Ammodytes dubius

NSF awards our collaborative sand lance grant!

Posted on June 24, 2023June 24, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

24 June 2023. We are overjoyed to be able to announce today that NSF's Division of Integrative Organismal Systems has awarded our proposed research to better understand sand lance CO2 sensitivity!

With a sense of pride and humility we will take on this intriguing case, follow it down some rabbit holes, while keeping in mind the big picture. This fall, our collaborative team will begin its renewed work, now on both congeneric sandlance species (Ammodytes dubius, A. americanus).

We already have two talented PhD students recruited to the task, Lucas Jones and Emma Siegfried. With curiosity and anticipation, we look forward to the next years of eco-evolutionary research on some of the most important forage fish species on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf.

Public Award Abstract
Ocean warming and acidification are direct, predictable consequences of man-made climate change with likely vast but still insufficiently understood consequences for marine life.

So far, most tested fish species appear only mildly sensitive to ocean acidification, but sand lances are an exception. Sand lances are small, eel-like, schooling fishes of enormous importance as food for marine fish, seabirds and mammals in temperate to polar ecosystems, and recent research conclusively demonstrated that many sand lance embryos have trouble developing and hatching under predicted future ocean conditions.

This project uses modern experimental and molecular tools to understand exactly WHY sand lance embryos are so unusually sensitive and which genes and enzymes are responsible for this. Genes will also reveal whether some specific genotypes are less sensitive to warming and acidification, which can then be used to predict whether the species could evolve to be more tolerant over time.

Another important objective is to test a closely related sand lance species to find out, whether the high climate sensitivity might be of general concern in this important group of forage fishes. This project combines innovative ecological, evolutionary, and genomic research to help society anticipate looming marine ecosystem changes in the 21st century, while equipping the next generation of scientists with the needed tools and expertise to succeed in the challenges ahead.

The project also creates opportunities for high school students from underprivileged Connecticut schools to accompany the team on sand lance sampling trips to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

Technical Award Abstract
Two recent studies on Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius), a key forage fish on offshore sand banks across the Northwest Atlantic shelf (NWA), have robustly demonstrated that predicted future CO₂ conditions induce some of the most severe reductions in embryo survival and hatching success seen yet among tested fish species. This project has four objectives for revealing the mechanisms underpinning this unusual, high CO₂-sensitivity as well as the ubiquity and genetic basis of this phenomenon.

[1] For the first time, we will rear A. dubius offspring produced from wild spawners to late larval stages at factorial CO₂ × temperature conditions to test whether sand lance larvae are as CO₂-sensitive as embryos.

[2] For the first time, we will use transcriptomic tools (RNAseq, RT-qPCR) to elucidate mechanisms causing ‘CO₂-impaired hatching’, focusing specifically on hatching enzymes, to better understand a newly discovered mortality mechanism due to high CO2 in fishes.

[3] Modern genomic approaches (low-coverage whole genome sequencing; allele frequency shifts, relatedness analyses) will reveal whether high CO₂-sensitivity has a genetic basis in sand lance and could therefore evolve.

[4] And for the first time, we will extend CO₂ × temperature experiments to a congener, the American sand lance (A. americanus), which provides an important scientific contrast between nearshore vs. offshore species CO2-sensitivities and will yield critical insights whether high CO₂-sensitivity is a wider concern within the sand lance family.

ICES JMS publishes sand lance population structure paper!

Posted on December 9, 2022February 3, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

5 December 2022. We are proud to announce that the ICES Journal of Marine Science just published our latest sand lance study! The work spearheaded by Lucas Jones and subject of his Masters thesis research has brought together a large, international group of collaborators to better understand the genetic relationships between disparate sand lance populations across their large geographical range. This is an Open Access publication that will hopefully be of use to researchers studying sand lance everywhere.

Jones, L.F., Lou, R.N., Murray, C.S., Robert, D., Bourne, C.M., Bouchard, C., Kučka, M., Chan, Y.F., Carlon, D.B., Wiley, D.N., Therkildsen, N.O., and Baumann, H. (2022) Two distinct population clusters of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) on the Northwest Atlantic shelf revealed by whole genome sequencing ICES Journal of Marine Science 80:122-132

Press release. By Elaina Hancock

Genetic Barriers, a Warming Ocean, and the Uncertain Future for an Important Forage Fish

In the vast oceans, one would assume their inhabitants can travel far and wide and, as a result, populations of a species would mix freely. But this doesn’t appear to be the case for a vital forage fish called the sand lance.

