Editorial
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
In Linnaeus’ Wake: 300 Years of Marine Discovery — Conference
Report
On Friday, 1 June 2007 some 100 scientists attended the
1-day symposium ‘In Linnaeus’ Wake: 300 Years of Marine
Discovery’ organized by Zoologica Scripta, together with the
Linnean Society of London, the Natural History Museum in
London, UK, and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
The symposium was held in the historical Burlington House
of the Linnean Society of London on the occasion of the visit
of the ship Götheborg, a replica of a Swedish East Indiaman, to
London in order to mark the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus.
The Götheborg had left Gothenburg, Sweden, in October
2005 bound for China having on board biologists who, in
the same spirit as Linnaeus’s apostles, were collecting
animals during the expedition. By the end of May 2007 the
ship had reached London on her sail back to Sweden.
The symposium addressed the achievements of Linnaeus
apostles, the link between Linnaeus and the Swedish East
India Company and the Swedish Academy of Sciences, as
well as major marine discoveries in the past and present.
Zoologica Scripta, published by the Norwegian and Swedish
Academies of Sciences, is proud of having sponsored the
symposium and will, therefore, dedicate the current issue to
the speakers of the symposiums that volunteered to provided
manuscripts summarizing their invited contributions.
Following the warm welcome addresses given by Vaughan
Southgate, Vice President and Zoological Secretary of the
Linnean Society of London, and Pam Fredman, ViceChancelor of the Göteborg University, Sweden, Kenneth
Nyberg from the Department of History, Göteborg
University, opened the series of scientific contributions. He
gave a historic overview over the journeys that Linnaeus’s
18–20 apostles undertook from 1746 to 1799 on board the
vessels of the Swedish East India Company. He stressed how
Linnaeus deliberately socialized and networked with the
Swedish East India Company in order to get access to and
make use of the company’s infrastructure for his research.
He also emphasized how Linnaeus tied the Swedish East
India Company — and thus the company’s facilities — from
the very beginning to the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Hans G. Nyman, Göteborg University, took the auditory
into the world of microscopy in the 18th century. Linnaeus
himself was fascinated about the opportunities provided by
the use of a microscope but published only one microscopic
experiment by himself. This study on Ustilago spores was probably
conducted with a double microscope manufactured by John Cuff
from London, who produced the most advanced microscopes of
the time. Nevertheless, Linnaeus’ interpretation of the microscopic images of Ustilago spores was completely wrong.
Philip S. Rainbow from the Natural History Museum,
London, stressed the importance of marine biology collections,
not only in the past but even more for the future. He pointed
in particular to the type material, most of which is found in
historical collections, some of them hardly accessible for
molecular approaches due to the destructive agents used for
preservation. Numerous specimens have been fixed with
formalin (for example), which causes huge problems for
genetic analyses of such collection material. Nevertheless,
Phil Rainbow also depicted the opportunities that museum
collections offer for future studies.
John Taylor from the Natural History Museum, London
reported about one of the major discoveries in marine
biology throughout the last decades. He reported about
chemosynthetic communities associated with deep-water
hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, in particular about bivalve
molluscs, which are one of the main components of such
ecosystems. These molluscs that have been identified to
belong to at least seven bivalve groups house methaneoxidizing or sulphide-oxidizing bacteria. Within the last
decade a remarkable number of species have been described
for these ecosystems, providing an excellent example for
further need of basic inventory work in marine biology.
After the lunch break, Katrin Linse from the British
Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK, reviewed the expeditions
undertaken to explore the biodiversity of Antarctica; from
the first journeys by Bellingshausen in 1819 to modern
high-tech expeditions facilitating the Census of Antarctic
Marine Life (CAML) project. Her contribution also
documented impressively the need for enormous resources
required for conducting state-of-the-art international
research expeditions to explore the biodiversity of marine
Arctic environments.
Daniel Jones from Southampton University, UK, needs to
be credited for stepping in on very short notice after one
contribution had to be cancelled due to affliction of the
speaker. He took up the issue of the enormous resources
required for modern marine research. He illustrated how —
in the best of Linnaeus’s spirit — cooperation with big
© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters • Zoologica Scripta, 38 (Suppl. 1), February 2009, ppiii–iv
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Editorial
globally operating companies may favour marine research.
He pointed towards the many hours throughout the years
that for example remotely operated submarines owned by oil
companies just standby. The presentation illustrated how
these resources can be used for research purposes and the
exploration of marine habitats.
Alex Rogers from the Institute of Zoology, London, UK,
took up the challenges that many deep ocean habitats face today.
Not that long ago, the deep oceans were considered abiotic
environments and it was not just until rather recently we
begun to investigate the high diversity of deep ocean habitats
with the help of remotely operated vehicles. For example,
seamounts were discovered and explored — unfortunately,
many of these habitats have been severely impacted by deepwater fishing. Rogers illustrated how modern molecular and
bioinformatics tools can help to better understand deep ocean
biodiversity and improve conservation of such habitats.
Tony Rice who used to work for the national Oceanography
Centre, Southampton, UK, took the auditory into the very
beginning of exploring the deep oceans. He explored the
difficulties and challenges scientists were faced in the age of
sail, at times when modern technology was not available. He
pointed out why most of the few attempts undertaken failed
to a large extent. His historical exposé made the audience realize
how fast techniques for exploring the seas have moved, and
how working conditions have improved within 100 years.
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Joakim Severinson, the master shipbuilder of the Götheborg
from the Swedish East India Company talked about building
a replica of a Swedish East Indiaman. He illustrated the difficulties when trying to be as close as possible to the historic
original — even though no drawings existed — but still keeping
modern standards in ship technology.
The symposium ended with a reception onboard the Götheborg
where all participants could catch an insight into the real
world of the facilities and the comfort aboard a historic
Swedish East Indiaman. When the symposium eventually
came to an end many participants expressed their excitement
about being introduced to the history of marine discoveries,
and, in particular, the achievements, the obstacles and the
daily life of Linnaeus’s apostles when travelling on ships of
the Swedish East India Company.
We hope that the readers of Zoologica Scripta will also catch
the spirit of this exciting 1-day symposium in London and express
our gratitude to the organizers, the speakers, and the authors
of the papers compiled in this supplement to the journal.
Lutz Bachmann1 & Per Sundberg2
1
Department of Zoology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1172,
Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway
E-mail: lutz.bachmann@nhm.uio.no
2
Department of Zoology, University of Gothenburg, Box 463,
405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
Zoologica Scripta, 38 (Suppl. 1), February 2009, ppiii–iv • © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters