers lead by friend and colleague Prof. Pat Wright of the University of Guelph. They were hosted to a visit of the Blackbird Field Station and the Blackbird Resort. Team Killifish carried out field and lab studies on Kryptolebias marmoratus (the mangrove rivulus) at the Calabash Caye Field Station, University of Belize, November 30 – December 21, 2009. They conducted a series of experiment involving field observations, behavioural lab experiments and genetic analysis. The team also included Prof. Suzie Currie of Mt. Allison University (Canada), Prof. Sonia Consuegra and Amy Ellison (Ph.D. student) of Aberystwyth University (Wales) and Dr. D. Scott Taylor of the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program (USA). They also plan to return in 2 years at which time I hope to be more actively involved in this project. In the mean time, I will be conducted complementary observations of K. marmoratus during the dry season. Team Killifish was also very kind in that they left me with a wealth of supplies to help me start setting up a lab at the station.

The mangrove rivulus is distributed between southern Florida and northern South America where it survives in mangrove swamps under highly variable conditions of temperature, oxygen, salinity and ammonia. This fish can grow up to 7.5 cm TL and will seek refuge in crab burrows at low tide. The environmental conditions where K. marmoratus lives are particularly severe and the species has developed unique adaptations to cope with the environmental uncertainty including the ability to respire through the skin and live out of water for prolonged periods of time, in very unusual habitats for fish (e.g. packed in logs; and was featured in National Geographic News, 6 November 2007). It also represents the only vertebrate with a mixed mating reproductive strategy that until recently was thought to be present only in plants and invertebrates, making this species a unique model in evolutionary biology.