Tardigrades, also known as water bears, comprise a microscopic aquatic animal Phylum famous for their ability to withstand extreme environmental conditions and rapid changes in their environment by undergoing cryptobiosis, a process that allows them to desiccate with their environment and survive exposure to temperatures of near absolute zero, 6,000 atmospheres of pressure, and high vacuums. Recently water bears have gained global media attention for their ability to survive exposure to outer space. While the underlying molecular biology and physiology of tardigrades produced exciting applications in organ transplants and insights into ultra-violet radiation on the skin, little is known about the global diversity and distribution of this group. Tardigrades are found all over the world, from the bottom of oceans to the tops of mountains, but little is known about which species is where and how it got there. The project aims to unfold tardigrade dispersion, distribution, and diversity. An automated robotic system to sequester, preserve, label, and image specimen tardigrades on laboratory slides for permanent storage will be developed. These images are then used to develop and “train†artificial intelligence software to identify species. The potential discovery and description of new, rare, and common morphospecies will expand regional knowledge of phenotypic diversity. The development of a new regional alpha taxonomic voucher collection at a major museum will be accessible worldwide, an invaluable tool in species identification which will promote the inclusion of tardigrades in global environmental and biogeographical analyses. The prepared specimens and the automated system for preparation and identification of specimens, stored at the Bohart Museum at the University of California, Davis, will be available for students, researchers, and museums world-wide to access in the future. To this end, highly qualified students from diverse ethnic, gender, and ability backgrounds begin by working in the field under the mentorship of Baker faculty at the Baker University Wetlands to collect samples from the local forested habitats and their resident bird populations.
This is a three-year project to modernize two of the fundamental infrastructure processes necessary for research into the phenotypic biodiversity of Phylum Tardigrada by a collaboration among three STEM departments (Biology, Physics & Computer Science) at a small undergraduate school (Baker University) with support from the Bohart Museum (University of California, Davis). Baker University faculty supervise undergraduate workshops to identify the biodiversity of tardigrades recently discovered on birds by first automating the 100+ yr-old process used to make slides and images of specimens by designing and building a microscope slide preparation, labeling and imaging system intended to reduce time, labor and cost. Second, faculty and student researchers automate the phenotypic identification of specimens to species by developing image/pattern matching software using a new image reference library built with artificial intelligence for students, researchers and museums. The products of this research will yield papers, chapters, and articles written by the students and faculty PIs. The design and directions for use of these technologies will be published such that students, researchers, and teams at universities and museums can build their own systems. This project will demonstrate that collections management, tabletop robotics, artificial intelligence, and computer identification of specimens are some of the infrastructure arenas requiring modernization for rigorous scientific research into invertebrate phenotypic diversity and ecology. Finally, the results of this multi-dimensional ecological study into the lives of tardigrades on birds will spread light onto a dark area of the tree of life. (http/: “mywaterbears.comâ€)
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
