Twelve new species of seaweed
Until Schneider began collecting and identifying Bermudian seaweeds, in
1983, little was known about them. Only a handful of taxonomists had
studied the islands’ benthic algae in the past three quarters of a
century. In the 25 years since Schneider launched his biodiversity
project in Bermuda, and more recently with Lane’s help, he has reported
over 75 species of algae not previously known there, including two new
genera and 12 species entirely new to science.
His work in Bermuda also has spawned a small publishing industry. Twelve journal articles have resulted since 1997, and Schneider says a dozen other unreported or undescribed species and genera remain to be named in manuscripts currently submitted to journals or being prepared for publication. The trip last winter was an important step toward his goal of eventually publishing a comprehensive marine flora of Bermuda.
To call Craig Schneider a man in his element is to understate the case. He’s one of those fortunate individuals who zeroed in on his vocation and his avocation—teaching and exploring, not necessarily in that order—early in life. And at Trinity he has woven both into a seamless and richly rewarding career.
Born and raised in New Hampshire, Schneider seemed destined to become a biologist. “When I was a kid I was always in the woods,” he remembers, “always curious about nature. I had terraria and aquaria and butterfly collections. In the spring I would gather frogs’ eggs from nearby ponds and hatch them.”
By the time he enrolled in Gettysburg College, he had a sense of what he wanted to do with his life. Two Gettysburg professors helped shape his dream.
In the estimable William Culp Darrah—one of the 20th century’s foremost paleobotanists and author of Powell of the Colorado — arguably the best book ever written about John Wesley Powell and his legendary 1869 expedition down the Colorado River— Schneider found a kindred spirit who loved science, nature, and exploration. In marine mycologist Ralph Cavaliere he found a mentor who exposed him to research. By the end of his sophomore year, Schneider told Cavaliere and Darrah that, like them, he wanted to teach biology at a small liberal arts college and carry on research with undergraduate assistants.
“It’s the interaction with bright young people who are so interested in science,” he says, “that captivated me right from the beginning. I love teaching eager students, and Trinity has had its fair share over my years here.”
Darrah and Cavaliere would become his role models, and at Duke University, where he wrote his dissertation, Spatial and Temporal Distributions of the Benthic Marine Algae on the Continental Shelf of the Carolinas, he staked out the research that would occupy him for the balance of his career. The year he was awarded his Ph.D., 1975, he joined the faculty at Trinity.
There was a moment, not long after he came to Hartford, when he was tempted to follow another path. The Smithsonian Institution offered him the prestigious position of curator of seaweeds. Schneider was honored, but soon declined. “I thought about it briefly,” he recalls, “and then I told them I really wanted to teach. I always felt that I’d found my place at Trinity.”
Knee-deep in meadows of submarine plants
Schneider’s research got a big boost in 1983 and 1985 when he was
co-principal investigator, along with Duke professor (now emeritus)
Richard Searles, on NOAA Undersea Research Program (NURP) grants that
involved diving in Bermuda, with surface-supplied air, to depths of 220
feet. “We collected the deepest algae ever taken by hand in the
islands,” Schneider says. “Many were unknown there or species entirely
new to science.”
