Project description
Innovative imaging technology to explore the deep ocean
The deep ocean holds vast fish stocks and diverse biodiversity and serves as a significant carbon sink. Life at these depths depends on ‘vertical connectivity’ to connect ecological and biogeochemical processes. The ‘ladder of vertical migrations’ is a mysterious phenomenon that is poorly understood, yet it plays a crucial role in linking food webs throughout the water column. In this context, the ERC-funded SEA-THROUGH project aims to investigate the ladder of migrations in the deep sea by developing advanced imaging technology. This technology will be utilised to examine the movement and behaviour of organisms at depths of up to 6 000 m, providing insights into deep-sea biodiversity and food web structure. Such knowledge is essential for the sustainable management of the ecosystem services provided by the deep ocean.
Objective
The pelagic deep ocean is the largest but least-understood habitat on Earth, harboring enormous fish stocks, a rich (and largely undiscovered) biodiversity, as well as a large carbon sink in the climate system. As almost all life at depth is ultimately nourished by primary production in the surface ocean, pathways of “vertical connectivity” are critical in linking ecological and biogeochemical processes across several thousands of meters. One of the most enigmatic phenomena is the so far virtually unexplored “ladder of vertical migrations”: this mechanism is hypothesized to link food-webs across the entire oceanic water column through a complex interplay of feeding-interactions and synchronized migrations of a multitude of species, thereby supporting pelagic life at depths of up to several kilometers. So far, very little is known about this phenomenon, mainly due to the methodological challenges of studying organisms and their behavior at ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, particularly under the extreme pressure in the deep sea.
SEA-THROUGH aims for a breakthrough by providing “a new set of glasses” to study the so far unexplored “ladder of migrations”. To achieve this, we will:
(a) Develop novel in situ imaging technology for unparalleled and highly detailed observations of organisms in the deep sea (to 6000m depth): “who is where at which time and what are they doing”
(b) Use this new deep-sea imaging system on ship expeditions for targeted studies of the enigmatic “ladder of migrations”
Pushing the limits of in situ observation technology will reveal a holistic picture of biodiversity and food-web structure, providing novel insights into the functioning of deep-sea ecosystems and their ecological and biogeochemical connectivity across the water column – knowledge that is urgently needed for evaluating the ecosystem services of the deep ocean (e.g. fisheries, CO2 sequestration), as well as the sustainable management of this vast habitat.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- engineering and technologymaterials engineering
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
24148 Kiel
Germany