Sand lance are small schooling fish impressively rich in lipids, which makes them a fantastic and significant food source for at least 70 different species ranging from whales and sharks to seabirds, says UConn Associate Professor of Marine Sciences Hannes Baumann.

The Northern sand lance can be found from the waters off New Jersey all the way north to Greenland. Researchers, including Baumann and Ph.D. student Lucas Jones, were interested to see if sand lance constitute a massive, homogenous population, or whether there are genetically distinct groups. Their findings are published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.

Baumann explains these are important questions to answer when considering conservation and sustainable management of the species, especially since the regions where sand lance live are warming faster than many areas of the planet due to climate change.

Sampling fish from such a broad range is no small task, but two years ago, Baumann and Jones began reaching out to other researchers to see if they had tissue samples to spare. Baumann credits the work to the international group of colleagues who contributed samples including co-authors from Canada and Greenland, and who helped sequence and analyze the data including co-authors from Cornell University.

In all, Baumann, Jones, and the team were able to sequence and analyze nearly 300 samples from a variety of locations across the sand lance’s range using a technique called low-coverage whole genome sequencing. They also sequenced the first reference genome for sand lance.

In a nutshell, Baumann says they found an area on the Scotian Shelf, off the coast of Nova Scotia, where a genetic break occurs. The researchers distinguished two distinct groups, one north and one south of the divide, with parts of the genome differing quite dramatically – namely on chromosomes 21 and 24. Without obvious physical barriers like a mountain range separating the groups, Baumann says it’s logical to ask how these differences are possible.

“That is the scientific conundrum,” says Baumann, and the answer, it appears, lies in the currents.

“When fish from the north reproduce and drift south, they are genetically less adapted to warmer southern waters, even if it’s five or six degrees warmer in the winter, they are just not surviving,” Baumann says. “These populations may be linked by the ocean currents, but the realized connectivity is basically zero.”

This finding is a first for the sand lance, but it has been shown in other species such as lobsters, cod, and scallops, and this research adds further evidence to an apparent temperature divide at the Scotian Shelf, and helps demonstrate that temperature is an important factor in survival.

“Example after example shows that the ocean is not as homogeneous a place as expected, and there are all kinds of things that prevent that constant mixing,”Baumann says. “We found another striking example of that.”

When researchers find adaptation in an environment where mixing is continuous, like in the ocean, Baumann says, the question is how it is possible that groups stay different, even though they are constantly encountering other genotypes. That is where powerful genomic methods, like the ones used in this paper, come in handy.

“Parts of the genome in many species have what we call a ‘genetic inversion,’ which means that the genes on the chromosome from one parent have a certain order and the genes on the same chromosome that come from the other parent that code for the same thing, and they’re the same area, but they’re flipped,” Baumann says.

These inversions mean recombination cannot occur; therefore, the genes are passed down through the generations and play an important role in adaptation.

“We discovered on chromosomes 21 and 24 there are whole regions that are completely different and that is like the trademark signature of what we call an inversion because there’s no recombination going on.”

Baumann says that knowing there are genetic and ecological barriers on the Scotian Shelf is important, because with climate change, this barrier may move north and while that may be good news for southern fish, it’s bad news for the fish currently there.

The researchers were also a little relieved in finding two clusters, because had there been many smaller clusters, it could make management and conservation more challenging, especially considering scenarios like the construction of offshore wind parks. Areas potentially well situated for wind turbines can also be habitats for sand lance, and construction disrupts habitats. If there were many, smaller population clusters, a single construction project could pose the risk of completely wiping out a cluster, whereas with more widely dispersed populations, though the local population may be temporarily disturbed, it will not be long before they are able to re-establish after construction is completed.

Baumann plans to focus further research on studying the genetic basis of the thermal divide.

“We want to make sure that this fish is productive and resilient, despite climate change, so we should make sure these areas where they are occurring are protected,” Bauman says. “These decisions should include experts to ensure if there’s an area that is very critical to sand lance, that any disturbance is temporary.”

It isn’t an unsolvable conflict, but it is something that we need to do, says Baumann, who also notes that it is possible that sand lance north of the thermal divide are already suffering more from warming because the region is warming faster.

“It could be that these two clusters have different vulnerabilities to climate change,” he says. “We don’t know that yet but that’s something that should be pursued.”

MEPS just published our most recent paper on sand lance CO2-sensitivity!

Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

A potential ripple effect from carbon in the atmosphere could have severe impacts throughout the ocean ecosystem

MEPS-sandlance — *This photo shows sand lance embryos that have and have not hatched. Sand lance have trouble hatching at future ocean CO₂ levels (photo courtesy of Emma Cross)*.

By Elaina Hancock. Reposted from UConn Today, 7 April 2022

When carbon is emitted into the atmosphere, about a quarter of it is absorbed by the earth’s oceans. As the oceans serve as a massive ‘sink’ for carbon, there are changes to the water’s pH – a measure of how acidic or basic water is. As oceans absorb carbon, their water becomes more acidic, a process called ocean acidification (OA). For years, researchers have worked to understand what effect this could have on marine life.

While most research so far shows that fish are fairly resilient to OA, new research from UConn, the University of Washington, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Southern Connecticut State University, shows that an important forage fish for the Northwest Atlantic called sand lance is very sensitive to OA, and that this could have considerable ecosystem impacts by 2100. The team’s findings have just been published in Marine Ecology Progress Series 687.

Sand lance spawn in the winter months in offshore environments that tend to have stable, low levels of CO₂, explains UConn Department of Marine Sciences researcher and lead author Hannes Baumann.

“Marine organisms are not living in a uniform ocean,” Baumann says. “In near shore environments, large CO₂ fluctuations between day and night and between seasons are the norm, and the fish and other organisms are adapted to this variability. When we stumbled upon sand lances we suspected they are different. We thought that a fish that lives in a more open-ocean offshore environment might be more sensitive than the near-shore fish because there’s just much less variability.”

The project was a collaboration with physical oceanographers, including Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences Samantha Siedlecki and Michael Alexander from NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, who modeled CO₂ levels in 2050 and 2100 for a specific part of the Gulf of Maine where sand lance spawn. Then Baumann and his team reared sand lance embryos in the lab under experimentally higher CO₂ levels matching the projected levels.

There are instances of direct fish mortality as result of elevated CO₂, but they are rare, says Baumann. However, sand lance embryos proved to be exceptionally sensitive, and fewer embryos hatched under future oceanic CO₂ conditions. The researchers repeated the experiments three more times to avoid jumping to conclusions but each time they observed the same result.

“We found that embryo survival-to-hatch decreased sharply with increasing CO₂ levels in the water, concluding that this is one of the most CO₂-sensitive fish species studied thus far,” Baumann says.

Sand lances are surely one of the most important forage fish here on the Northwest Atlantic shelf… The humpback whales, sharks, tuna, cod, shearwaters, terns — you name it — they are all relying on sand lance.

With this interdisciplinary approach combining model forecasts and serial experimentation the researchers arrived at a picture that is much more specific.

“We consequently applied principles of serial experimentation, which is a most timely and important topic in ocean acidification research right now,” Baumann says. “Because our findings are backed up by repeated independent evidence, they are more robust than many published ocean acidification studies to date.”

In addition to preventing many sand lance embryos from developing normally, the researchers document a second negative, and novel, response to elevated CO₂. Higher CO₂ levels appear to make it harder for embryos to hatch.

Baumann explains the lowered pH likely renders enzymes needed for successful hatching less effective, leaving the embryos unable to break through their eggshell (chorion) to hatch.

The results show that by 2100, due to acidification, sand lance hatching success could be reduced to 71% of today’s levels. Since sand lance are such a critical component of the food web of the Northwest Atlantic, this marked decrease in sand lance would have profound impacts throughout the ecosystem.

“Sand lances are surely one of the most important forage fish here on the Northwest Atlantic shelf,” Baumann says. “Their range spans from the Mid Atlantic Bight all the way to Greenland. Where we studied them, on Stellwagen Bank, they are called the backbone of the ecosystem. The humpback whales, sharks, tuna, cod, shearwaters, terns — you name it — they are all relying on sand lance, and if sand lance productivity goes down, we will see ripple effects to all these higher trophic animals. Even though we humans don’t fish for sand lance, we need to take care of the species because it has such a huge effect on everything else.”

