On World Biodiversity Day the Nonsuch Expeditions has kicked off its “Naturalist in Residence” programme with its first appointment: Bermudian undergraduate student Luke Foster.
Since 2021, Foster has been contributing observations to iNaturalist - a social media platform for environmentalists where users can upload records of species and the community can help identify them. In that time, Foster has accumulated 12,000+ observations across 4800+ species worldwide, with 5000+ of those across 1700+ species in Bermuda, making him the most prolific iNaturalist contributor in Bermuda.
"I got addicted to iNaturalist, I wanted to find as many new things as possible," said Foster. The 19 year old is currently studying Zoology at the University of Leeds. He has contributed several first time identifications of species in Bermuda, first photographs of species in Bermuda, and even helped investigate possible undescribed species.
Foster explains that he began identifying species on land, but quickly found that the diversity in the ocean is much greater, with more opportunities for discovery. "I have spent hundreds of hours in the water, flipping up rocks for tiny nudibranchs. There is an infinite amount of stuff to find."
He uses an Olympus TG 6 to take high definition underwater photographs of little known species. The importance of photographic records cannot be overstated: "biodiversity is plummeting - you need a baseline, to prove they were here at some point."
Foster uses a combination of the community of experts on iNaturalist and Bermudian reference books like 'Marine Flora and Fauna of Bermuda' by Wolfgang Sterrer to identify species. Foster says that nudibranchs are a favourite species to spot, as well as noting a fondness for insects, birds and fish.
"To find new things, you have to look small," says Foster. Larger species have already been accounted for, but there are plenty of obscure invertebrates waiting to be discovered.
Foster was collecting sand samples off of Elbow Beach to look for micro snails and discovered an unusual shell that was just 3mm long. Mauricio Fernandes, a Brazilian expert on iNaturalist who was in the process of mapping the phylogeny of snails in the Atlantic, determined it was an undescribed species, not just in Bermuda but around the world.
"The lab at the University of Leeds was kind enough to take photos of the shell under an electron microscope - often that level of detail is needed to identify small species," said Foster.
After Fernandes saw the photos, he realised that he had made an ID mistake in one of his old papers. It was determined that the shell was actually an endemic species to Bermuda, Triphora turtlebayensis.
"It's an endemic that no one knows anything about. There's no live specimens that have been collected. It's only described off of a few shells found 30 years ago. This was the first record since then. So unfortunately, it wasn't a truly undescribed species, but it was almost as close as you can get," said Foster.
"If you can identify the species around you, that's the first step to understanding the broader ecology of a system and how all the individual parts work together," says Foster.
Foster is coming up to the end of his second year at the University of Leeds, and for his thesis he hopes to collect biodiversity data in Bermuda. While he enjoys travelling to other countries to discover species new to him, there's something special about gaining a deeper understanding of Bermuda's ecology.
"I get way more satisfaction from seeing something new in Bermuda than anywhere else," said Foster.
Jean-Pierre Rouja, Founder of Nonsuch Expeditions shares, “Luke has been prolifically posting his discoveries and observations online for years and the fact that this started whilst he was still in high school makes it all the more remarkable. I look forward to working with him on Nonsuch Island and out into Bermuda’s waters this summer to see what else he might find, and to help us showcase our unique Biodiversity. I may even rope him into helping identify interesting targets for sequencing by BioQuest.”
BioQuest’s mandate to build local genomics capacity so that our biodiversity can be sequenced in Bermuda, by Bermudians for the benefit of Bermuda, without samples needing to leave the country, aligns perfectly with this.
We are also featuring him in a social media series showcasing his finds as part of the recently launched OurOcean campaign boosting ocean-positive content.
This is the first of our “In Residence” programs and we are also looking for Artists in Residence to complement the biodiversity photography that I, and my collaborators have been doing over the years, and to follow on from the historic work produced for William Beebe by artists including Else Bostelmann and Gloria Hollister. Anyone that is producing Natural History type art should contact us.