After filling our water tanks and having breakfast, the Halton left Bergen harbor for our first diving site in Vatlestraumen on Sunday morning.

Leaving Bergen on Sunday morning.

This location is of interest to the bryozoan team because a species list was done in the area by Professor John Ryland (University of Swansea) back in the late 1950s. After dive checks are completed the bryozoan team jumps in.

Hamish supervising dive checks with Piotr.

Joanne, Piotr and Sally about to dive.

As the Halton circles, waiting for the divers the return to the surface, the Norwegian coastguard arrives and asks us to move from the area as the police are undertaking a missing persons search. With bryozoans and rocks on board, the days dive plan is hastily revised and we head for Åskenset, a short steam away.

The horse mussel team, which consists of Dr William (Bill) Sanderson, Prof Hamish Mair and Rebecca Grieves from Heriot Watt University, are looking for maerl (coralline red algae) and horse mussel beds as part of their biogenic reef project.

Bill and Rebecca waiting to dive while Hamish supervises.

After half an hour down, the divers come to the surface – it has proved unsuccessful and we move on. After a 2 hour steam through some narrow fjordic passages, we arrive in Herdlefjorden at a site commonly known as the Shark Wall. This vertical wall is unusual due to the shoals of tope (a small shark species), which congregate in these waters.

Piotr clutching his camera about to go down to the Shark Wall.

This would finish off the day’s underwater activities before the Halton started to steam north through wonderful Nordic scenery. Several hours later, we moor up overnight. The work for the day has not finished, however, as microscopes come out and Mary and Joanne review the days samples.

Bryozoans on rocks from Vatlestraumen.

Bryozoan zooids seen down the microscope.

More diving in the coming days. Check back for more soon!

As part of the background research for our expedition to the Norwegian Fjords and prior to joining the research cruise, Mary and I paid a visit to the University Museum of Bergen. The aim was to investigate bryozoan specimens collected from deep water around the coastline of Norway during the recent MAREANO project surveys.

The Bergen museum was actually founded in 1825 - they moved to the current building in 1866, and it is divided into two departments. These encompass Natural History Collections and the Cultural History Collections. There are also public events and exhibitions. The museum is situated within the grounds of a former Botanical gardens.

Renovations underway at the University Museum of Bergen.

The building is currently being renovated, so in order to view the holdings of the bryozoan material, we were hosted by curator Jon Anders Kongsrud, and taken to University of Bergen Marine Biological Station by the waterfront at Espeland. The lab is situated in a lovely bay, and it was great weather with sunshine and blue skies, paradise for a marine bryozoologist .

Enjoying the sunshine at Espeland Marine Biological Station.

We spent an industrious morning at the microscopes, viewing the MAREANO material collected in 2009. Among the samples were specimens collected from deep water stations around 2,000m, and we were able to identify some interesting species.

Identification under way in the lab at Espeland.

    Samples from the MAREANO collection.

A species of Bicellarina from the MAREANO collection.

This was an excellent opportunity to meet some of the staff and to enjoy the Norwegian hospitality. After lunch we were introduced to Emeritus Professor Brattegard, who has been compiling a checklist of the Norwegian bryozoan fauna, which he shared with us. His long experience in studying the distribution patterns of Norwegian marine life meant that he could also suggest some interesting locations for us to go and survey.

Following the visit, the last task of preparation for the day was to transport the consignment of sampling buckets from the marine station to the hotel in Bergen.

Mary manouvreing our bryozoan sampling buckets.

Tomorrow we will be joining the diving vessel MV Halton at the Bryggen waterfront in Bergen, ready to load on board all the equipment and supplies needed for the survey. We will need a large taxi to transport all our dive gear and equipment from the hotel!

Artist Chrystel Lebas and Museum biologist and botanist Kath Castillo are exploring the E J Salisbury collection at the Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens Archives. They hope to use Salisbury’s images of Scottish landscapes to reconstruct environmental change over the last 50 years.

Article in the New Scientist 11 June 1959, Courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Library & Archives.

Chrystel and Kath began looking for clues that could reveal more about Salisbury’s research on ecology and botany through his methods of recording data, his travel journals and field notes. Delving into the 30 boxes of Salisbury’s documents has also revealed a small collection of hand written quotations, puns and limericks.

The Salisbury archive at Kew Gardens is currently in the condition in which it was received and will be fully conserved when resources allow.

Museum biologist and botanist Kath Castillo and Artist Chrystel Lebas, researching the E J Salisbury collection at Kew Gardens. Photograph by Bergit Arends, project curator.

One of the notebooks found in Kew Library & Archives reveals a wealth of information including experimental data and research annotations on ecology. Courtesy of the Royal Botany Gardens Kew Library & Archives.

Funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation permitted Kath Castillo to join Chrystel on her research in Scotland. Kath, who joined the project in September 2013, provides the necessary scientific knowledge (botanical and ecological) that enables geographical and botanical determinations in the field, based on Salisbury’s recorded images in the same locations.

Kath and Chrystel on fieldwork in Scotland, October 2013 (Photographs by Bergit Arends).

Kath and Chrystel began the research and comparative study in Rothiemurchus Estate, a privately owned Highland estate within the Strathspey, northeast of the river Spey, in theCairngorms National Park.

Kath and Chrystel comparing and searching for Salisbury’s locations from his landscape images in Rothiemurchus Estate. Photograph by Bergit Arends.

The project engages with environmental change, particularly in the Scottish landscape, and creates new understandings of the artistic and scientific gaze onto the natural environment and its representation. The project is supported by a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundationand the University of the Arts London.

Kath holding one of E J Salisbury’s photographs against the Rothiemurchus landscape. Photograph by Bergit Arends.

Above left: Kath identifying a specimen. Right: Chrystel photographing ‘Vaccinium vitis-idaea on remains of pine bole in Rothiemurchus forest’. Bottom: Chrystel recording a view of the fens at twilight.

The Salisbury collection has, until recently, remained un-catalogued and undervalued. A collaborative approach to these materials is important as the plates represent an important piece of landscape and wildlife photographic history – UK natural history and photographic history knowledge and expertise will be essential to unlock the arts and science potential of this collection.

The images represent a unique record of landscapes that may have changed dramatically. They are an irreplaceable piece of the scientific information that may be used to investigate environmental change, either through natural processes or the hand of man.