Judith Grassle

Last updated
Judith P. Grassle
Alma materDuke University
Spouse J. Frederick Grassle
Scientific career
InstitutionsRutgers University
Thesis Heterogeneity of hemocyanins in several species of embryonic, larval and adult crustaceans  (1968)

Judith Grassle (born on December 4, 1936 [1] ) is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. Grassle is a benthic ecologist known for research on invertebrates, especially polychaete worms including the now-named Capitella teleta . Grassle became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1993. [2] [3]

Contents

Education and career

Grassle, whose full name is Judith Helen (Payne) Grassle, received a B.Sc. for undergraduate work at University of Queensland in 1958, and Ph.D. from Duke University in 1968 with a thesis titled "Heterogeneity of hemocyanins in several species of embryonic, larval and adult crustaceans". [1] Following postdoctoral work funded by the Office of Naval Research at the University of Queensland, Grassle joined the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, first as an independent investigator in 1972, and then served as a Senior Scientist from 1986 to 1989. [4] While at MBL, Grassle lectured in MBL summer classes for both Developmental Biology and Marine Ecology. [5]

Judy Grassle and her husband J. Frederick ("Fred") Grassle, moved to Rutgers University in 1989. [6] Fred served as the Founding Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and at the time of Fred's death in 2018, Oscar Schofield commented that "without [Fred] and Judy, there would be no modern oceanography program at Rutgers". [7] In tribute to the Grassles, the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve named Grassle Marsh in Little Egg Harbor after them. [8] [9]

In addition to research, Judy Grassle is actively involved in service to the scientific community, especially at the Estuarine Research Federation and the AAAS, [1] [10] including serving on the Committee on the Coastal Ocean for the 1994 Ocean Studies Board annual report (NAP report). [11] Judy Grassle has widely shared cultures of Capitella teleta [12] thereby enabling other scientists to conduct work on this polychaete worm.

Research

Grassle's research on polychaete worms of the genus Capitella laid the foundation to use this group of worms as model organisms for marine pollution research, embryology, and genomic investigations into the evolution of life forms that are bilaterally symmetrical (the bilaterians). In 1974, Fred and Judy Grassle published the results of a multi-year study on the response of polychaetes to an oil spill in West Falmouth; [13] the long-term effects of this oil spill continue to be considered decades later. [14] [15] This research indicated that multiple species of Capitella capitata grew after the disturbance of the oil spill and established Capitella as a model organism for the response of invertebrates to marine pollution. [16] Subsequent work published by Judy Grassle and Fred Grassle [17] defined Capitella species as sibling species which are genetically distinct but have similar life histories. The Science paper describing these sibling species concludes with the statement that Capitella are 'ideal material for comparative studies of adaptation and genetics' [17] which has come to fruition as Capitella teleta became the first marine polychaete with a sequenced genome. [18] [19] Subsequent work by Grassle expanded the description of the sibling species of Capitella based on chromosomal differences determined by karyotyping. [20] [21] In 2009, the full species description of Capitella teleta that were initially identified and cultured by Judy Grassle was published in a paper by Blake, JP Grassle, and Eckelbarger. [12]

Selected publications

Grassle has over fifty publications listed at Web of Science and, as of 2021, her h-index is 23 which includes publications with hundreds of citations (e.g., [17] [13] [12] ).

Related Research Articles

<i>Capitella capitata</i> Species of annelid

Capitella capitata is a polychaete worm that grows up to 10 cm in length. It is often blood-red in colour. The species is sedentary and fragile, with a flexible body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haplodrili</span> Order of annelids

Haplodrili, or Archiannelida, is an order of primitive polychaete worms. Zoologist Ray Lankester gave it the name haplodrili, while zoologist Berthold Hatschek later named it Archiannelida. Once considered to be a class under Annelida, and even a separate phylum, Haplodrili is now widely accepted to be an order under Polychaeta. Species in this order are known for completely lacking external segments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nereididae</span> Family of annelid worms

