Zoology projects - Loch Ness worms
Loch Ness is the largest body of freshwater in Britain, but has been largely ignored by professional scientists because of its association with the mysterious 'monster'.
Loch Ness is an international centre for tourism, yet remains one of the largest unexplored environments in Europe.
Lakes and their bottom-dwelling animals are one of the most sensitive barometers of change in the environment. A large, deep and basically pristine lake, such as Loch Ness, has particular significance as an indicator of how our world is changing. Little is known of its biodiversity, least of all the nematode worms which occur abundantly in mud at the bottom. These microscopic animals are valuable environmental monitors because they respond quickly to change. They occupy all environments from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans and live - mostly inconspicuously - in sands, soils and sediments, and also as parasites of both plants and animals.
The Natural History Museum's scientists have been taking mud samples from different sites on the bed of the Loch, to a maximum depth of 214 metres, using a deep-water corer. Most of the nematodes are found in the top one centimetre of sediment. The cores - 41 of them in all - are now undergoing microscopic analysis in the Museum's laboratories. In just one core, for example, 274 nematodes of 27 different species were recovered, some of which are new to science (like the one pictured right).
One objective of this project is to identify the worms and study the ecological patterns of this unpolluted European lake so that these patterns can be used to assess the varying degrees of pollution in other lakes.
For further information contact:
Email: J.Lambshead