Baumann says this study supports the hypothesis that offshore, high latitude marine organisms like the sand lance may be among the most vulnerable to OA. As a result, these organisms and food webs will likely be impacted first and soon, and we must act now.

Previous research has focused on opportunistically chosen species when testing their sensitivity for ocean acidification, says Baumann, but this should change.

“We need strategic thinking about what species we are testing next, because we cannot test every marine fish species, that’s an impossible task. We should concentrate on fish species that are likely the most vulnerable, and therefore the ones that are probably being affected first and this research makes a compelling argument that those are the fish species at higher latitudes and in more offshore than nearshore environments.”

Baumann, H., Jones, L.F.*, Murray, C.S., Siedlecki, S.A., Alexander, M., and Cross, E.L. (2022)
Impaired hatching exacerbates the high CO₂ sensitivity of embryonic sand lance, Ammodytes dubius
Marine Ecology Progress Series 687:147-162

Hannes gives DMS Friday seminar on sand lance ecology

Posted on March 4, 2022March 4, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

4 March 2022. Hannes was the invited speaker at today's Friday seminar of the Department of Marine Sciences. His talk gave an overview of the research highlights of our multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional efforts to better understand basic ecological facts, population connectivity & structure, and the unusually high CO₂-sensitivity of sand lance embryos. The remotely given presentation was attended by 62 people, some of which listened in from as far away as Norway!

The talk was recorded and can be accessed via the public link below.

Baumann, H. 2022. The unusual ecology & climate sensitivity of sand lance, a key forage fish on the Northwest-Atlantic shelf. UConn Marine Sciences Friday seminar. Online. 4 March 2022.

The unusual ecology and climate sensitivity of sand lance, a key forage fish on the Northwest-Atlantic Shelf

No matter how you look at these small, slender-bodied fishes that at times live buried in sediment or emerge as dense pelagic schools, northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) easily awe even the most hard-to-impress scientist or naturalist. Their unusual behavior, patchy occurrence, and reproductive timing are paralleled by their extraordinary importance as forage fish that sustain well-known hotspots of iconic predators (cod, tuna, sharks, seabirds, whales) all across the Northwest Atlantic shelf. And yet, despite their recognized role as the ‘backbone’ of many shelf ecosystems, we still don’t understand many basic aspects of sand lance ecology, population structure and their vulnerability to manmade climate change. Over the past years, our lab has been working alongside other US and Canadian research groups on multiple sand lance projects that have produced stunning new insights into these enigmatic fish. This seminar will outline some of the highlights. We discovered that the seasonal growth of these fish relies heavily on the lipid-rich copepod Calanus finmarchicus and showed that after a dormancy period in summer they spawn on Stellwagen Bank for just a brief period at the end of fall. To resolve questions of connectivity between sand lance areas, we performed large-scale Lagrangian drift simulations that suggested areas of high, low and negligible retention of sand lance offspring and showed overlaps with planned offshore wind lease areas. A large collaborative effort succeeded in obtaining specimens from across the entire distributional range (Greenland to Mid-Atlantic Bight), and subsequent whole genome sequencing newly revealed a stark genomic differentiation between northern and southern population clusters. Last, we performed multiple years of rearing experiments on embryos that consistently showed an unusual sensitivity of sand lance to future, high CO₂ oceans. When coupled with regional, end-of-century pCO₂ projections we estimate that rising CO₂ levels alone could reduce sand lance hatching success to 71% in 2100 relative to today. Warming, acidification, and habitat exploitation therefore emerge as key factors lining up against the future productivity of this forage fish, which is so critically important across Northwest-Atlantic shelf ecosystems.

Video: A November day on Stellwagen Bank

Lucas Jones presents his Masters Thesis research!