Nereididae are a family of polychaete worms. It contains about 500 – mostly marine – species grouped into 42 genera. They may be commonly called ragworms or clam worms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eunicidae</span> Family of annelids

Eunicidae is a family of marine polychaetes. The family comprises marine annelids distributed in diverse benthic habitats across Oceania, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa. The Eunicid anatomy typically consists of a pair of appendages near the mouth (mandibles) and complex sets of muscular structures on the head (maxillae) in an eversible pharynx. One of the most conspicuous of the eunicids is the giant, dark-purple, iridescent "Bobbit worm", a bristle worm found at low tide under boulders on southern Australian shores. Its robust, muscular body can be as long as 2 m. Eunicidae jaws are known from as far back as Ordovician sediments. Cultural tradition surrounds Palola worm reproductive cycles in the South Pacific Islands. Eunicidae are economically valuable as bait in both recreational and commercial fishing. Commercial bait-farming of Eunicidae can have adverse ecological impacts. Bait-farming can deplete worm and associated fauna population numbers, damage local intertidal environments and introduce alien species to local aquatic ecosystems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pectinariidae</span> Family of annelids

Pectinariidae, or the trumpet worms or ice cream cone worms, are a family of marine polychaete worms that build tubes using grains of sand roughly resembling ice cream cones or trumpets. These structures can be up to 5 centimetres (2 in) long. The earliest pectinariid fossils are known from the Cretaceous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabellidae</span> Family of annelid worms

Sabellidae, or feather duster worms, are a family of marine polychaete tube worms characterized by protruding feathery branchiae. Sabellids build tubes out of a tough, parchment-like exudate, strengthened with sand and bits of shell. Unlike the other sabellids, the genus Glomerula secretes a tube of calcium carbonate instead. Sabellidae can be found in subtidal habitats around the world. Their oldest fossils are known from the Early Jurassic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ampharetidae</span> Family of annelid worms

Ampharetidae are a family of terebellid "bristle worm". As such, they belong to the order Canalipalpata, one of the three main clades of polychaetes. They appear to be most closely related to the peculiar alvinellids (Alvinellidae) which inhabit the deep sea, and somewhat less closely to the well-known trumpet worms (Pectinariidae). These three appear to form one of the main clades of terebellids.

<i>Ampharetinae</i> Subfamily of annelids

Ampharetinae are a subfamily of terebellid "bristle worm". They are the largest subfamily of the Ampharetidae, of which they contain the great majority of the described genera.

<i>Capitella teleta</i> Species of annelid

Capitella teleta is a small, cosmopolitan, segmented annelid worm. It is a well-studied invertebrate, which has been cultured for use in laboratories for over 30 years. C. teleta is the first marine polychaete to have its genome sequenced.

<i>Lagis koreni</i> Species of annelid worm

Lagis koreni, commonly known as the trumpet worm, is a species of marine polychaete worm found in European waters. It lives within a narrow conical tube made of grains of sand and shell fragments.

Kirk J. Fitzhugh is the curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, a position he has held since 1990. His research focuses on the systematics of polychaetes and on the philosophical foundations of evolutionary theory. Fitzhugh is a critic of DNA barcoding methods as a technical substitute for systematics. He attends Willi Hennig Society meetings where he has argued that "synapomorphy as evidence does not meet the scientific standard of independence...a particularly serious challenge to phylogenetic systematics, because it denies that the most severely tested and least disconfirmed cladogram can also maximize explanatory power." His graduate supervisor was V. A. Funk, from the U.S. National Herbarium, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution MRC. He completed his doctoral thesis on Systematics and phylogeny of Sabellid polychaetes in 1988 while he was a research scientist at the LA County museum He married a lawyer named Nancy E. Gold in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilargidae</span> Family of annelids

