Critter of the Month: The British Columbian Doto

By: Dany Burgess, Angela Eagleston & Diana Olegre, Environmental Assessment Program

Doto columbiana, the British Columbian Doto

Another Northwest slug?

The Northwest is known for the slugs and snails that thrive in the undergrowth of its damp mossy forests. Critters like this also live under the sea, like our Eyes Under Puget Sound Critter of the Month, Doto columbiana, commonly called the British Columbian Doto.

It’s a nudibranch

The British Columbian Doto belongs to a category of animals called nudibranchs (pronounced NEW-dih-bronks), often referred to as sea slugs. There are over 3,000 species of nudibranchs worldwide, but fewer than 20 species exist in the Puget Sound.

D. columbiana - profile of whole
preserved specimen stained pink

D. columbiana is a tiny critter, only reaching about 8 mm in length. Along the sides of its body are soft lumpy structures called cerata (plural for ceras) that look like clusters of grapes and function as digestive glands. The leopard-like coloration on D. columbiana can vary between individuals but generally consists of brown mottling throughout the body along with darker rings at the base of each grape-like tubercle. You can see the tubercle, ceras and other body parts labeled in the photo of the preserved D. columbiana to the right.

Excuse me? My “antennae” are called rhinophores!

The antenna-like structures on the nudibranchs’ heads are called rhinophores. These are a type of chemo-sensory structure, allowing nudibranchs to sense the world around them. The word “rhinophore” comes from the Greek word “rhino,” meaning nose, which is appropriate since they function as an organ of “smell.”

However, while humans smell scents in the air with their noses, nudibranchs “smell” or detect scents that are dissolved in the sea water around them to find food. The rhinophores’ worm-like appearance makes them an easy target for predators, so they can be quickly retracted into a trumpet-shaped rhinophore sheath for protection.

You are what you eat

D. columbiana on a colony of the hydroid Aglaophenia

Nudibranchs are carnivorous and get their pigmentation, or colors, from the food they eat. Nudibranchs that eat brightly colored creatures are brighter too. In fact, many have brilliant bodies of intensely contrasting colors.

The British Columbian Doto is quite drab by comparison. D. columbiana eats hydroids from the genus Aglaophenia. Hydroids are colonies of tinier critters called “polyps” that are related to jellyfish. An Aglaophenia colony looks like a brown fern frond or feather plume, and these neutral colors are incorporated into D. columbiana’s body to help camouflage it from predators.

D. columbiana conveniently lives on what it eats as well, laying its eggs on the underside of the hydroid’s branches. When the eggs hatch, the young larvae have shells which disappear as the nudibranchs become adults.

Taxonomy troubles

D. columbiana, like many soft-bodied critters, does not preserve well. The colors can be lost and the shape can become distorted. Benthic taxonomists, the scientists who identify these small marine critters, have to look closely at features like the cerata and rhinophores to determine which critter they have collected.

Eyes Under Puget Sound Critter of the Month

Our benthic taxonomists, Dany and Angela, share their discoveries by bringing us a Benthic Critter of the Month. Dany and Angela are scientists who work for the Marine Sediment Monitoring program. These posts will give you a peek into the life of Puget Sound’s least-known inhabitants.

In each issue we will highlight one of the Sound’s many fascinating invertebrates. We’ll share details on identification, habitat, life history and the role this critter plays in their sediment community. Can't get enough benthos? See photos from our Eyes Under Puget Sound collection on Flickr. Look for the Critter of the Month every month on our blog.

Eyes Over Puget Sound: Sunshine fuels Noctiluca blooms and green islands

By Jessica Payne, Environmental Assessment Program communications manager

In this month's Eyes Over Puget Sound report, the data shows our current trend of unusually warm water temperatures is continuing in central and south Puget Sound. 

Willapa Bay, however, returned to expected water temperatures as a result of cooler water pushing in from deep in the ocean. That is good news for the marine wildlife that live in Willapa Bay, but Puget Sound is still feeling the heat!

Click here to see the July report.

What in the world is this!?

Although it might look like some magic concoction created in the laboratory of a science fiction novel, it's actually nature and sunshine mixing up tiny plants and animals in the sound.

View of the organic floating islands
from the air. Click photo to enlarge.

What's the mixture?

Our scientists saw many pockets of this mixture during this week's marine monitoring flight. They call them "extensive mats of organic debris mixing with a fading Noctiluca bloom".

In other words, the green you see above is floating islands of algae. This floating plant matter grows, flows and begins to spread out across the water.

What's this Noctiluca I keep hearing about?

The orange is the last remnants of the Noctiluca bloom we saw so much of in last month's issue. The tomato soup-colored Noctiluca blooms are non-toxic plankton and occur naturally every year. See microscopic photos of Noctiluca and many other Puget Sound plankton in a guest piece from King County's Environmental Lab.

We saw the most of these organic debris islands in central Puget Sound, between Seattle and Bainbridge Island, although they extended north up to Camano Island and Padilla Bay. We also saw many red-brown and brown blooms of other types of algae going strong in southern inlets and around the San Juan Islands.

WCC gives a young scientist the experience of a lifetime

For Brooke, our Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) intern, working with our marine monitoring team has been dynamic and fun. Whether she's running equipment, analyzing samples in the lab or catching jellyfish, she's right in the action.

