Aquarium microbial ecology: a living room approach to citizen science

Josh D. Neufeld University of Waterloo

@joshdneufeld

AOA in Natural Environments

marine estuary

freshwater soil

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Ammonia oxidation in built aquatic environments?

Access to filters… scistarter

Sample from a variety of aquaria: freshwater, marine, fish, plants

Collect from KWAS members, extract DNA, quantitative real-time PCR for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-

oxidizing bacteria (AOB).

Fingerprinting and sequencing for diversity.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS What aspects of water chemistry shape aquarium AOA (and AOB) communities? Do AOA/AOB communities correlate? Does AOB/AOA biofilm succession occur when aquariums are first established? From where do filter AOA seed populations originate? Do they seed homes (“x”)? Do AOA buffer aquaria from ammonia toxicity during antibiotic treatment?

ADVANTAGES OF AQUARIUMS FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE Aquarium hobbyists are organized by societies, pet stores – already networked Young people are involved and invested (children, schools, undergrads) Individual results matter to aquarists Aquaria are aquatic microcosms, “experiments” – already citizen science! Standalone or accessory to existing “Domestic Biome” initiatives High biomass, easy sampling

AQUARI-US PROJECT

University of Waterloo *Laura Sauder(MSc)*

Jennifer Stearns (PDF) Katja Engel (RA)

Andre Masella (RA) Richard Pawliszyn (BSc)

Puntipar Sonthiphand (PhD)

NIOZ Roy. Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

Francien Peterse Stefan Schouten

Others

Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

KW Aquarium stores

Guelph Wastewater Treatment Plant

Region of Waterloo

jneufeld@uwaterloo.ca thank you @joshdneufeld