Research of UMF faculty member receives international attention

FARMINGTON – Nancy Prentiss, long-time faculty member at University of Maine at Farmington, has recently received a National Science Foundation EPSCoR Grant, and with it a good deal of international attention. A lecturer in biology at UMF and researcher of polychaetes, a class of marine worms, Prentiss will be using funds from her NSF grant to develop a database of the marine worms that live in the waters off the U.S. Virgin Islands, adding to the understanding of the creatures’ significance to the overall health of the ocean bottom.

Prentiss’ work has attracted the attention of other polychaete experts worldwide. Researchers from Greece, currently working on the Natural Geography In Shore Areas (NaGISA) study—an international Census of Marine Life field project currently taking place in over 28 countries—are interested in looking at the potential of setting up a new NaGISA site in Prentiss’ project area in the Caribbean. Prentiss has also heard from researchers from Australia and Mexico who are interested in joining her efforts to document new and unusual species and adding to the general knowledge base of species distributed throughout the area.

Known to some of her students as “the worm lady,” Prentiss has been studying and identifying marine worms in the waters off St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2007 and regards them as key components of the marine food web. According to Prentiss, there are thousands of species of marine worms and they are often used as bio-indicators of environmental stress.

“Polychaetes are like the proverbial canary in a coal mine when it comes to understanding what’s happening in a marine environment,” said Prentiss. “My research gathers the kind of data that can shed light on the interconnections between marine worms and other marine organisms and help scientists understand the health status of a marine ecosystem.”

In addition to expanding her survey of marine worms, Prentiss’ grant, which is administered through the University of the Virgin Islands, is being used to foster interest in the organisms and biodiversity in general. Along with a polychaete expert, Leslie Harris, from the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, Prentiss conducted a January workshop on marine organisms in St. John for UVI students and will share “her worms” with young Virgin Islands students in July who attend ecology/science camps at the St. John field station in Virgin Islands National Park.

Opportunities to learn about marine worms will also be available to UMF students in Prentiss’ marine biology classes and for biology students seeking independent study in the discipline. A 10-day UMF May Term travel course to the Virgin Islands focusing on the coral reef environment taught by Prentiss and Ron Butler, UMF professor of biology, will give students real world experience studying the marine ecosystem.

“It’s such a joy to share my passion for the tropical environment with my students here and in the Caribbean,” said Prentiss. “I believe the best learning takes place when students can absorb whatever it is they’re studying. Whether or not one becomes a biologist, it’s important to experience some of the excitement of the subject.”

Prentiss has also used grant funds to purchase a superior quality Zeiss research stereomicroscope complete with high-resolution camera. The equipment will provide Prentiss and her students with distortion-free images of the marine worms, facilitating their identification and allowing photos and video to be sent digitally anywhere in the world.

The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program is designed by the NSF to help fund research and development in areas of the country that typically receive less support.  Prentiss’ project was funded though the University of Virgin Islands VI-EPSCoR Incubator Grants that provide seed funding to researchers to advance a research project to the point at which it can attract competitive external funding.