The deep sea covers over 70% of the surface of the earth. With interest in deep-sea environments increasing, as technology has advanced to enable better sampling, scientific discoveries have shown that there are amazing life forms and, in places, very high abundances of animals.
There are currently large gaps in sampling activities in the deep sea as well as inconsistencies in how these habitats are sampled. Such limitations have identified the need amongst the scientific and management community for a publication on sampling protocols in the deep-sea that can improve the quality of the science, and its application to management and conservation.
The Census of Marine Life (CoML) has a number of field programs investigating the ecology of deep-sea habitats of which CenSeam (seamounts) is one. The steering group of CenSeam have selected the authorship of this landmark book from many of the the world's top scientists in this area.
Biological Sampling in the Deep Sea commences with introductory chapters looking at the deep sea habitat and current survey and sampling design. The major part of this excellent new book covers all the major types of gear, each in a separate chapter. Chapters each follow a standard format and include a range of carefuly-selected illustrations. The final part of the book includes chapters covering the preservation and curation of biological samples, identification of samples, information management, data analysis, applications to managing deep sea resources and biodiversity, with a final chapter looking to the future.
This very thorough and comprehansive book is an essential purchase for all scientists working with deep sea environemnts, including marine biologists, fisheries scientists, ecologists, oceanographers and environmental scientists. All universities where biological sciences, fisheries, and oceanography are studied and taught should have copies of this most important book on their shelves.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
The book will open with a general background to the history of deep-sea research and recognize the broad shift in paradigms from the widely held view that the deep-sea was a “barren desert” to wide recognition that the deep-sea is host to some unique and potentially vulnerable communities.
Technological advances in the preceding two decades have enabled a rapid increase in exploration over increased geographic and bathymetric ranges. It is therefore timely to review current and developing sampling tools and techniques to promote international consistency in sampling approaches and data collection.
Chapter 2: The deep-sea habitat
This will set the physical scene and provide general background to the main deep-sea habitat types (seamounts / slope / abyss / canyons and trenches / chemosynthetic – vents, seeps, whale fall) and introduce some key issues and general considerations for their sampling.
Chapter 3: Survey and sampling design
Chapter 3 will move away from general discussions and background and focus on survey design and gear considerations. Taking into account different applications to different habitats the chapter will address what type of survey to undertake, how to design a survey (actual examples of how a habitat might be sampled e.g. transect selection on a seamount). A broad overview will be given of the suite of remote and direct pelagic, benthic and environmental sampling options and points to consider when selecting sampling tools.
Chapter 4 – 17
Each gear type will be presented as a separate chapter (with named authors) and will follow a chronological sequence based on shipboard deployments. Each chapter will follow a standard format and will also include a range of illustrations. Epibenthic Sleds (Chapter 11) are presented as an example below.
Chapter 4: Habitat mapping - Echosounders, AUVs (Autonomous benthic vehicles)
Chapter 5: Environmental sampling - CTD (water samples), SVP, sediment traps
Chapter 6: General plankton: CPR, MOCNESS (MIDOC)
Chapter 7: Towed cameras
Chapter 8: ROVs (Remote Operated Underwater Vehicles) and AUVs
Chapter 9: Submersibles
Chapter 10: Trawls
Chapter 11: Epibenthic sleds [sample chapter]
Description, gear specifications, and modifications: General characteristics of a range of sled types will be described, as well as options for additional sensors.
Measurements and metrics: Brief explanation of data type e.g. semi quantitative, catch measured in numbers and weight.
Sampling operations: Guidance will be given on deployment e.g. specifics on how to fish the gear (e.g. tow speeds, direction etc) and readers will be advised of essential information to capture (e.g. station recording). Advice for application to different habitats/target fauna will be given. Notes on handling and gear maintenance will be covered. Guidance on quality assurance will be given e.g. when to reject a catch.
Sample sorting and processing: Advice will be given on sampling issues such as how to sort catch, sub-sampling, degree of sorting, weights and numbers, how to record your catch (e.g. numerically as well as photography). The reader will be referred to a separate chapter on sample preservation and curation.
Data considerations: Advice will be given on assigning confidence and reliability to catch data, as well as post-processing coding, matching specimens and photos. The section will also cover how to use other co-variate data.
Chapter 12: Grabs
Chapter 13: Corers – infaunal considerations
Chapter 14: Pots/traps
Chapter 15: Hook and line/longlines
Chapter 16: Landers and baited cameras
Chapter 17: Seabed Observatories
Chapter 18: Preservation and curation of biological samples
This chapter will consider taxon-specific methods of preservation at sea, tissue collection and preservation for molecular studies, and long term curation methods and issues.
Chapter 19: Identification of samples
Various methods to identify specimens will be described and reviewed taking into account: (1) Traditional morphological taxonomic methods (2) Molecular studies: techniques, markers and applications, (3) Photographic taxonomies and ground-truthing.
Chapter 20: Information management
Information Management is a critical part of ensuring consistency between international research programmes. Methods, issues and repositories for different data types will be discussed, as well as addressing challenges and solutions for data integration considering locations, accessibility and utility of global databases.
Chapter 21: Data analysis considerations
General considerations for data preparation and subsequent data analysis based on lessons learnt within the Census of Marine Life data analysis groups (e.g. case study for integrated SW Pacific seamounts data, cross comparison of deep-sea habitats)
Chapter 22: Applications to managing deep-sea resources and biodiversity
The protocols described above will improve the quality of research efforts however, to be effective at the science-management interface there is need for results to be more accessible and outputs be specifically matched to managers needs - presented in a form that can be readily understood and utilised by managers and end-users.
Recognising that we cannot sample all of the deep-sea researchers have employed predictive modeling, which is better served by larger data ranges and comparable data.
Chapter 23: The future
We will conclude the book by broadly examining the direction of future deep-sea sampling considering opportunities to further improve and integrate sampling, as well as enable further development of techniques to ultimately better understand the biology and ecology of deep-sea communities.
Indexes
