Building a new facility for marine biology in Hong Kong
In recent decades, the Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) has expanded its research programmes and outgrew its former facilities at Cape D’Aguilar. An expansion and refurbishment, supported by the Swire Group Charitable Trust and completed in 2022 enables a more multi-disciplinary approach and sets the stage for new science and collaborations.
“As science has advanced so much in recent years, we did not want to become limited in what we could achieve,” said SWIMS Director, Professor Gray A. Williams. “We wanted to adopt more new technologies such as genomic approaches and we wanted to extend our collaboration with researchers in Mainland China.
The footprint of the institute, located next to one of Hong Kong’s oldest marine reserves, has been expanded by more than 25% and now includes a new clean lab, biodiversity outreach centre, larger seminar room offering views of the ocean, and new aquarium facilities. It also provides space for new staff and research students to pursue a range of projects related to Hong Kong’s marine biodiversity.
The HK$100 million construction programme is complete, installation of new laboratory equipment is underway, and research scientists are eagerly waiting to return.
We want to build a community interest that cares about marine biodiversity
Hong Kong’s Marine Biodiversity
While Hong Kong accounts for less than 0.03% of China’s marine area it contains more than 25% of China’s marine biodiversity. Exploring this resource remains at the heart of the institute’s research and outreach priorities. The institute possesses a comprehensive marine museum collection in Hong Kong which is displayed as part of the institute’s public outreach programme and can be accessed online.
“We want to build a community interest that cares about marine biodiversity,” said Williams.
The Hong Kong Register of Marine Species includes more than 12,600 entries. The institute is now developing an online geographic information system to allow species to be located within their specific habitats. This is helpful as we assess the impact of climate change.
“We are trying to provide scientific information to aid decision-making. We want to provide professional and impartial data which can inform policy and management,” said Williams.
A new indoor and outdoor aquarium space has state-of-the-art specifications. “Previously we simply utilised seawater from the marine reserve. Now we can treat that water to a high level of purity, adjust the temperature and acidity, to simulate future ocean conditions,” said SWIMS researcher Dr David Baker, Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong.
A clean laboratory offers a controlled environment for DNA sequencing. In the past, ecological studies mainly consisted of field-based work, monitoring species’ distributions and investigating the processes that drive those patterns. Now using molecular techniques, SWIMS scientists can reveal genetic and physiological changes as they occur in marine species.
Although research remains the principal mission of SWIMS, public outreach is also an important future objective and funding has been applied for to employ a dedicated outreach officer. Before the expansion, about 800 school students visited the institute every year. The new facility will allow the SWIMS team to build on this.
Room for collaboration
In addition to biologists and ecologists, the institute involves chemists, earth scientists, physical oceanographers, and even statisticians exploring risk analysis associated with climate change. Recently, Yongxin Li, Assistant Professor at HKU Department of Chemistry, has been working at SWIMS on the discovery of novel antibiotics via the combinational use of AI-aided genome mining and synthetic biology of marine species. Genomic guided discovery of natural products from marine microbiomes is a rapidly growing area of research. The new facilities will also better enable collaboration with research undertaken at Chinese mainland institutes. Swire’s financial support of the expansion of SWIMS went hand in hand with their development of the new Xiamen University Dongshan Swire Marine Station which was inaugurated in June 2017. A range of student exchange programmes and collaborative projects have already been established. “We support more than 70 PhD and MPhil students. Some may be working here once per week for specific experiments but many will be based here all the time. There are usually 12 to 14 principal investigators here as well,” said Williams. The expansion and upgrade of SWIMS supports its continued evolution as a leading international marine science centre, and will enhance the discoveries, theories, and insights needed to help conserve and manage Hong Kong’s rich marine biodiversity.
MarineGEO
SWIMS plays a key regional role in the Marine Global Earth Observatory research programme (MarineGEO), reflecting the institute’s commitment to documenting marine biodiversity. MarineGEO, a standardised measurement system developed by the Smithsonian Institution, is the first long-term, worldwide research programme to focus on understanding coastal marine life and its role in maintaining resilient ecosystems around the world. In 2016, SWIMS became the first official MarineGEO site in Asia and is now a node for future expansion in the region. SWIMS scientists deployed 12 underwater multilevel settlement structures, known as ARMS, to survey the existing biodiversity of Hong Kong in 2015. This programme has since been expanded with plans to deploy and collect data from more than 50 ARMS units across Hong Kong. Although the project is global in scale, local efforts, including the participation of citizen scientists, provide a new means of monitoring Hong Kong’s changing marine environment from negative impacts like climate change and development, and the benefits of mitigation and restoration.