Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.03.2005, Blaðsíða 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla» Föstudagur 25. mars 2005 • 5
The origins of a scientist
Gifted PhD student uses small Icelandic fish
to study processes ofecology and evolution
PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA CHANCE / AT GUELPH
Bjarni Kristjansson divides his time between Hólar University
College in Iceland and the University of Guelph in Canada.
Andrew Yowles
Guelph, ON
Charles Darwin never got
to Iceland. Who knows: had the
HMS Beagle taken him north-
ward instead of to the Galapa-
gos Islands, perhaps he would
have based his ideas about
natural selection not on fickle
finch beaks but on striking vari-
ations in a group of relatively
inconspicuous fish living in the
numerous lakes that dot that
northem island country.
Were Darwin to visit the
“Galapagos of the North” today,
he might also find a kindred
spirit in Bjami Kristjansson, a
native Icelander and University
of Guelph graduate who has re-
tumed to Guelph this semester
to begin PhD studies in zoology.
On the academic front alone,
they’d probably find plenty to
talk about. But Darwin might
also find this affable 33-year-
old to be an ideal guide to both
Iceland’s natural history and
the historical haunts — in more
than one sense — around his
hometown Hólar and its univer-
sity, where Kristjansson works
and studies.
For the next few years, he’ll
be dividing his time between
fieldwork based at Hólar Uni-
versity College and studies here
at Guelph. In November, Krist-
jansson paid a preliminary visit
to campus to receive U of G’s
largest doctoral award at a grad-
uate awards presentation. He
says landing the Brock Doctoral
Fellowship was a key to pursu-
ing his PhD. “I’ve been trying to
start it for three or four years.”
Endowed by Bill Brock, a
Guelph graduate and longtime
friend of the university, and his
wife, Anne, the scholarship is
worth up to $ 120,000 over four
years and recognizes graduate
students who demonstrate the
potential to make significant
contributions to teaching and
research.
Described as being “among
the brightest and best in mod-
em ecological research” by his
supervisor, Prof. David No-
akes, Kristjansson plans to fur-
ther his studies of rapid adap-
tive change in Icelandic fish. In
a sense, he’ll pick up where he
left off when he completed his
master’s degree here in 2001.
Referring to his student’s aca-
demic and extracurricular pur-
suits before and since, Noakes
says: “What he’s done is quite
remarkable.”
Kristjansson has studied
sticklebacks, a family of small
fish (related to seahorses) found
in northem oceans and lakes and
characterized by a row of dor-
sal spines. They may be small,
but they’re a curiosity to evolu-
tionary biologists. Not only can
they live in fresh or sait water,
but they also show an amazing
ability to adapt quickly to local
conditions in lakes and lagoons
— so much so that researchers
can see the fish physically alter
to fit their surroundings within
only one or two generations.
His earlier studies, which
have already yielded four pub-
lished papers, showed that the
fish may take only 13 years to
display different forms in vary-
ing habitats. That doesn’t mean
he’s seeing entirely new spe-
cies spring fully formed from
the bottom mud. But variances
among groups are a first step
toward speciation, the evolu-
tionary fork in the road beyond
which animals can no longer
interbreed successfully.
“There’s very rapid evo-
lutionary change going on in
these animals over dozens of
years,” says Noakes. “We can
actually see evolution taking
place.”
Beyond the differences be-
tween one species and another,
what captivates him and his stu-
dent is the process itself, on its
own merits and for its potential
application in the wider world.
Understand more about how
changes occur in an ecosystem
and you can better protect and
conserve that ecosystem, not
simply one or two species.
“It’s important for us to
know what’s
around us,” says
Kristjansson.
“What animals
do we have in the
ecosystem? At
some point, we
need to protect
them. The stickle-
back is basically a
tool. It’s not that
I want to study
sticklebacks — I
want to study processes.”
He grew up in the right
place to do that. Compared
with the millions of years of
evolution occurring in a place
like the Galapagos Islands,
Iceland’s lakes and their in-
habitants developed only after
the last major glaciation. That
makes them a kind of natural
lab for studying recent and cur-
rent adaptive changes.
Skuli Skulason, rector of
Hólar University College and
an M.Sc. and PhD graduate
of Guelph’s zoology program,
says Kristjansson has drawn at-
tention to the diversity of these
Icelandic fish and raised larger
questions about adaptation in
what Skulason calls “this the-
atre of evolution.”
