A Portable Underwater Assessment Unit

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Explaining the unprecedented speed of speciation observed among the cichlid fishes of the Great Lakes of Africa remains an exciting outstanding scientific question. The amazing rate of cichlid speciation has earned the lakes in which these fish live the apt nickname "Darwin's Dream Ponds." The fish themselves come in a dazzling array of colours, shapes and sizes and demonstrate a spectacular variety of behaviours. Understanding this diversity and extent of the fish radiation has occupied many an evolutionary biologist including the investigator making this request for a Mobile Underwater Assessment Unit. Dr. Balshine and her students have maintained a research presence in Lake Tanganyika (on the Zambian shores) since 1997. The equipment that this team originally relied on for their underwater research is no longer operational and replacement is now desperately needed to ensure both health and safety of the researchers. The requested mobile underwater assessment tools will facilitate a wide range of behavioural and ecological field based research projects that interconnect with ongoing controlled laboratory experiments based at McMaster University. The equipment will allow an aquatic behavioural ecologist and her large productive research group to continue, and expand their long-term study of cichlid fishes in remote Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world and the oldest of the African Great Lakes. This fragile freshwater ecosystem is currently under threat from global change and the scientific facilities in the area range from rudimentary to non-existent. The equipment requested will support both basic Discovery research (behavioural ecology, animal behaviour, animal behavior, neurophysiology, molecular biology), interdisciplinary research (exploring effects of global change and environmental impacts), and will contribute to the training of over 35 students, and many fellow scientists over the next 5 years.