At the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, Dr José Carlos Hernández has several things on his mind: sea urchins, climate change, and ocean acidification. “I have studied sea urchins since my PhD, and I’ve worked on climate change and how that impacts sea urchins and macroalgal beds. I’m also working on ocean acidification and carbon seeps here in the Canary Islands.”

As part of the ongoing Macaronesia Tenerife Submersible and Diver Expedition, six of Hernández’s students will help the team to identify some of the myriad marine life in the waters around Tenerife. “They’ll be working with some of the best taxonomists, so it’s a really good opportunity for them,” says Hernández. The students will work on samples collected by the Pisces VI class submersible in the Radazul area, where the water reaches depths of 300 metres, and those collected in shallower waters by the Finnish Scientific Dive Academy. “The students will be separating all the meiofauna and macrofauna brought up in the samples, then with experts will go through all the organisms and try to identify them.”

Even though the sampling will take place in some areas that have been surveyed before, Hernández expects that the work will lead to the discovery of new species. “It’s a good thing that we will have the organism and not just photographs for accurate identification,” says Hernández. “Without a specimen, it’s impossible to get the details needed to describe a species, including its DNA.” Once identified, the specimens will be added to a collection held at Spain’s Museo de Naturaleza y Arqueología de Tenerife, allowing future researchers to examine and compare them to any organisms they themselves might find.

Read Decrypting Tenerife’s crustacean community with Keider Neves at Ocean Census.