Posted on November 27, 2021November 27, 2021 by Hannes Baumann

The UConn Department of Marine Sciences

Presents a Master’s Thesis Presentation by

Lucas Jones

B.A., University of Connecticut, 2018

4:00 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2021

Marine Sciences Building, Seminar Room 103

**Using Low-Coverage, Whole Genome Sequencing to Study Northern Sand Lance (Ammodytes dubius) Population Connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic**

Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) are key forage fish in Northwest Atlantic (NWA) shelf ecosystems, where they exclusively occur on coarse-grain, offshore sand banks. This patchy occurrence may result in genetically more fragmented, less connected populations, but traditional morphological or genomic approaches have so far been unsuccessful in fully resolving the species’ population structure and connectivity. My study pursued an alternative genomic approach, using low-coverage, whole genome sequencing (LcWGS) to address these important questions. I extracted DNA from 273 A.dubius specimens collected by collaborators from sevenregions across the species geographical range, from Greenland to New Jersey, USA. From LcWGS data, I identified 11,558,126 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that allowed quantifying genetic differentiation between populations (F_ST), thereby revealing the genetic structuring of populations throughout the NWA. Despite the potentially homogenizing influence of the general north to south ocean circulation, I found a clear genetic break around Nova Scotia that delineated a northern from a southern A. dubius supergroup. Only within the southern supergroup, genetic distances increased with the geographic distance between sample sites. At the focal site of Stellwagen Bank (southern Gulf of Maine), A. dubius samples collected over several years (2014 – 2019) revealed small but significant temporal genetic differences that imply varying occupation of this offshore habitat by genetically different sand lance contingents. Inclusion of samples from the inshore congener A. americanus confirmed the clear genetic separation between both species and further determined that all sand lance caught on Stellwagen Bank are exclusively A. dubius. Overall, my work suggests the existence of two spatially distinct A. dubius populations with little ‘realized’ connectivity, which is critical knowledge to aid protection and management of offshore marine resources.

Major Advisor: Hannes Baumann

Associate Advisor: Nina Overgaard Therkildsen

Associate Advisor: Senjie Lin

[New Publication] Fish and Fisheries publishes review of sand lance!

Posted on March 26, 2020March 26, 2020 by Hannes Baumann

20 March 2020. We are happy to announce that the prestigious journal Fish & Fisheries just published a comprehensive review about the role of sand lance in the Northwest Atlantic Shelf ecosystem. The article, which came out of a workshop on this topic three years ago, reviews the the current state of knowledge about these enigmatic and important forage fish and urges continued efforts to better understand their role in the ecosystem and sensitivity to climate stressors.

Sand lance caught on Stellwagen Bank in November 2014

The publication of this article was featured by UConn Today on 24 March 2020.

This work represents the first comprehensive assessment of this important forage fish in the Northwest Atlantic, though similar efforts have been carried out in the Pacific Northwest and Europe. In the Atlantic, sand lance are observed to be a significant food source for the federally endangered Roseate tern, Atlantic sturgeon and cod, Harbor and Grey seals and Minke and Humpback whales. “This paper is a call to our peers and colleagues that there is a big gap in knowledge, and to bring more attention to these species as unmanaged forage fish,” says Staudinger.

Staudinger, M., Goyert, H., Suca, J., Coleman, K., Welch, L., Llopiz, J., Wiley, D., Altman, I., Applegate, A., Auster, P., Baumann, H., Beaty, J., Boelke, D., Kaufman, L., Loring, P., Moxley, J., Paton, S., Powers, K., Richardson, D.E., Robbins, J., Runge, J., Smith, B.E., Spiegel, C., and Steinmetz, H. (2020)
The role of sand lances (Ammodytes sp.) in the Northwest Atlantic Ecosystem: a synthesis of current knowledge with implications for conservation and management
Fish and Fisheries (published online 20 March 2020)

[Lab news] Hannes and Lucas on a ‘genetic’ road trip

Posted on December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

18 December 2019. Hannes and Lucas just returned from a spontaneous road trip to visit our good friends and collaborators at the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), Canada. We drove for over 10 hours (one-way) through snowstorms and icy voids to meet with Prof. Dominique Robert, who had collected sand lance samples from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and from Nova Scotia to be included in our new genomic study on the population connectivity of this species. Hannes gave a talk about our sand lance work and we saw a new institute in a new place, while frantically trying to stay warm amidst the brutal cold. Seeing the St. Lawrence in its icy, majestic beauty was a truly amazing experience.