Pilargidae is a family of polychaetes. These marine worms are cylindrical, somewhat flattened, and can be ribbon-like. They can be found free-living on sediment, or shallowly in sediment. Some species within the genera Hermundura and Litocorsa are known to burrow, having reduced heads and parapodia. Two species are known to be commensal with other polychaetes. Pilargis berkeleyae will live in the tubes of Chaetopteridae, and Ancistrosyllis commensalis will live in Capitellidae burrows. Pilargid worms are almost all exclusively predators, classified as carnivore omnivores. They are similar in appearance to Hesionidae, with a peristomium often with two pairs of tentacular cirri, reduced or absent notopodia, and a lack of pharyngeal jaws. The first few segments bearing setigers are also somewhat fused. They can have 0 to 3 antennae, and palps. These polychaetes are rarely the most abundant polychaete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Frederick Grassle</span> American oceanographer and academic

John Frederick Matthews ("Fred") Grassle was an American marine biologist, oceanographer, professor, and distinguished research scientist, notable for early work on the communities associated with deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and for his involvement in the creation of the Census of Marine Life and the first integration of marine biological data on a global scale, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System.

Eunoe brunnea is a scale worm known from the Weddell Sea, Antarctica at depths of about 2000–4000 m.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean Biodiversity Information System</span> Online marine biology database

The Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), formerly Ocean Biogeographic Information System, is a web-based access point to information about the distribution and abundance of living species in the ocean. It was developed as the information management component of the ten year Census of Marine Life (CoML) (2001-2010), but is not limited to CoML-derived data, and aims to provide an integrated view of all marine biodiversity data that may be made available to it on an open access basis by respective data custodians. According to its web site as at July 2018, OBIS "is a global open-access data and information clearing-house on marine biodiversity for science, conservation and sustainable development." 8 specific objectives are listed in the OBIS site, of which the leading item is to "Provide [the] world's largest scientific knowledge base on the diversity, distribution and abundance of all marine organisms in an integrated and standardized format".

Australaugeneria iberica is a scale worm known from the Gulf of Cadiz in the north-east Atlantic Ocean from a depth of 2230m.

<i>Streblospio benedicti</i> Species of annelid

Streblospio benedicti is a small polychaete native to the Western Atlantic, where its distribution ranges from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Venezuela. Sexual maturity is reached at around 9 to 14 weeks and populations and individuals may vary during development. It can be found in the mudflats and soft sediments of estuaries and coastal waters. Its general habitat includes oyster reefs, mangroves, grass beds, marinas, and docks while the tidal range where S. benedicti can be found is subtidal to intertidal. Additionally, S. benedicti can tolerate a broad range of temperatures and salinities. Due to its tolerance of high organic contents, S. benedicti is a pioneer organism of new habitats that it settles in. Furthermore, despite its small size, only reaching a maximum of 20 mm (0.79 in) in length, S. benedicti plays an important role in estuarine food webs as it can reach high population densities and is a substantial grazer of phytoplankton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orbiniida</span> Order of annelid worms

Orbiniida is an order of small polychaete worms in the phylum Annelida. It is the earliest diverging clade in Sedentaria. Along with Protodriliformia, this order is composed of meiofaunal marine worms formerly known as "archiannelids". These worms inhabit the marine interstitial ecosystem, the space between sand grains.

<i>Buskiella</i> Genus of pelagic polychaetes

Buskiella is a genus of pelagic polychaete annelids placed either in the family Flotidae or Flabelligeridae. In appearance, they are generally bluish or yellowish, depending on lighting conditions, and live exclusively in very deep water. They move by swinging their bodies from side to side, "rowing with [their] bristles." Species have nine to eleven chaetigers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olga Hartman</span> American invertebrate zoologist (1900–1974)

