Dear Jim
This is such sad news. My deepest sympathies to Judith and the rest of their family.
Carol
-----Original Message-----
From: annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu <annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu> On Behalf Of James Blake
Sent: Sunday, July 8, 2018 7:23 PM
To: ANNELIDA <annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu>
Subject: [Annelida] Re: Fred Grassle
I have the sad duty to report that John Frederick Grassle (Fred) passed away July 6 2018, at the age of 78 after a long illness.
Fred was a giant in the field of deep-sea ecology, but perhaps best known among polychaete workers for research with his wife Judith Grassle on the biology of *Capitella *and the identification of reproductively isolated populations of *Capitella *that differed both in terms of life history patterns, morphology, and genetics. One of these species, eventually named *Capitella teleta*, has been maintained in culture in several laboratories and the subject of more than 200 papers over a wide variety of topics. These studies on *Capitella* were the first to effectively challenge the cosmopolitan species concepts then prevalent in the 1970s. Fred and Judy attended the 9th IPC in Portland, ME in 2007.
Fred’s legacy was well-documented in a lead article in the Deep-Sea Research II special issue vol. 56 (Numbers 19-20, published in September
2009) honoring him upon his retirement as Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University in 2008. A few of Fred’s major contributions to Marine Science as summarized in the special volume by Snelgrove et al. (2009: DSRII, 56: 1571-1576) are as follows:
Developed a conceptual model for deep-sea diversity with Howard Sanders, the Patch Mosaic Model.
Deep-sea colonization studies: experimental applications to deep-sea ecology; field tests of the Patch Mosaic Model and other components; slow recolonization of disturbed sediments in the deep sea. With Linda Morse-Porteous and Paul Snelgrove.
*Capitella *sibling species: Identified sibling species with different life history characteristics; opened a new field of investigation. With Judith Grassle.
Developed novel approaches to evaluate deep-sea benthic data with Woollcott
Smith: Example: NESS (normalized expected species shared).
Buzzards Bay Oil Spill study: Now classic study of opportunistic species and recolonization of a disturbed habitat: with Howard Sanders.
First biological surveys of hydrothermal vents (Galapagos Rift, East Pacific Rise, Guaymas Basin, Gorda Ridge): at the time, a new field of study in the deep sea.
Ocean Dumping: Analysis of data from ocean dumping sites led to end of sludge dumping in U.S. waters.
Established the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
High global diversity estimates in the deep sea benthos were proposed based on major deep-sea reconnaissance programs along the U.S. Atlantic continental slope: With Nancy Maciolek.
Established the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS).
Helped establish the 10 year Census of Marine Life of which several components were devoted to the deep sea.
In addition, Fred was a strong supporter of high-quality systematics, recognizing that benthic data was only as good as the effort taken to identify the fauna. In that regard a close collaboration between our laboratory and Fred's was established during the years Fred was in Woods Hole. Most of the polychaetes we described from hydrothermal vents were from Fred's collections. I recall the day Nancy and I were asked to look at large spionid collected from the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal mounds. This was our first view of what was eventually described as Lindaspio dibranchiata, an unusual spionid with modified notochaetae in anterior setigers, unidentate hooded hooks, and both dorsal and ventral branchiae.
Jim Blake
--
James A. Blake, Ph.D.
Aquatic Research & Consulting
24 Hitty Tom Road
Duxbury, MA 02332
CELL: 508-277-2760
E-Mail: jablake9 from gmail.com
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