Plankton — notoriously tiny nourishment for the largest animals on the planet — are not only at the very bottom of the marine food web. They also are central to myriad questions, from how to build more reliable sonar, to how to mitigate or reduce algae blooms that make some bodies of water toxic, to — some scientists now believe — how to reduce global warming.
At its core, plankton ecology is a complicated business of teasing out the relationships between phytoplankton (plant-like organisms) and zooplankton (animal-like organisms) in all their myriad forms. The energy transfer — or who is eating whom — can change from moment to moment. Only recently, with the help of DNA sequencing, have scientists begun to figure out not only who is eating whom, but why.
Teasing out the relationship between WSU Vancouver’s plankton experts is easier — they are principal investigators or co-investigators of 11 different research projects at the Aquatic Ecology Lab, and they are married.
Complementary expertise
“It’s not as unique as it used to be,” said Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, a clinical assistant professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) and the School of Biological Sciences. “Our expertise so complements each other that collaboration really strengthens our projects, rather than it being a stretch to find something we can both work on.”
Steve Bollens, whose primary expertise is the ecology of marine and estuarine zooplankton and fish, is director and professor of sciences at the Vancouver campus and at the newly created, statewide SEES. Rollwagen-Bollens’ research focus is the ecology of phytoplankton and microbes.
Working with four research associates and seven graduate students, Bollens and Rollwagen-Bollens direct a variety of projects. These take them from their lab, equipped with specially built plankton towers to study vertical migration, to the algae blooms of Vancouver Lake and to the oyster beds of Willapa Bay where burrowing shrimp are threatening a multimillion-dollar industry. At the mouth of the nearby Columbia River, they are identifying estuarine plankton that are relatively uncharted, biologically speaking.
Resource protection
According to James Petersen, WSU’s vice provost for research, the work of the Aquatic Ecology Lab is the kind of high-impact environmental research that not only contributes to a long-term understanding of fundamental science, but could have immediate consequences.
“With funding from sources such as Clark County, the National Science Foundation, and the Navy, Steve and Gretchen are conducting environmental research that will enhance our understanding of the complex interactions between microbes, animals and environmental conditions in oceans and lakes.” He said. “Through these studies, we will be better able to protect our natural resources.”
On the move
The two began their careers on opposite coasts, with Rollwagen-Bollens earning her undergraduate biology degree at Harvard University and Bollens earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Washington. They met when she made inquiries about pursuing graduate studies at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he was working as a research scientist.
“It’s a long story,” Rollwagen-Bollens says, and laughs, but essentially they leapfrogged across the country — she earned a master’s degree at University of Hawaii and a doctoral degree at the University of California Berkeley; he solidifed his reputation as a productive and multidisciplinary expert in plankton ecology with projects taking him to the Florida Keys, as well as the Arabian Sea, the Bering Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.
Much to learn
Stories about recent changes in ocean ecology are becoming more common in mainstream publications, including a five-part series in the Los Angeles Times titled “Altered Oceans” that won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize. The series paints a dire picture, but Bollens said there are still huge gaps in what scientists know about the ocean.
“The work in our lab is focused on the science of how aquatic ecosystems work, but also how this knowledge can be applied to solving current problems associated with human impacts,” he said. “We’ve only just scratched the surface of understanding what goes on in the world’s oceans and lakes.”
