Tag: oceans

Insights into the biodiversity of annelids in the world’s largest deep-sea mineral exploration region

This study, published in Biodiversity Data Journal, is an important step in creating field guides for CCZ wildlife, which will help promote sustainable practices and informed decision-making.

The demand for rare raw materials, such as cobalt, is fuelling the exploration of the deep-sea floor for mining. Commercial deep-sea mining is currently prohibited in areas beyond national jurisdiction, but companies are permitted exploratory operations in certain areas to assess their mineral wealth and measure environmental baselines. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is an area of the Pacific deep-sea floor spanning up to 6 million km², found roughly between Hawaii and Mexico. Currently, it has 17 contracts for mineral exploration covering 1.2 million km². However, despite relatively extensive mineral exploration beginning in the 1960’s, baseline biodiversity knowledge of the region is still severely lacking. Even the most basic scientific question: “What lives there?” has not been fully answered yet.

Annelids found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

In a new paper researchers report on the marine life of the CCZ, focusing on annelid worms. Annelids represent one of the largest group of macroinvertebrates living within the mud covering the sea floor of CCZ, both in terms of number of individuals and the number of species. Data from recent oceanographic cruises enabled researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and the Natural History Museum London to discover more than 300 species of annelids from around 5000 records. The annelid species, many considered to be new to science, were discovered through employment of traditional morphological approaches and modern molecular techniques. The current study focuses on 129 such species across 22 annelid families. Previously, the authors of this study formalized 18 new species, while altogether reporting on 60 CCZ species, including most recently 6 species in family Lumbrineridae. The lead author Helena Wiklund from University of Gothenburg comments: ‘Taxonomy is the most important knowledge gap we have when studying these unique habitats and the potential impact of mining operations. We need to know what lives there to inform the protection of these ecosystems.”

To further understand the CCZ, scientists sail the Pacific Ocean on research expeditions that employ sampling techniques ranging from the technical, like remote-controlled vehicles that traverse the ocean floor, to the simple, like a sturdy box corer collecting sediment at the bottom.

“Sadly, the soft-bodied annelids are often damaged during the collection and sediment sieving onboard” says annelid taxonomist Lenka Neal from the Natural History Museum London. As a result, the traditional morphological approach is often of limited use when working with the deep-sea specimens, with taxonomists increasingly employing DNA techniques as well.

Over the last decade, scientists have generated a large amount of annelid data. Such data are only of use when made available through publication to the wider scientific community and other stakeholders. “A priority is to make the data are FAIR, or Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable so it can be redeployed easily, if you’ll excuse the pun, for future analysis” says co-author Muriel Rabone. “The same applies to samples, where accessibility of the specimen vouchers and molecular samples allows for reproducibility and continuation of the work. This is one step of the process. And ultimately, having more robust knowledge can lead to more robust evidence-based environmental policy”.

“More often than not, ecological papers describing biodiversity do not include a list of all the species and specimens used to make the broader ecological inferences, and even more rarely make the specimens and all associated metadata available in a FAIR way. In this study, we have made a significant and time-consuming attempt to do this, in a region of the global oceans where critical policy decisions are being made that could impact the way humanity obtains its resources and manages its environment in a sustainable way,” the researchers write in their paper, which was published in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.

The team behind the research hope that this still partial checklist of CCZ annelids, many in too poor state of preservation to be immediately described, is a key step forward towards creating future field guides for the area’s wildlife. Given that mining operations in the area could be imminent with the International Seabed Authority considering applications this year, the use of biological data for environmental management has become more important than ever.

This research was supported by funding from UK Seabed Resources Ltd.

Research article:

Wiklund H, Rabone M, Glover AG, Bribiesca-Contreras G, Drennan R, Stewart ECD, Boolukos CM, King LD, Sherlock E, Smith CR, Dahlgren TG, Neal L (2023) Checklist of newly-vouchered annelid taxa from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean, based on morphology and genetic delimitation. Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e86921. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.11.e86921

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Smithsonian Expedition Yields a New Species of Deep-Sea Coral

Collected from the deep waters off Puerto Rico, the species is a member of an enigmatic, and threatened, group of corals

When people think about corals, most picture the multi-hued reef-builders that reside in balmy waters off tropical beaches. But not all corals stick to the shallows. For example, most members of the order Antipatharia do not live within 160 feet of the surface. Some even reside at depths deeper than 26,000 feet. Commonly known as black corals due to their ink-colored skeletons, these corals are staples of deep-sea ecosystems around the world.

