New initiative leads to opportunity to explore deep-sea 'cold-seep' ecosystem and an unprecedented experiment into the colonization of whale bones in the deep sea
In the last year, a new initiative has made Marine Scotland Science’s research vessels, the MRVs Scotia and Alba na Mara, available for use by the MASTS community for specific research projects. This month, the first of these projects has become operational.
A partnership between Marine Scotland Science (MSS), SAMS, the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, and British Geological Survey has been created as part of the MASTS deep-sea forum and they proposed a project to explore the largely unknown habitats and fauna of the remote deepwater Hatton-Rockall Basin. This area is thought to be the site of what is known as deep-sea ‘cold-seep’ ecosystem and where methane gas bubbles up through the seabed and forms a resource for specialised bacteria and creatures that harvest the gas as an energy source.
The first indication of the presence of this cold-seep ecosystem came from a Scotia survey in 2012 in which some unusual shells were collected – 3 species found were completely new to science and of the type known only from cold seep sites. This latest survey is the first chance scientists have had the chance to return to the area and they intend to deploy TV cameras together with sediment and benthic samplers in order to map, describe and understand this ecosystem. In addition the survey will collect information from a nearby Marine Protected Area in the region.
Dr Francis Neat, the MSS chief scientist said:
“This is an exciting opportunity to describe an almost completely unknown marine ecosystem. Biodiversity is an important conservation issue and we need to know what lies beneath the full extent of Scotland’s seas. This is a strong collaboration between MASTS partners who have complementary interests in deep-sea biology and management. By pooling institutional resources and expertise we can achieve much more than any of us could do alone. The survey will hopefully yield some important discoveries and results and show that Scotland has a world-class network of deep-sea scientists that choose to work together.”
The cruise also provides the opportunity to perform an unprecedented experiment into the colonization of whale bones in the deep sea. Oceanlab’s Deep Ocean Benthic Observer or DOBO lander, has recently been modified to carry the skull of a minke whale. The lander will be deployed to 1800m depth on the east side of Rockall whereby a camera will photograph the bone every 6 hours for a year. The aim is to record and monitor the colonization of the bone by the infamous bone eating worms called Osedax.
MSS has also provided environmental sensors for the lander, and the INDEEP project have supplied settlement plates. The lander will be recovered in autumn 2016.
Dr Alan Jamieson from Oceanlab said:
“This cruise is not only exemplary in its demonstration of what MASTS can achieve, but to potentially find the Hatton-Rockall cold seep, as well learn a great deal more about Osedax, it is a very exciting project to be involved in.”
To follow the daily blog (16th-27th July), look at the Marine Scotland Blog for New collaborative deep sea survey: Hatton-Rockall Basin.