UA professor to study oil’s effects on anemones

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University of Alabama biological science professor Matthew Jenny and a partner at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts will collect sea anemones from Gulf marshes and bring them to Tuscaloosa for further study. Anemone should help scientists understand how invertebrates cope with oil and other chemicals.

By Adam Jones Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 10:51 p.m.

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TUSCALOOSA | A University of Alabama professor won a federal grant to study the effects of the recent oil leak on a small animal living in the marshes along the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s hoped that this simple organism at the base of the animal kingdom will provide a better understanding of the long-term effects of the estimated 210,000 gallons of oil that gushed from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico over 86 days earlier this year.

With a $110,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, UA biological science professor Matthew Jenny and a partner at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts will collect sea anemones from Gulf marshes and bring them to Tuscaloosa for further study. The tiny invertebrate animal lives in mud-like sediment, rising out in high tide to eat and be eaten.

The anemone should be able to yield clues on how other invertebrates handle the removal of oil, along with the chemicals that government and BP officials sprinkled on the Gulf to disperse the oil, Jenny said.

“We know very little about how invertebrates respond to these types of oil stresses, so understanding the enzymes used for metabolizing or removing the oil is going to be important in terms of assessing of whether or not organisms are able to respond in removing oil exposure,” he said.

This particular anemone, scientifically called Nematostella vectensis, was chosen by Jenny because its genome, the basic compounds that make up any organism, has been mapped. It will be easier to see what genes the anemone is using to compensate for contamination, he said. Other invertebrates more than likely would use the same process as the anemone.

It’s hoped that this simple organism at the base of the animal kingdom will provide a better understanding of the long-term effects of the estimated 210,000 gallons of oil that gushed from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico over 86 days earlier this year.

With a $110,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, UA biological science professor Matthew Jenny and a partner at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts will collect sea anemones from Gulf marshes and bring them to Tuscaloosa for further study. The tiny invertebrate animal lives in mud-like sediment, rising out in high tide to eat and be eaten.

The anemone should be able to yield clues on how other invertebrates handle the removal of oil, along with the chemicals that government and BP officials sprinkled on the Gulf to disperse the oil, Jenny said.

“We know very little about how invertebrates respond to these types of oil stresses, so understanding the enzymes used for metabolizing or removing the oil is going to be important in terms of assessing of whether or not organisms are able to respond in removing oil exposure,” he said.

This particular anemone, scientifically called Nematostella vectensis, was chosen by Jenny because its genome, the basic compounds that make up any organism, has been mapped. It will be easier to see what genes the anemone is using to compensate for contamination, he said. Other invertebrates more than likely would use the same process as the anemone.

“We can use this as a screening tool to look at how other different species might be impacted by exposure to the oil,” Jenny said. “This is sort of a stepping stone to understanding these conserved bio-markers.”

The anemone could yield clues to how invertebrates deeper in the ocean on the seabed, where much of the oil is thought to have rested, will deal with the oil and chemical dispersants.

While the effect of oil is well-known on vertebrates, those animals with backbones, there is not much data on invertebrates, Jenny said.

“Invertebrates are very important, so understanding how they are going to respond to those stressors is very important,” he said.

It will take about a year to complete the study and publish the findings, Jenny said.

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.