However, black corals remain enigmatic due to the challenges of studying them in the deep sea. This makes it difficult for scientists to assess how black corals, whose skeletons (which are made out of chitin, the same material that composes an insect’s exoskeleton) are prized components of jewelry, are responding to threats like poaching, ocean acidification and climate change.

“Describing these species is fundamental information to make conservation decisions,” said Jeremy Horowitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Museum of Natural History who specializes in studying black corals. “You have to know it before you can protect it.”

Jeremy Horowitz, a postdoctoral researcher in the museum’s invertebrate zoology department, examines a coral specimen during a subsequent expedition off Puerto Rico earlier this year. Credit: Jeremy Horowitz, NMNH

In a paper published this week in the journal ZooKeys, Horowitz and his colleagues at the museum and the University of Puerto Rico described Aphanipathes puertoricoensis, a new species of black coral that sports branching features found in multiple coral groups that diverged roughly 100 million years ago.

The new black coral species was discovered in April 2022 during a joint Smithsonian and National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) expedition to a stretch of the Caribbean Sea just south of Puerto Rico. Here, the seafloor bottoms out into a network of deep-sea canyons and seamounts that remain largely unexplored.

The expedition, led by research zoologist Andrea Quattrini, the museum’s curator of corals and one of Horowitz’s co-authors on the new paper, aimed to explore some of this abyssal terrain and catalog some of the creatures that reside there. Many of these animals live far deeper than human divers can go. So the researchers deployed a remotely operated unmanned vehicle (ROV) called the Global Explorer to depths as deep as 4,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Andrea Quattrini, the expedition’s lead researcher, aboard the *Nancy Foster* research vessel. Image courtesy of Illuminating Biodiversity in Deep Waters of Puerto Rico 2022

Over seven dives, the ROV mapped 180 square nautical miles of the deep-sea floor. It collected a suite of biological samples and hours of footage for the researchers to parse on the research vessel above. They observed ghostly, blob-like predators called tunicates, gangly bristle stars, vibrant comb jellies and tiny crustaceans with fused eyes that live inside glass sponges. They even collected a colony of small invertebrates called bryozoa that had not been collected since a Smithsonian expedition to the Puerto Rico Trench in 1933.

One of the deep-sea anemones observed during the expedition. Image courtesy of Illuminating Biodiversity in Deep Waters of Puerto Rico 2022

They also found a multitude of species new to science. While exploring a canyon nearly 1,200 feet below the surface, the ROV came across a scraggly patch of black coral reminiscent of a deep-sea tumbleweed. As the ROV snipped off one of the coral’s spindly branches, Quattrini sent Horowitz, who was back in Washington, a picture of the coral on the ROV’s live feed. “She shared a picture of this coral and I immediately had no idea what it was,” Horowitz said.

When the expedition’s trove of specimens arrived in Washington, Horowitz could finally take a closer look at the puzzling coral. With long, coiled branches emanating from a short stalk like a tiny tree, the coral sported features found in multiple genera, or groups, of black coral that diverged long ago.

A microscopic close-up of the black coral’s spines taken with the help of the museum’s scanning electron microscope. Credit: Jeremy Horowitz, NMNH

To assign the new species in the right group, Horowitz placed a fragment of the coral specimen underneath a high-powered scanning electron microscope at the museum. That gave him a microscopic view of the miniscule spines that line the coral skeleton. Like a fingerprint, a coral species’ spines have their own distinct shape. Comparing these spines to known black coral species allowed Horowitz to get a better idea of where this new species may slot into the black coral family tree. To be sure, the researchers also used cutting edge techniques to compare the new species’ genetic code with other corals.

All this work allowed the researchers to find a taxonomic home for the new species in the genus Aphanipathes. They christened the black coral with the species name puertoricoensis in homage to the island near where it was found.

Discarded fishing gear sits on a thicket of black coral in the deep sea off of Puerto Rico. Image courtesy of Illuminating Biodiversity in Deep Waters of Puerto Rico 2022

Horowitz believes its resemblance to other groups of black coral reveals how helpful a simple body type is for survival in the deep-sea. “This simple morphological structure is evolving over and over again, probably because the conditions are the same in these different areas,” he said. “This simple structure is what works.”

The team is still examining the specimens collected and expects to name additional new species in the near future. There are also plans to go back and conduct further field research in the deep-sea canyons and ridges off Puerto Rico. “Every time we go back to this region, we find new species,” Horowitz said.

But there is also plenty to uncover closer to home. The piece of black coral from Puerto Rico recently joined the museum’s 4,000 other black coral specimens — the largest such collection in the world. Many of these black coral specimens likely represent undescribed species hiding in plain sight. According to Horowitz, “we don’t even have to go offshore to find new species.”