Read about Brooke's experience in the Personal Field Impressions section of this month's report. She tells of her adventures working with Puget Sound critters and gives advice for other young scientists who are interested in environmental work.

Want to work with Ecology? WCC will be opening it's recruitment period statewide on July 15. These are AmeriCorps positions that provide paid opportunities for young people and veterans to gain experience in natural resource work. Brooke's internship is one of their Individual Placement positions. Learn more about joining a crew or applying for an Individual Placement like Brooke's on the WCC webpage.

What's Eyes Over Puget Sound?

Eyes Over Puget Sound combines high-resolution photo observations with satellite images, ferry data from travel between Seattle and Victoria BC, and measurements from our moored instruments. We use a seaplane to travel between our monitoring stations because they are so far apart.

Once a month, we take photos of Puget Sound water conditions and turn those out, along with data from our stations, in the monthly Eyes Over Puget Sound report.

Learn more and see other issues on our website.

Eyes Under Puget Sound: Our taxonomists “Name that species”!

By Maggie Dutch, Senior Benthic Ecologist, Environmental Assessment Program

World-renowned ecologist, E.O. Wilson, told us “If a biologist does not have the name of the species, he is lost” in his autobiography Naturalist.

The scientists who work with our Marine Sediment Monitoring Team share Dr. Wilson’s conviction, especially with regard to the over 1,200 species of tiny invertebrates they study. These little critters are known as “benthos”, and they’re the animals that live in the sediments at the bottom of Puget Sound.

Our scientists have been tracking benthos as part of their 26 years of sediment quality studies for the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program. These creatures help us determine the condition of sediments throughout Puget Sound. They play an important role in the Puget Sound food chain, and with over 1,200 species, there is a lot to keep track of!

Taxonomists are scientists who deal with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms. We would like you to meet our two new taxonomists that recently joined the monitoring team.

"I love being behind a microscope,
where you can see all the tiny details
that are missed in everyday observation."
 - Ecology taxonomist Dany Burgess

Meet taxonomist Dany Burgess

I grew up in Concord, North Carolina, where I developed an early fascination with the ocean despite only seeing it once a year during family trips to the beach.

After receiving my B.S. in Marine Biology, I went on to conduct graduate research focused on the ecology of invertebrate communities on artificial and natural reefs off the coast of South Carolina. This involved many hours of identifying benthic organisms.

I received my masters in Environmental Studies in 2008, spent the next six years working as a biologist at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Resources Research Institute, and eventually found my way back to work as a taxonomist and manager at the Southeastern Regional Taxonomic Center.

My daily activities at the Institute ranged from trawling for sea turtles to wading through waist-deep mud in tidal creeks, but my specialties and interests have always been marine invertebrate taxonomy and ecology. I love being behind a microscope, where you can see all the tiny details that are missed in everyday observation. As a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest, I am very excited for the opportunity to join the Marine Sediment Monitoring Team and to learn about the amazing creatures that live in the sediments of Puget Sound!

Meet taxonomist Angela Eagleston

"I have always had a deep passion for the ocean environment
and all creatures that live in it, no matter how big, small
or weird looking!" - Ecology taxonomist Angela Eagleston

For as long as I can remember, I have always had a deep passion for the ocean environment and all creatures that live in it, no matter how big, small or weird looking! I am extremely grateful and excited to be a part of the Marine Sediment Monitoring Team so that I can continue to explore and learn about the invertebrates in Puget Sound’s benthic communities.

Originally from Austin, Texas, I graduated from the University of Texas with my B.S. in Marine and Freshwater Science. During my research-driven academic career, I spent much of my schooling at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas on the Gulf of Mexico conducting experiments and serving as a research assistant on various projects. I also worked abroad on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula where I was involved with tracking coral reef degradation and invertebrate diversity to assess the health of coral reef ecosystems in an area impacted by heavy tourism.

Upon completing my degree, I moved to the Pacific Northwest to work at an environmental consulting and taxonomic production laboratory where I specialized in the identification of marine mollusks (snails and clams) and echinoderms (sea stars, sea cucumbers, etc.) from all around the world.

New adventures in taxonomy

Angela is currently focusing on the identification of Washington’s mollusks such as snails and clams, and echinoderms such as sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and sand dollars. Dany is focusing on identification of the “polychaetes” or marine worms, arthropods such as crabs and shrimp, and other creatures that are collected for the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program.

They are both tackling their new jobs with zeal and enthusiasm, and are quickly getting to know the myriad of species that inhabit the Puget Sound.

E.O. Wilson also writes… “Most children have a bug period. I never outgrew mine.” We believe that the same holds true for Dany and Angela…and we are glad they didn’t!

You can track their work by following our Eyes Under Puget Sound blogs and seeing up close microscope photos of the animals they’re identifying on our Eyes Under Puget Sound Flickr collection.

Critter of the Month

Meet Sternaspis affinis Stimpson, 1864, better known as
the Dumbbell worm, next Friday on our blog!

Dany and Angela are going to be sharing their discoveries by bringing us a Benthic Critter of the Month. These posts will give you a peek into the life of Puget Sound’s least known inhabitants.

In each issue we will highlight one of the Sound’s many fascinating invertebrates. We’ll share details on identification, habitat, life history and the role this critter plays in their sediment community!

Look for May’s critter, the Dumbbell worm, next Friday on our blog.