[New Publication] Conservation Physiology publishes our first sand lance paper!

Posted on November 21, 2019November 21, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

21 November 2019. We are excited to announce the Chris Murray‘s paper on the unusual, high sensitivity of early life Northern sand lance to acidification and warming has just been published in the journal of Conservation Physiology! This is the first publication of our extensive work on this enigmatic species.

Sand lance species play a key ecological role in most temperate to polar shelf ecosystems of the northern hemisphere, but they have remained unstudied with respect to their sensitivity to predicted future CO₂ levels in the ocean. For the past three years (2016 – 2018), we have sampled and spawned with northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and subsequently reared their embryos under factorial CO₂ x temperature conditions to hatch and early larval stages. Our results were striking, in all years, high CO₂ conditions severely reduced embryo survival up to 20-fold over controls, with strong synergistic reductions under combined high CO₂ and temperature conditions. High CO₂ also delayed hatching, reduced remaining endogenous energy reserves at hatch, and in combination with higher temperatures, reduced embryonic growth.

Indeed, given the observed effect sizes, northern sand lance might be the most CO₂ sensitive fish species tested to date.

Murray, C.S.*, Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. (2019)

High sensitivity of a keystone forage fish to elevated CO₂ and temperature
Conservation Physiology 7:1-12

[Research news] Sandlance are spawning on Stellwagen Bank again!

Posted on November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

15 November 2018. After a stretch of foul weather kept us from going out to Stellwagen Bank last week, this time all the stars aligned for Emma and Mackenzie. Due to their success in catching spawning ripe Northern sandlance, we are now embarking on our third year of CO₂ x temperature experiments on this species!

Here is how Mackenzie Blanusa experienced her first trip to these enigmatic waters:

“This particular sandlance cruise was a day filled with firsts and is definitely a trip to remember. I accompanied Emma, Hannes’ postdoc, up to Scituate the night before the cruise and was given a rundown of what needed to be accomplished. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, because I’ve never dealt with sandlances before and did not know a lot about these fish. Nevertheless, I was eager to learn something new and was ready to help out wherever needed.

The goal of the sandlance cruise was to collect running ripe males and females to do a fertilization via strip spawning. Emma and I were a bit doubtful at first because we got less than 10 sandlance on the first two trolls. However, things got much better by the afternoon, and our most successful trawl caught 147 sand lance. I helped out with the fertilization and deploying the trawl, two things I have never done before. The most exciting part of the day was getting to see humpback whales. Usually they are in the distance but today they were right next to the boat. Everyone on board said that this never happens and it was very unusual so I felt very lucky to have seen whales at such a close proximity.”

Overall, the trip was a huge success and it was very refreshing to see everything go as planned. The only downside to the day was driving back home through a snowstorm. I later found out that there was a 73% fertilization success and we got 27,000 embryos for Emma’s experiment. I am very grateful to have gotten the opportunity to help out on this sampling cruise and am looking forward to doing this again in the future!

Sandlance-Nov2018-03 — Emma on the makeshift spawning station for sand lance on board the RV Auk

Sandlance-Nov2018-02 — Mackenzie strip-spawning sand lance on the ship

Stellwagen whales — Added perks of doing research on Stellwagen Bank …

Sandlance-Nov2018-04 — Exactly 0.5ml of sand lance eggs (~ 600) were distributed into each replicate per treatment

Sandlance-Nov2018-01 — Emma and Julie pipetting sand lance eggs

[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the Larval Fish Conference in Victoria

Posted on July 2, 2018July 2, 2018 by Hannes Baumann

Holding the fort at the Rankin lab were Emma and Sydney, who did an excellent job. Thank you guys!