Reference:

Horowitz J, Opresko DM, González-García MP, Quattrini AM (2023) Description of a new species of black coral in the family Aphanipathidae (Anthozoa, Antipatharia) from Puerto Rico. ZooKeys 1173: 97-110. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1173.104141

Story originally published by the Smithsonian Magazine. Republished with permission.

The wealth below the waves of the North-East Atlantic: The first ever environmental-economic accounts for the OSPAR region

A new paper in One Ecosystem, marks the first attempt at compiling accounts aligned with the UN international standard (SEEA EA) at a regional sea scale.

A new paper makes significant achievements in the field of ecosystem accounting for the ocean by presenting the first attempt at compiling accounts aligned with the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) at a regional sea scale to reveal the wealth hidden below the waves.

Ecosystem Accounting offers a robust framework for quantifying and valuing ecosystem extent, condition, and services, enabling the identification of ecological degradation and the evaluation of economic activities’ risks and dependencies on the environment. The OSPAR Convention, committed to safeguarding the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, has embraced the accounting for natural capital and ecosystem services, with the SEEA EA providing the international standard.

A map of the OSPAR Maritime Area, denoting sub-regions I to V, as defined by the OSPAR convention. Ecosystem Accounting was performed by seafloor type (A3 – A6), according to EUNIS classifications.

This research paves the way for a comprehensive understanding of the OSPAR region’s natural capital and ecosystem services. The study entailed the identification of open-access data, the production of accounts for selected ecosystems, valuation of their services and asset value, and the revelation of crucial challenges and invaluable lessons.

The ecosystem services included in the analyses were fish provisioning, carbon sequestration, and outdoor recreation across OSPAR contracting parties’ coastal and marine environments. This exercise shed light on the need to overcome challenges including the lack of fitting data at the regional level and the imperative for spatially explicit linkages and harmonization to expand ecosystem accounting. It also offers valuable recommendations, including a shift towards ecosystem-type-based data collection, harmonization of data among countries, and the establishment of systematic data collection practices to facilitate data sharing and standardization.

The Ecosystem Accounts framework followed. The figure illustrates the set of accounts forming the accounting system, in which the accounts are strongly interconnected and provide a comprehensive and consistent view of the ecosystems.

It is key to emphasize that this work represents an initial step towards progressing ecosystem accounting practices not only in the OSPAR region but can serve as overall guidance for other regions in first steps regional ecosystem accounting, and it shows that, even with limited data and incomplete time-series, accounts can be compiled.

As the world faces unprecedented environmental challenges, understanding and measuring our marine ecosystems and how they change are of paramount importance. This research sets the stage for transformative actions towards sustainable development and underscores the critical need for further advancements in regional ecosystem accounting.

Research article:

Alarcon Blazquez MG, van der Veeren R, Gacutan J, James PAS (2023) Compiling preliminary SEEA Ecosystem Accounts for the OSPAR regional sea: experimental findings and lessons learned. One Ecosystem 8: e108030. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.8.e108030

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Save the Nautilus! Three new species described from the Coral Sea and South Pacific

The enigmatic animals with beautiful shells are facing population declines and, possibly, even extinctions due to the activity of unregulated fisheries.

Guest blog post by Dr Gregory Barord, marine biology instructor at Central Campus and conservation biologist at the conservation organization Save the Nautilus

Nautiloids were once quite plentiful throughout the oceans, based upon the fossil record. Today, they are represented by just a handful of species, including the newly described Nautilus vitiensis of Fiji, Nautilus samoaensis of American Samoa, and Nautilus vanuatuensis of Vanuatu. These descriptions highlight the concept of allopatric speciation, or biogeographic isolation, where populations are geographically separated from other populations, resulting in a barrier to gene flow. Over time, these populations may eventually evolve into distinct species.

Nautilus trap construction. Photo by Gregory Barord

But what does it take to be able to collect the evidence needed to determine if three different populations of nautiluses are in fact three different species? For me, this is the best/worst part of the overall process, because nautilus fishing is not easy. For our team, it starts with building large, steel traps that are about a meter cubed. Then, we wrap the steel frame (ouch), with chicken wire (ouch) mesh (ouch), create an entry hole (ouch), attach it to a surface buoy with about 300 meters of fishing line, and bait it with (ouch) raw meat, usually chicken! Trap construction may take place on a nice beach or a bit inland in the rain or in a warm warehouse. Wherever it takes place, you will have some memories, I mean little scars, on your hands from working with the chicken wire. Looking down at my hands right now, I can remember where I was by looking at each of those scars… worth it!

