Resident Tardigrade Expert: Paul Bartels
Lucy Crayton | September 30, 2021
A tardigrade as seen under a microscope.
The professors attracted to Warren Wilson College (WWC) are as diverse as their students. They have a wide range of interests and backgrounds, and they strive to help foster those characteristics in their students. It may not come as a surprise that the research of one Warren Wilson professor revolves around a rather unusual field of study. Paul Bartels has been studying tardigrades, a type of microscopic invertebrate, for over twenty years.
Tardigrades are unique creatures that almost resemble tiny aliens. Complete with fleshy bodies, claws at the ends of all eight legs and the ability to survive exposure to space, they live in moist soils, as well as mosses and lichens. Although they can be found in almost any habitat, from mountaintops to the ocean, not much is known about the phylum as a whole.
“Very few people in the world study them,” said Bartels, who works in WWC’s biology department teaching various microbiology and zoology courses. “Pretty much anytime we do surveys or anything, we find new species.”
As such, Bartels’ research throughout the years represents a crucial foundational step to understanding the various tardigrade species found in southern Appalachia and the world. He began his work with a small group of WWC students as a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), in which they found over eighty different species of tardigrade with an estimated fifteen to twenty being new species. Bartels then moved on to other research, traveling both around the country and internationally to get samples of various terrestrial and marine tardigrades. Most recently, he wrapped up a three year project working to complete a similar biodiversity inventory in Costa Rica.
As species are identified, the field begins to shift into new territory, introducing questions about how tardigrades live and interact with their environments. Bartels expressed interest in continuing his collaboration with other scientists in Costa Rica, looking into how the marine species disperse, as well as trying to replicate a recently published study that showed fluorescence in tardigrades when exposed to certain types of light.
“I used to give talks about this little known, poorly studied group of animals, and most people that I was talking to never heard about them,” said Bartels. “That’s not true anymore. People know about tardigrades now and it’s exciting — it’s exciting to see.”
If interested in learning more about tardigrades, check out this National Geographic article or this article featuring another interview with Bartels.
