PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A University of Maine at Presque Isle professor is in the midst of a detailed examination of species gathered in what was the very first survey of crayfish worms in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
UMPI emeritus professor of biology Dr. Stuart Gelder returned last month from a research trip in America’s most visited national park, which is located in both North Carolina and Tennessee.
The trip, funded by a $4,940 grant from the Discover Life in America Fund, could lead to a much larger research project, Gelder said Thursday.
Gelder is a world expert in studies of branchiobdellidans, or crayfish worms — leechlike creatures that live primarily on crayfish. He has published extensively on the subject and has contributed to international scientific journals, both on his own and with other scientists and former students. Gelder said the Appalachian region has the highest concentration of branchiobdellidan species in the world.
He and Bronwyn W. Williams of the department of biological sciences at the University of Alberta spent two weeks collecting crayfish at selected sites across the park and identifying crayfish worms. During the trip, he explained Thursday, park biologists connected the researchers with biologists who previously had conducted research on crayfish in the park. That meeting ultimately resulted in the two extending their trip to examine crayfish species outside of the park in Tennessee.
“Bronwyn [Williams] and I met three years ago, and I had been told several times in the past that I should do some research in the Great Smoky Mountains,” he said. “There was never a good time to do it back then, but I am retired now and the grant money was awarded this time. One of our projects involves molecular se-quencing of as many North American branchiobdellidan species as possible. Many of the species we were missing are found in the Great Smoky Mountains, so this was a most timely opportunity.”
Gelder said he and Williams were able to identify about two-thirds of the species they found at 15 sites in the park using live examination methods developed by the longtime UMPI professor. In his laboratory at UMPI Thursday, he was continuing his efforts to identify the additional species through a more detailed examination.
Gelder’s work includes preserving and mounting representative worms on microscope slides for the Smithsonian Institution, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park reference collection, and other relevant museum collections.
It will be another few weeks before he is done, he said.
Once all samples have been identified and processed, species and distribution lists will be constructed for use by the national park. Selected specimens also will be used in Williams’ doctoral work on the reconstruction of a molecular phylogeny of crayfish worms from around the world using genetic sequencing methods.
Gelder said that one new species of crayfish worm, from Tennessee, has been found so far. It, and any other new species that are identified, will be named and described for publication and specimens will be deposited in both the Smithsonian Institution and the New Brunswick Museum, in St. John, New Brunswick.
Such research is important, he explained, to advance understanding of not only crayfish worms, but also other species and the world around us. It is especially important for future students.
“This research in the national park will help the park’s administrators in their development of the next development plan,” he said. “The wider value of the research comes when it is incorporated into reference books of freshwater ecology used by students, researchers and environmental scientists. They can take what we have found and extend the research and so add more information to our understanding of freshwater ecology.”
Gelder and Williams already have received invitations to return to the national park and to Tennessee to continue their research.
The results from the grant also may lead to a much larger research project that would involve multiple scientists and potentially could be funded through a National Science Foundation grant.
“People in the park were really excited with what we were doing during our two weeks there,” Gelder said. “I am optimistic about the potential for a larger research project. It could be a three- to five-year project and answer some of the questions we have raised.”
Discover Life in America is the nonprofit organization that coordinates the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, or ATBI, which seeks to inventory the estimated 100,000 species of living organisms in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For information, visit its website at www.dlia.org.