Tossing the traps into the sea at dusk is the easy part. Load them on the boat, find the right depth, and tip them over the side of the boat. The hard part is retrieving the traps the next day, after about 12 hours of the raw chicken scent moving through the currents. There are a number of methods we’ve used to pull the traps up, from mechanical winches, hand-powered winches, float systems, boat pulls, and of course, just pulling with one hand at a time. Invariably, something happens in each location where we are just pulling the trap up from 300 meters one meter at a time, which takes a good half hour at least. But, at least you are getting a VERY good work-out. Eventually, you see the trap and these white little orbs in it and you know you’ve caught some nautiluses and the pulling is almost done, for now.

Nautilus trap in water with nautiluses in it. Photo by Gregory Barord

The next step might be my favorite. One of us jumps in the water and free dives about 5 meters to carefully (ouch, that chicken wire) reach for the nautiluses in the trap and bring them to the surface. You are face to face with these uniquely, misunderstood organisms who seem like this is just another day for them. For me, this is exhilarating! Once on the boat, they are placed in chilled seawater and from then on, the data collection happens fast. With the living organism in hand, you can start to glean even more of the differences between the species, examining the hood ornaments, or lack thereof. After some photos, measurements, and non-lethal tissue samples, the nautiluses are released and burped.

Maybe nautilus burping is my favorite part. To do this, we either dive with SCUBA or free dive with the nautiluses, and ensure there are no air bubbles trapped in the shell that may cause them to be positively buoyant. Imagine, you have one nautilus in each hand and you start swimming down, your feet and the nautilus tentacles pointed toward the surface. At a sufficient depth, you release them and observe their buoyancy. As the nautiluses compose themselves and jet back down to their nektobenthic habitat 300 meters below, you realize you may never see that individual nautilus again, and that nautilus may never see another human, well, maybe they will…

For me, the impetus for this publication in ZooKeys is rooted in nautilus conservation efforts. Over the last 20 years, I have studied nautiluses from many angles and for over 10 years now, have worked with an international team of folks to address nautilus conservation issues. For many nautiluses, probably millions, they were caught in much the same way that our team collected nautiluses. However, their first meeting with humans was their last as they were pulled from the trap, ripped from their protective shell, and tossed back in the ocean, used as bait, or, rarely, consumed. The shell is the attractive piece for shell traders and the living body has no value. It is like shark finning in that sense. As a direct result of these unregulated fisheries, populations of nautiluses have crashed, some have reportedly gone extinct, and international and country level legislation and regulations has been enacted.

A nautilus shell shop. Photo by Gregory Barord

Currently, there are no known fisheries in Fiji, American Samoa, or Vanuatu so the risk of these populations decreasing from fisheries is low, at the moment. Now, what is the risk to these same populations from ocean acidification, increased sedimentation, eutrophication, warming seas, and over-fishing of other species connected to the ecosystem nautiluses reside in? Right now, we simply do not know. Our conservation efforts started with simply counting how many nautiluses were left in different areas across the Indo-Pacific, then recording them in their natural habitat, then tracking their migrations, and now describing new species. There are still many questions to address regarding where they lay eggs, what they eat, and how they behave.

All nautiluses have long been grouped together when describing their natural history, but as we continue to uncover the nautilus story, it is increasingly obvious that each population of nautiluses is different, as exemplified by these three new species descriptions. This is certainly an exciting time for nautilus research, as we uncover more and more information about the secret life of nautiluses. I just hope that this is also an exciting time for nautiluses as well, and they continue doing their nautilus thing as they have done for millions of years.

The first Field Identification Guide of Seychelles’ deeper reefscapes

The deep ocean is the last frontier on our planet. It is home to creatures beyond our imagination and filled to the brim with life. Coastal communities have known the value of a healthy ocean for centuries, yet much of its life remains unknown, sitting beyond the reach of most research programs due to the hostility of its depth and vastness. With current research and monitoring activities in the region mostly focussing on shallow reefs, our Field Identification Guide, published in the peer-reviewed, open-access Biodiversity Data Journal, aims to showcase the benthic organisms that inhabit the Seychelles’ deeper reefscapes. The research cruise that gathered the imagery data used to create the guide, Nekton’s “First Descent: Seychelles Expedition”, was the first of its kind to systematically survey deeper reefs in Seychelles waters, bringing to light previously little-known ecosystems and their inhabitants.

Guest blog post by Nico Fassbender, Zoleka Filander, Carlos Moura, Paris Stefanoudis and Lucy Woodall

“We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see.”

These compelling words by author Richard Louv perfectly describe the importance of taxonomy in today’s conservation efforts.

