- [Instructor] Let's talk now
about some of the field expedition methods used today
and how they lead to new discoveries about biodiversity.
The key word here is multidisciplinary.
Expeditions are almost never just one kind of scientist
marching into the field
and collecting only one kind of organism anymore.
Multidisciplinary expeditions are ones in which you have
a team of people who bring different expertise to the table
or to the field or to the leaf litter or to the deep sea
or to whatever aspects
of the natural environment you're exploring.
The benefits of a multidisciplinary expedition happen
because you have that different expertise,
the different focus of attention by each member of the team.
It can happen for example when you've got a bird expert,
an ornithologist that is on an expedition
walking next to a botanist, somebody who studies plants
who might say,
"Well that bird is fantastic
"but it's living on such and such a tree
"and that tree might have
"other related species of that bird also living on it
"or its close relatives.
"We should check that out."
You get a synergy, a new way of looking at things.
You don't overlook something that might fall outside
your particular area of expertise.
Multiple disciplines and collaboration,
those are the keys.
An ability to compare notes, to ask questions of each other
right there in the field.
So, what goes into the nuts and bolts of an expedition?
What equipment do you need?
What are the best methods for collecting the specimens?
What type of transportation
and how much food are you gonna need?
Of course the nuts and bolts
of different types of expeditions
are like the nuts and bolts of different car models.
One type of car is gonna have different nuts and bolts
than another type of car.
The nuts and bolts for deep sea expedition
will be different from the nuts and bolts
of a shallow water expedition
or a terrestrial expedition.
And all those different sets of nuts and bolts
are gonna have to be very carefully planned
by people who know what they're doing.
Part of the planning has got to be
the prior communications with
and buy-in from the host country governments
and the local communities.
The people who see you come into their back yards
to look at and collect organisms
have the right to A, give you permission to do it
and B, and learn and benefit from your findings.
It must be a completely open system,
a true partnership.
Obtaining the necessary permits is an official
and legal manifestation of this partnership.
And what are some of the other nuts and bolts?
Every expedition has to consider the type of gear
that's the most applicable.
I'm not gonna join my terrestrial buddies
with full scuba gear on
and similarly I wouldn't expect them to show up
for a snorkeling session with a butterfly net.
Here's another good example.
There are scientists who wanna study the organisms
that live in the tops of trees.
The canopy organisms.
And this is a lot more difficult than it might sound.
How do you get to the top of a very tall tree
and move around among the thin branches
once you get there?
Do you need climbing gear?
Or would a hot air ballon work better
to hover over the treetops and reach down into them?
Or maybe walkways, suspended in the canopy.
So, if you're studying mountain organisms,
you're going to have mountain climbing gear.
If you're going to study organisms that live underwater,
of course you have to have that whole suite of stuff
that goes with diving.
Everything from a source of air or other gases to breathe
to the equipment to breathe it
and especially special training.
If you're going to a place where electricity
isn't going to be readily available,
you need to have power sources
to keep your cameras and your computers charged.
And then there are modes of transport.
Sometimes this is
the single most difficult thing to assemble.
Everything from camels to jeeps and ocean going vessels
are things that you have to consider
in your expeditionary planning
depending on where you're going.
Being prepared takes a lot of work.
Remember, this is a mission of discovery
and by definition, you're bound to run into things
that you don't expect.
But you also have to plan for
what comes out of the expedition.
The collected material
and all the information that goes with it.
An increasingly crucial part of the gear
that goes with you into the forest, to the coast,
onto the ship or anywhere is a computer
and a digital camera.
It's where you record your notes,
your data, your photographs.
It used to be notebooks, pens and pencils,
maybe a paintbox and an easel
but today it's computers and digital photography.
And today, within minutes of coming out of the water,
down from the tree or in off the beach
you can type into your computer
the most recent discoveries that you just made,
download your photographs
and if you have an internet connection out there,
send them off to colleagues saying,
what is this?
Is it a new species?
The ultimate data in any expedition of course
are the specimens themselves.
You need to make sure the
that you have the right equipment with you
to collect them and preserve them.
You wanna make sure that these precious organisms
are kept in a condition that will still yield data
after they've been brought back to the lab for study.
You need containers for all of that
and usually, some type of chemical.
Some specimens you wanna preserve in special fluids
and some you wanna keep dry.
Increasingly, we collect specimens from molecular analysis.
Some of the needs of molecular biology
can be met by preserving material
in a standard preservative like alcohol,
usually ethanol but not all of it can.
Sometimes you need to have a way of
quick freezing the material in the field.
Even if you're doing your research
at the north or the south pole,
you still need to keep the material frozen
all the way back to the lab
so you need to have a way of bringing something
like liquid nitrogen into the field with you
and liquid nitrogen isn't something
you just walk into the local store and buy.
Nor is it something
you can easily take onto the airplane with you.
So there has to be a lot of advance planning
and logistical arrangements.
Once you've collected the specimens
you need to label them
and include the basic collection information of
who, what, when, how and especially where.
You also wanna capture photographs of the specimen
while it's still alive if possible
since many organisms do change colors after death.
These days we have technology that helps us say
exactly where it was that we collected something.
GPS or Global Positioning Systems
and GIS, Geographic Information Systems
allow us to record the precise longitude
and latitude coordinates on earth
where that specimen was collected.
The technology is getting better,
less expensive and more integrated
which means we're getting more and more accurate
in saying where a particular specimen came from.
But the collecting event also includes
who collected it
and that's important for understanding the situations
surrounding the act of collecting.
You know which person to contact if you have questions
and knowing if the collector was an expert
on that type of organism will help you better understand
how the area was sampled
and whether there are likely to be
other organisms of interest there.
The time, the date and the weather conditions
are all part of the full set of collection information.
All part of the so-called meta data
that describes the collecting circumstances.
It all needs to be recorded.
Seasonal information could be very, very important.
The time of day can also be really important.
How many of the specimens were seen
and how many of them were collected
at the same time?
What were they living on?
Or perhaps living in.
Parasitology requires you to collect the type
of host the parasite was living on.
Not just the parasite itself.
And it's important to collect as much meta data as possible
because you never know what will turn out to be
critical information in the future.
Which brings me to say a few words about the future.
Scientists cannot do it all.
There just aren't enough of us.
In the race to document and preserve
the diversity of life on this planet
we need all the help we can get
and that's where citizen science
is becoming a bigger part of the way scientists work.
Citizen science refers to having non-scientists
help collect scientific data.
There are so many people who can contribute.
You don't need a formal science degree
to be observant and notice the life around you,
wherever you are.
I get tips and photos all the time
from individuals that like to snorkel and dive
but we can also take a more organized approach
and recruit interested people
to help with the work of making observations,
taking photographs, collecting information about organisms.
It's more eyes and ears in the field.
In the future we can also expect more use
of drone or remote sensing technology.
Satellite based systems for example
can detect different kinds of radiation
that come from the surface of the planet
and allow the identification of tree species
in a forest or the amount of chlorophyll in the ocean,
right from space.
There are very powerful ways of building
what is known as spatial analyses.
Where you can document,
not only some of the biodiversity
but also where those things are at any given moment.
How many of them there might be over huge,
broad swathes of the planet at any given time.
Much more space than you could cover in an expedition.
The flip side of the remote sensing coin
is what's called, ground truthing.
You still need to get those boots on
or the mask and the snorkel.
You still need to go out into the field
and all I can say is thank goodness for that
because there's nothing,
there's nothing like turning over a rock
or looking at what's coming up in the trawl
or peering into your insect net
and seeing something that no one else on the planet
has ever documented before.
There truly is nothing like the thrill of discovery.