Olga Hartman was an American invertebrate zoologist and polychaetologist. She was a student of S. F. Light at the University of California, Berkeley, and later a staff researcher at the Allan Hancock Foundation and professor of biology at the University of Southern California. Active from the 1930s to the 1970s, Hartman specialized in Polychaeta, a class of marine annelid worms, and was known for her work as a cataloger and as a polychaete systematist. She is considered one of the top three most prolific authors in her field, having described 473 polychaete species during her lifetime.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Judith Payne Grassle curriculum vitae" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Historic Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  3. ↑ "Explorations: George H. Cook Campus Magazine". Fall 2019. p. 1.
  4. ↑ "The Marine Biological Laboratory". The Biological Bulletin. 161 (1): 1–97. 1981. doi:10.1086/bblv161n1p1. ISSN   0006-3185.
  5. ↑ "Judith Grassle | History of the Marine Biological Laboratory". history.archives.mbl.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  6. ↑ "Judy Grassle – Rutgers University Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences" . Retrieved 2021-05-01.
  7. ↑ "Mourning the Passing of a Great Leader, Mentor and Friend Fred Grassle". Rutgers EOAS. 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  8. ↑ Michaels, Shawn (April 20, 2021). "Have You Explored This Trail?". 94.3 The Point. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  9. ↑ "Program Registration: Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve". jcnerr.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  10. ↑ "AAAS Travelers". Science. 241 (4866): 727. 1988-08-05. doi: 10.1126/science.241.4866.727-a . ISSN   0036-8075.
  11. ↑ Ocean Studies Board Annual Report 1994. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. 1995-01-01. doi:10.17226/9104. ISBN   978-0-309-37246-6.
  12. 1 2 3 Blake, James A.; Grassle, Judith P.; Eckelbarger, Kevin J. (2009-08-31). "Capitella teleta , a new species designation for the opportunistic and experimental Capitella sp. I, with a review of the literature for confirmed records". Zoosymposia. 2 (1): 25–53. doi: 10.11646/zoosymposia.2.1.6 . ISSN   1178-9913.
  13. 1 2 Grassle, JF; Grassle, JP (1974). "Opportunistic life histories and genetic systems in marine benthic polychaetes". Journal of Marine Research. 32: 253–284.
  14. ↑ Jaffe, Mark (September 6, 1989). "EFFECTS OF CAPE COD OIL SPILL LINGER LONG AFTER CLEANUP | JOC.com". www.joc.com. Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  15. ↑ "201 years after oil spill, effects shown long-term". Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
  16. ↑ Grassle, Judith (1980), Brinkhurst, Ralph O.; Cook, David G. (eds.), "Polychaete Sibling Species", Aquatic Oligochaete Biology, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 25–32, doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-3048-6_3, ISBN   978-1-4613-3048-6 , retrieved 2021-04-30
  17. 1 2 3 Grassle, J; Grassle, J.F. (1976-05-07). "Sibling species in the marine pollution indicator Capitella (polychaeta)". Science. 192 (4239): 567–569. Bibcode:1976Sci...192..567G. doi:10.1126/science.1257794. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   1257794.
  18. ↑ "Details - Capitella_teleta - Ensembl Genomes 50". metazoa.ensembl.org. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  19. ↑ Simakov, Oleg; Marletaz, Ferdinand; Cho, Sung-Jin; Edsinger-Gonzales, Eric; Havlak, Paul; Hellsten, Uffe; Kuo, Dian-Han; Larsson, Tomas; Lv, Jie; Arendt, Detlev; Savage, Robert (2013). "Insights into bilaterian evolution from three spiralian genomes". Nature. 493 (7433): 526–531. Bibcode:2013Natur.493..526S. doi:10.1038/nature11696. ISSN   1476-4687. PMC   4085046 . PMID   23254933.
  20. ↑ Grassle, J. P; Gelfman, C. E.; Mills, S. W. (1984). "Karyotypes of Capitella sibling species, and several species in the related genera Capitellides and Capitomastus". American Zoologist. 24 (3): 1A–170A. ISSN   0003-1569. JSTOR   3882881.
  21. ↑ Grassle, J. P; Gelfman, C. E.; Mills, S. W. (1987). "Karyotypes of Capitella sibling species, and several species in the related genera Capitellides and Capitomastus (Polychaeta)". Karyotypes of Capitella Sibling Species, and Several Species in the Related Genera Capitellides and Capitomastus (Polychaeta) (7): 77–88. ISSN   0097-0298.
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