A fan coral of the genus *Annella* surrounded by various smaller fans and encrusting benthic organisms. Photograph taken at 60m depth. © Nekton.

More recently, the importance of deeper ecosystems started moving into the focus of modern marine research as many scientists across the globe are now working to unriddle the mysteries and processes that drive the patterns of life down in the deep.

Deeper reef habitats, starting at ~30m depth beyond SCUBA diving limits, are of crucial importance for coastal communities and adjacent ecosystems alike. They have been found to not only support coral and fish larval supply, aiding shallower reefs, but also to act as a refuge for many species in times of disturbance. Yet, going back to the start of this post – you cannot protect what you don’t know – and we currently know very little about these deeper reefs, especially ones in the Western Indian Ocean region.

We are many nations, but together we are one ocean.
Zoleka Filander – Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Branch Oceans and Coasts, Cape Town, South Africa

With current research and monitoring activities in the region mostly focussing on shallow reefs, our Field Identification Guide, published in the peer-reviewed, open-access Biodiversity Data Journal, aims to showcase the benthic organisms that inhabit the Seychelles’ deeper reefscapes. The research cruise that gathered the imagery data used to create the guide, Nekton’s “First Descent: Seychelles Expedition”, was the first of its kind to systematically survey deeper reefs in Seychelles waters, bringing to light previously little-known ecosystems and their inhabitants.

All species play relevant roles in trophic relations, in the functioning of ecosystems, and all have a potential biotechnological interest.
Carlos Moura – OKEANOS/DOP, University of the Azores, Horta, Portugal

A grouper (*Cephalopholis miniate*) hovering above encrusting benthic communities at Aldabra, dominated by the scleractinian coral *Pachyseris*. Photograph taken at 30m depth. © Nekton.

Our Field Identification Guide is one of the first efforts to describe the mesophotic and sub-mesophotic reefs in the Western Indian Ocean. To effectively protect these ecosystems, stakeholders need to be able to visualise them and scientists need to be able to identify and classify the organisms they observe. Displaying the diversity of the benthic organisms we encountered is only the first step in a complex and long process, allowing us to categorize, study, monitor and thus effectively protect these habitats.

The correct identification of life is a fundamental building block of ecological knowledge. This international collaboration provided an important place to start from when considering the life on deeper reefs in Seychelles and the wider Western Indian Ocean region.
Lucy Woodall – University of Oxford, and Nekton

To survey the benthic flora and fauna of the Seychelles, we used a variety of methods, including submersibles, remotely operated vehicles and SCUBA diving teams equipped with stereo-video camera systems. We then recorded benthic communities during transect surveys conducted at 10 m, 30 m, 60 m, 120 m, 250 m and 350 m depths. This way, we ended up with 45 h of video footage and enough images to be able to present a photographic guide for the visual identification of the marine macrophytes, corals, sponges and other common invertebrates that inhabit Seychelles’ reefs.

We encountered coral fan gardens on steep slopes, boulders entirely encrusted with sponges of all colours and textures, corals of all shapes and sizes, and an amazing variety of critters. The images in our guide cannot do justice to the beauty of these habitats, and more than one tear was shed encountering these intact ecosystems teeming with life. Especially in times of increasingly frequent disturbance events and quickly shifting baselines (i.e., what we would see as a pristine, healthy reef in the 21^st century), intact reef systems become increasingly rare. So much so that they are often confined to extremely remote and/or long and heavily protected areas. Finding these deeper reefs intact and with little to no signs of anthropogenic disturbance means hope – hope that there are yet undiscovered and unexplored reefs in the Western Indian Ocean region that show similar traits; and hope that we will discover even more novel habitats worth protecting.

An overview of how habitat composition changes across depths at Astove Island. © Nekton.

We hope that this guide will help the public to discover the beauty of Seychelles’ deeper reefs and aid current and future monitoring and research activities in Seychelles and the Western Indian Ocean region.

Currently, there are few formalised training materials available to new marine researchers working in mesophotic and deeper reef habitats, especially for the Indian Ocean. The present benthic field ID guide will hopefully be of use to marine researchers, managers, divers and naturalists with the identification of organisms as seen in marine imagery or live in the field.
Paris Stefanoudis – University of Oxford, and Nekton

Taxonomic paper:

Fassbender N, Stefanoudis PV, Filander ZN, Gendron G, Mah CL, Mattio L, Mortimer JA, Moura CJ, Samaai T, Samimi-Namin K, Wagner D, Walton R, Woodall LC (2021) Reef benthos of Seychelles – A field guide. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e65970. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e65970