Beyond the abyss: an overview of the HADEEP project's research into life in the Hadal zone
***Monday, December 20, 2010The hadal zone (6000-11,000 m) accounts for 45% of the total ocean depth range yet is often underrepresented in deep-sea biology and is the largest unexplored habitat in the ocean. This dearth of knowledge on the life inhabiting the deepest places on Earth is partly due to the technical challenges of sampling at such immense hydrostatic pressures and distance from the surface.
Redfield Auditorium - 12:00 Noon
Dr. Alan Jamieson
Post Doc Research Fellow, Research Manager of HADEEP
Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Scotland U.K.
Since 2006, the HADEEP project ( a collaboration between the Universities of Tokyo, Japan and Aberdeen, U.K.) has used free-fall baited imaging and trap technology to sampling the bait-attending fauna of six trenches on the Pacific Rim (Japan, Izu-Bonin, Marianas, Kermadec, Tonga and the Peru-Chile Trenches). These multi-trench campaigns have revealed an active and diverse benthic fauna living >6000m.
The seminar aims to provide an overview of the on-going research into hadal biology within HADEEP, including behavioural, physiological and distributional aspects of hadal species, many of which are new to science or until now never been seen alive.