Nelle ultime due settimane il team del “Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology” di Brema ha lavorato presso la Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Amendolara, continuando una fruttuosa collaborazione scientifica per lo studio di affascinanti associazioni simbiontiche nei sedimenti marini del Mar Ionio.
Scoprite di più nel racconto del loro soggiorno e delle attività di ricerca condotte lungo la costa calabrese:
Two Weeks of Worm Hunting in Calabria
“We spent the past two weeks at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dorhn in Amendolara, continuing our collaboration between the Stazione and the “Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology” in Bremen. Our work focuses on gutless marine worms – small sediment-dwelling annelids that live in close association with bacterial symbionts. These partnerships represent fascinating examples of how life can adapt and diversify under the sea.
By studying their biodiversity across the Mediterranean, we aim to understand how these symbioses evolved and how environmental conditions have shaped their distribution and diversity over time. Each new location adds another piece to the puzzle of how these animals and their microbial partners form such successful and specialized systems.
During our stay, we explored subtidal sediments along the Calabrian coast, collected and sorted specimens under the microscope, and used portable DNA sequencing in the field to identify species directly on site.
We’re grateful to Daniela Pica and everyone at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Amendolara for their great support – and for diving and collecting samples for us!”