“The concept of biodiver-
sity is at the heart of the dis-
cussion of nature and society,”
he says. “It’s what nature is all
about.”
Skulason was part of an
Icelandic delegation that visited
Guelph in the fall to inaugurate
a new Iceland-Guelph Institute.
The institute will further educa-
tional and research collabora-
tions between the two countries
that he and Noakes began about
20 years ago. Prof. Steven
Cronshaw, Psychology, who
is co-ordinator of the Iceland-
Guelph exchange program, will
be the institute’s interim direc-
tor.
Cronshaw says Kristjans-
son’s studies are a perfect ex-
ample of the partnership fos-
tered between U of G and four
Icelandic universities, includ-
ing Hólar. “It brings the re-
search communities in Canada
and Iceland closer together.”
As is the case with many
scientists, Kristjansson’s studies
have their roots in a childhood
spent exploring the outdoors.
For him, that included fishing
creatures out of nearby lakes.
Rather than continue down a
well-travelled path — “in Ice-
land, every other biologist is a
bird biologist,” he says — he
decided to stick with fish, even-
tually studying biology at the
University of Ice-
land before com-
ing to Guelph.
Back on dry
land — and tele-
scoping the time
frame down to a
more human di-
mension — he’s
also interested
in human his-
tory. For several
years, he’s led
ghost tours around Hólar, even
dressing the part to evoke early
politics, religion and folklore,
including early settlement and
gruesome murder legends. “I
like to tell stories,” he says.
His haunted tour is includ-
ed in promotional information
for Hólar, whose cathedral built
in 1763 attests to the town’s
standing as a Catholic bishop’s
seat between 1106 and 1802.
Another outlet for shar-
ing stories and information is
the classroom, of course. As a
researcher at Hólar, Kristjans-
son has taught aquaculture and
rural tourism courses and has
been involved in curriculum
development. He runs a field
course that sees Guelph and
other Ontario students visit
Iceland every two years. Since
1999, he has also been director
of Hólar’s freshwater aquarium,
which receives up to 6,000 visi-
tors each year.
Fielding questions from
visitors and students and shar-
ing stories with his ghost tour
crowds are not far removed
from the impulse that drives his
graduate studies. Yes, he gets to
work outdoors and catch fish,
but more than that, he says,
“Part of the fun is asking ques-
tions and getting answers.”
It was in that spirit — and
not without a healthy dose of
luck — that he hauled a brand-
new creature out of the water
while chasing down stickle-
backs for his master’s degree.
As he explains in yet another
recent research paper, he dis-
covered the first known fresh-
water amphipods in Iceland.
These particular crustaceans,
resembling a fiattened crab, are
uniquely adapted to living in
complete darkness in caves.
Noakes notes that Kristjans-
son’s find went beyond uncov-
ering a new species of critter.
“Not only are they a new
species, but they are also a new
genus and an entirely new fam-
ily of amphipods. The descrip-
tion of a new family in a group
so well-known and intensively
studied as freshwater amphi-
pods is a lifetime achieve-
ment.”
Recalling the skeptical re-
ception that met his original
find, Kristjansson says things
changed after he netted a sec-
ond specimen.
“Finding the amphipods
has changed the way people
think about how life came to
Iceland,” he says, explaining
that evidence suggests these
creatures survived glaciation.
Asked to explain his own
apparent good fortune in the
field, he shrugs. “So many
things in life are luck. Skuli
says you have to have an open
mind. It’s a combination of luck
and seeing what’s there.”
Skulason says Kristjansson
embodies many of the qualities
of a good scientist, from creativ-
ity and teamwork and leadership
skills to an ability to pare away
complexity, connect ideas and
zero in on important problems.
Those qualities might have also
defined Darwin, whose birthday
on February 14 is marked in
Guelph by a themed dinner, in-
cluding such delicacies as finch
eggs, held at the home of zool-
ogy professor Beren Robinson.
Kristjansson transplanted the
custom to Iceland after com-
pleting his master’s here.
Darwin would have ap-
proved, says Skulason. “I think
they would have gotten along
very well.”
Reprinled with permission
from At Guelph.
“in lceland,
every other
biologist is a
bird biologist,”
he says — he
decided to stick
with fish
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