types of battery Researcher makes a splash | Photos
Deep in the Tamar river there is an underwater world we know very little about.Meghan Dayman, Honorary Student, University of tazhouWith her supervisor and David Maynard, curator of natural science at QVMAGFour previously unknown soft corals and two new soft corals were found.Growing up in Launceston, Miss Dayman said after diving in the Tamar River for a long time that she knew there was still a lot to discover and that the honor program offered an excellent opportunity.In her survey of rock reef communities, Miss Dykman sampled 46 soft corals, six of which were previously unknown.Among the known species, there is one that has never been recorded before in the state of Tasmania, and several that have never been recorded in Tamar."We were surprised that we thought maybe we would find a new species, but we never thought we would find as many species as we did," she said ."."In some ways it's hardly too surprising that no one has seen this community before, and not many have seen temperate communities.Mr. Maynard said there was still work to be done to determine the species that lived in the river."Tamar is very unknown and it is generally considered to be just a muddy pond, but that is not the case, especially at the low end," he said."In sponges, there are only a variety of different animals, many of which we just don't know what they are, because no one classifies them.Mr. Maynard said that the study looked at plants and animals living below 30 metres under the sea floor."Tamar is deeper than this, we know very little about the other 20 metres, and divers rarely go there," he said ."."We only describe a part of the habitat and we still don't really understand all the animals that live in it."The sponge garden is like a forest where wildlife lives and we don't understand what lives there.The researchers hope that soft corals can provide information on river health as an indicator species.Miss Dayman said she hoped her research would further promote the ecological study of the species.The new coral has not yet been officially named