Meet the Scientist

Name: Rüdiger Bieler Ph.D.
Position/Title: Associate Curator and Head, Division of Invertebrates
Department: Zoology

1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?
	My research group focuses on the evolution and diversity of mollusks, particularly marine gastropods (snails) and bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters, etc.) Mollusks have successfully colonized myriads of habitats in the marine, brackish, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. With their great diversity, usually hard shells (that survive after death), and extensive fossil record, they have become increasingly valuable in biodiversity and zoogeographical studies as well as in environmental monitoring projects. One part of my research program attempts to build "family trees" of mollusks. I am trying to learn more about the "higher-level" phylogenetic relationships between various gastropod and bivalve families, orders, and subclasses. While we know, for instance, quite a bit about the kinds of species that together make up the large group of "Venus Clams" (these include well know commercial species such as the Quahog Clam), we still don't really understand how these and other groups of mollusk are related to one another. Another project deals with the enigmatic worm-snails ( a group of shell-bearing worm-shaped snails that includes important reef builders in the world's oceans). Some of these worm-snails from interesting (symbiotic) relationships with living sponges, in which both partners have evolved way so benefiting from such a collaboration, My largest current biodiversity study to date deals with the first in-depth survey of marine molluscan biodiversity in the Florida Keys. Starting with 1994, we have conducted an intensive survey of mollusks in and around the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. A 1995 draft management plan for the sanctuary had estimated that the area was home to 582 mollusk species. By now we have nearly tripled that number by documenting more than 1,700 species.
2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?
	Data are collected by employing a combination of field and laboratory techniques (ranging from collecting by SCUBA diving and offshore dredging from oceanographic research vessels, to serial-section histology and DNA sequencing), and are derived in part from Field Museum's extensive holdings of Recent and fossil mollusks.
3. Where do you study biodiversity?
	Like most Field Museum research, my work has been very international. I have worked, above and below the waterline, in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Right now my focus is on Florida and the adjacent Caribbean, Western Australia, and on some of the Chilean offshore archipelagoes (Islas Juan Fernandez and Desventurados).
4. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?
	For example, the recent work in the Florida Keys more than TRIPLED the number of molluscan species recorded in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, to about 1,500 species. These baseline data are crucial because we can't monitor and protect what we don't know.
5. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?
	I began shell collecting as a kid, wanted to learn more about the animals and their environments - and never stopped collection/learning. That led to a MSc degree (in Biology, Geography, and Education) and subsequently a PhD in Zoology. Over time, I held various other curatorial/ academic/ administrative appointments before eventual coming to The Field Museum, attracted by its renowned collections and research environment.
6. Describe important collaborations for your scientific endeavors (describe your work with other researchers, organizations, or scientific groups, local or indigenous peoples, etc.)
	Most of my various research projects are collaborations, many of them involving colleagues from several countries/continents. My forte is the morphology/anatomy side of the research—so I'm teaming up with first-class molecular biologists for combined morphological-molecular analyses of the animals under study. A recent international workshop that studied the bivalve fauna of the Florida Keys (and trained 12 students in the process) had participants representing 17 nations. Recent Ph.D. student trainees in my research program came from Venezuela, Germany, and Russia; other trainees joined from Kenya and Panama. As part of the Florida Keys program we are providing marine biodiversity training courses for local constituencies, such as park managers, and environmental consultants. Much of the Field Museum's fieldwork takes place in direct collaboration with local fishermen and farmers.

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