Victoria08 — The Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort was the conference venue

Victoria10 — Before the conference, we all attended a workshop on larval fish identification

https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/fisherbrand-class-a-clear-glass-threaded-vials-attached-caps-pe-poly-seal-cone-liner-8/14955326 — Whale-watching with Corinne, Julie & Chris

Here is how Julie experienced her first LFC:

Ever since attending the American Fisheries Society conference in 2014, I’ve wanted to go to another fish-focused conference. I was lucky enough to attend the 42nd annual Larval Fish Conference this year in Victoria, British Columbia, and it surpassed all my expectations. The week started off with a larval fish identification workshop where we got to learn techniques from renowned larval fish experts (and see some really cool fish larvae!). The talks were impressive and thought-provoking, providing many new ideas for research and how to give an engaging talk. My favorite part was meeting all the larval fish ecologists whose publications I’ve been reading for my thesis. I spent most of my evenings exploring Victoria with other grad students attending the conference and left with many new friends from institutes all over the world! The trip ended with a whale watch, where we saw a pod of 5 Orcas. Overall, the Larval Fish Conference was a great experience that I hope to someday attend again!

Oral presentations:

Pringle, J. and Baumann, H. Sex-specific growth and mortality patterns in juvenile Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) from Connecticut waters. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Murray, C.S., Wiley, D., and Baumann, H. Early life stages of the northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius show high sensitivity to acidification and warming in a CO₂ × temperature factorial experiment. Talk. 42nd Larval Fish Conference, Victoria, BC, Canada 24-28 June 2018

Victoria04 — Harbor front with Parliament building

Victoria06 — Local celebrity, the one eyed seal

Evolutionary Fish Ecology

Ammodytes dubius

NSF awards our collaborative sand lance grant!

NSF-ORCC (Organismal Response to Climate Change): Collaborative Research: Mechanisms underpinning the unusual, high CO₂ sensitivity of sand lances, key forage fishes on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf (#2307813, 2023-2026, $1,050,000)

ICES JMS publishes sand lance population structure paper!

Genetic Barriers, a Warming Ocean, and the Uncertain Future for an Important Forage Fish

Separation of 3 sand lance species based nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (Jones et al. ICES JMS 2022)

MEPS just published our most recent paper on sand lance CO2-sensitivity!

A potential ripple effect from carbon in the atmosphere could have severe impacts throughout the ocean ecosystem

Hannes gives DMS Friday seminar on sand lance ecology

The unusual ecology and climate sensitivity of sand lance, a key forage fish on the Northwest-Atlantic Shelf

Video: A November day on Stellwagen Bank

Lucas Jones presents his Masters Thesis research!

The UConn Department of Marine Sciences

Presents a Master’s Thesis Presentation by

Lucas Jones

B.A., University of Connecticut, 2018

4:00 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2021

Marine Sciences Building, Seminar Room 103

**Using Low-Coverage, Whole Genome Sequencing to Study Northern Sand Lance (Ammodytes dubius) Population Connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic**

[New Publication] Fish and Fisheries publishes review of sand lance!

[Lab news] Hannes and Lucas on a ‘genetic’ road trip

[New Publication] Conservation Physiology publishes our first sand lance paper!

[Research news] Sandlance are spawning on Stellwagen Bank again!

[Lab news] Baumann lab attends the Larval Fish Conference in Victoria

NSF-ORCC (Organismal Response to Climate Change): Collaborative Research: Mechanisms underpinning the unusual, high CO2 sensitivity of sand lances, key forage fishes on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf (#2307813, 2023-2026, $1,050,000)

Genetic Barriers, a Warming Ocean, and the Uncertain Future for an Important Forage Fish

Separation of 3 sand lance species based nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (Jones et al. ICES JMS 2022)

A potential ripple effect from carbon in the atmosphere could have severe impacts throughout the ocean ecosystem

The unusual ecology and climate sensitivity of sand lance, a key forage fish on the Northwest-Atlantic Shelf

Video: A November day on Stellwagen Bank

The UConn Department of Marine Sciences

Presents a Master’s Thesis Presentation by

Lucas Jones

B.A., University of Connecticut, 2018

4:00 p.m., Monday, November 22, 2021

Marine Sciences Building, Seminar Room 103

Using Low-Coverage, Whole Genome Sequencing to Study Northern Sand Lance (Ammodytes dubius) Population Connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic

NSF-ORCC (Organismal Response to Climate Change): Collaborative Research: Mechanisms underpinning the unusual, high CO₂ sensitivity of sand lances, key forage fishes on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf (#2307813, 2023-2026, $1,050,000)

**Using Low-Coverage, Whole Genome Sequencing to Study Northern Sand Lance (Ammodytes dubius) Population Connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic**