Historically deep-sea habitats were examined in isolation but it has become increasingly apparent that we must consider the largest biome on Earth in its entirety.

Following in the footsteps of the Census of Marine Life (2000-2010) the International Network for Sci-entific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems is a programme funded by The Total Foundation for its initial 3 years (2011-2013).

The aim of INDEEP is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies.

The deep sea, the largest biome on Earth, is char-acterised by a series of abiotic and biological attri-butes that differentiate it from other marine and land ecosystems and make it unique for the entire planet.

How do we successfully manage this domain which harbours both a very high biodiversity and a wealth of resources?

This question is receiving an increasing amount of attention as we become more technologically capa-ble of resource extraction and as resource demand increases exponentially with the current rise in pop-ulation-rate. Scientists are becoming more aware of the challenges that face humankind in the race to understand our deep oceans and protect and man-age the least-studied ecosystem on Earth.

Owing to a suite of potential anthropogenic threats to deep-sea biodiversity there is a pressing need to continue to discover and understand the biodi-

DIVE IN: INDEEP

For further information on INDEEP please contact project managers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

© Chuck Carter.

versity patterns of our deep oceans and to monitor deep-sea life on a regular basis.

Now more than ever, there is greater importance for the scientific community to provide an essential service to industry, government agencies, interna-tional organizations, NGOs and the general public to develop new opportunities for the efficient and robust management of human activities and con-servation of deep-sea ecosystems based on the best available scientific information.

During the initial 3 year phase, INDEEP will play a major role in coordinating research efforts from across the globe and bringing together a wide range of expertise in relation to investigation of the deep-sea ecosystems. INDEEP researchers will work to-wards:1. Addressing gaps in taxonomical knowledge for

key groups2. Determining global biodiversity and biogeogra-

phy patterns for all habitats3. Establishing connectivity patterns amongst

habitats and ecosystems4. Understanding ecosystem function and com-

munity resilience5. Bridging the gaps between scientific research

and social policy (relating specifically to an-thropogenic impacts).

An example of a highly biodiverse deep-sea community © DTIS/NIWA.

Going deeper

DIVE IN: INDEEP

INDEEP at a glance

Principal Investigators Dr Maria Baker, University of Southampton (UK) (Project co-ordinator)Dr Mireille Consalvey, National Institute of Water and At-mospheric Research (NZ) (Project coordinator)Dr Eva Ramirez-Llodra, Institut de Cièn-cies del Mar, CSIC (Spain) Dr Lenaick Menot, Ifremer-Brest (France) Dr Bhavani Narayanaswamy, Scottish Association for Ma-rine Science (UK) Oversight Committee Prof Paul Tyler, University of Southampton, (UK) – Chair Prof Craig Smith, University of Hawaii (USA) Dr Malcolm Clark, National Institute of Water and Atmo-spheric Research (NZ) Prof Robert Carney, Louisiana State University (USA) Prof Myriam Sibuet, Institut Océanographique de Par-is (France)

Working Groups1) Taxonomy and evolution (WG Leader: Adrian Glover, UK)2) Global biodiversity and biogeography (WG Leaders: Tim O’Hara, Australia & Lenaick Menot, France)3) Population connectivity (WG Leader: Anna Metaxas, Canada)4) Ecosystem function (WG Leader: Andrew Thurber, USA)5) Anthropogenic impact and social policy (WG Leaders: Eva Ramirez-Llodra, Spain & Mireille Consalvey, NZ) Hosting Institution National Oceanography Centre, Southamp-ton, School of Ocean and Earth Science, Universi-ty of Southampton, United Kingdom.

Website: http://www.indeep-project.org/ Duration of project: 3 years initially, with a view to con-tinuing via other funding sources.

Membership: > 260 members from 28 countries.

For further information: please contact Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz).

WG1: Taxonomy and evolution (Coordinator: Adrian Glover, UK)WG2: Global biodiversity and biogeography (Coordinators: Tim O’Hara, Australia & Lenaick Menot, France)WG3: Population connectivity (Coordinator: Anna Metaxas, Canada)WG4: Ecosystem function(Coordinator: Andrew Thurber, USA)WG5: Anthropogenic impact and social policy (Coordinators: Eva Ramirez-Llodra, Spain & Mireille Consalvey, NZ)

Each research question will fall under the umbrella of a working group (WG). The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities.

To achieve these aims INDEEP will lead the develop-ment of new large scale proposals involving teams (with specific focus on early-career researchers) and infrastructure from different nations, alliances that would be unlikely to occur without the impe-tus of this global network.

To learn more about the specific activities of each working group please see the companion DIVE IN brochures:

INDEEP working groups

INDEEP New Orleans; December 2010.

These are some of the questions scientists first ask when confronted with a strange, new deep-sea organism such as this giant hydrothermal vent tubeworm. They might also be interested in other questions. What does it eat? What is eating it? How does it reproduce? Where else does it live? What role does it play in the ecosystem?

But to get to these questions they must first work on the taxonomy and classification, or systematics, of the organism in question.

This is because taxonomy is the common language that allows us to link together the sum of all our knowledge of Earth’s biodiversity. Without a com-mon taxonomic system, biologists would simply end up repeating the same pieces of research over and over again.

When deep-sea biologists retrieve samples from the depths of the ocean, they are almost always confronted by an array of species, many of them new to science. But even if they are clearly new, they may still look familiar. Scientists classify organ-isms into groups – the science of systematics. At the heart of systematics is the fundamental process of evolution. Different species look similar because they share a common evolutionary history.

DIVE IN: TAXONOMY & EVOLUTION

For further information on the Taxonomy and Evolution Working Group please con-tact Dr Adrian Glover (a.glover@nhm.ac.uk). You can learn more about INDEEP from project managers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Con-salvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

Taxonomy and evolution are incredibly important disciplines in deep-sea biology. Only small areas of seafloor have ever been sampled, and huge num-bers of species remain to be discovered. We know very little about how deep-sea organisms evolved.

For some time, it was thought that animals such as the giant tubeworm, Riftia, (illustrated left) be-longed to a unique phylum of animals, with its own unique evolutionary origin in the deep sea.

But modern genetic methods, using DNA sequenc-es have shown that this remarkable group of deep-sea worms – the Siboglinidae – are now thought to have evolved from a polychaete ancestor. Poly-chaetes are simple segmented worms present in every ocean habitat, from the shallow estuaries to the hadal trenches. This evidence suggests that an entirely novel lineage of deep-sea animals evolved from polychaetes to exploit new habitats such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

The textbooks on animal evolution are currently be-ing completely re-written as a result of new meth-ods in DNA analysis. Several entirely new phyla of

© Ifremer (Phare cruise 2002).

What is it? How did it evolve?

In modern taxonomic studies, a variety of methods including DNA sequenc-ing are used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of organisms, here illustrated for the polychaete clade Siboglinidae. © Adrian Glover.

DIVE IN: TAXONOMY & EVOLUTION

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research ef-forts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Taxonomy and Evolution. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

• Create improved deep-sea identification tools for all biologists

• Create new taxonomic data in the form of species descriptions

• Create new knowledge on the evolution of life in the deep sea

• Developing a new INDEEP-branded web tool for online identification of deep-sea species

• Encouraging and developing collaborative taxon-omy and evolution projects through the funding of training workshops

• Hosting a major symposium on the evolution of life in the deep sea

• Developing outreach materials that highlight modern taxonomy

We aim to:

We will do this by:

Diversity of benthic marine life from 2011 research cruise to the deep Scotia Sea. © Adrian Glover.

Number of marine species described annually, data from World Register of Marine Species.

animals have been discovered in recent years. All of these are marine.

The oceans hold the secrets to understanding the evolutionary origin of all life on Earth.

Almost 2000 new marine species are described each year, and these numbers are increasing, not decreasing. Modern marine taxonomy involves col-laborations with molecular biologists, ecologists and oceanographers. Many deep-sea species are now described in joint papers that also discuss the evolutionary origin of species, and the ecology of their environments. We support this modern ap-proach to taxonomy.

The INDEEP Working Group on Taxonomy and Evo-lution was set up to facilitate these collaborations and help develop the next-generation of deep-sea systematists, evolutionary biologists and natural historians. This Working Group has identified a clearly defined set of aims and actions.

Modern deep-sea taxonomy relies on DNA sequences to both determine species and understand their evolutionary relationships, as in this set of se-quences from a range of deep-sea scale-worms recovered at hydrothermal vents and whale-falls. Powerful computer analysis is used to analyse these large datasets.© Helena Wiklund.

The history of the discovery of life in the deep sea is fascinating. In the space of a century, our under-standing of deep-sea biodiversity swung from one extreme to another. The azoïc theory of the 1840s suggested that the deep was devoid of life, yet by the 1990s extrapolations had been made that implied the deep sea was inhabited by millions of species. In the last few decades, the discovery of hydrother-mal vents, cold seeps, whale falls and cold-water coral reefs rewrite our understanding of ecosys-tems and life on Earth. These discoveries highlight the unexpected variation of deep seascapes that lay immersed within the astonishingly diverse but poorly known deep-water layers above the sea-floor. Despite rapid progress and stunning discover-ies, our understanding of deep-sea biodiversity still remains limited to widely spaced pin-hole views of the vastest ecosystem on Earth (1,000,000,000 km3 of water and 326,000,000 km2 of seafloor). Through these narrow windows, we glimpse changes in species number and composition from one habi-tat to another, one region to another, along depth gradients and with latitude. New species accumu-late along both gradual or abrupt gradients in the environment and over spatial scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometres. These changes, in concert with the vastness of the deep sea, rep-resent a massive reservoir of biodiversity, most of which remains unknown.

The footprint of human activities is increasing con-tinuously due to resource exploitation, waste dis-posal and climate change, and as a consequence there is a rising need for environmental manage-ment and protection. However, wise management is impeded by the limited and highly fragmented knowledge of biodiversity patterns and processes in the deep sea. Deciphering the processes respon-sible for changes in the number and composition of species is thus critically important. Beyond under-standing the mechanisms that create and maintain diversity in the deep sea, elucidating the drivers of diversity patterns could potentially predict global distribution patterns of biodiversity and forecasts of temporal change. Many pieces of the deep-sea puzzle are missing, but there are enough available to piece together a global picture to guide resource exploitation, conservation and environmental man-agement. From 2000 to 2010, the first Census of Marine Life tackled the task of assembling new pieces and that effort proved to be productive for scientists, useful for stakeholders, and informa-tive for the general public. All existing pieces of our knowledge of deep-sea diversity as well as ecosys-tem structure and function must now be gathered and arranged into an informative framework. From 2010 onward, the spinoff INDEEP programme is taking the lead on this synthesis for the deep sea.

DIVE IN: Biodiversity

For further information on the Biodiversity Working Group contact Lenaick Menot (Lenaick.Menot@ifremer.fr). You can learn more about INDEEP from project man-agers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

Galatheids (Eumunida picta) on the deep-sea coral Lophelia. © Dr. Derk Berquist and Pr. Charles Fisher; cruise sponsored by NOAA Ocean Explora-tion Program & US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement.

A basket star (Gorgonocephalus sp.) on top of a deep-sea coral reef off Ireland. © Ifremer (Caracole cruise 2001).

From zero to millions of species!

The global biodiversity puzzle

INDEEP’s Working Group on Biodiversity aims to accurately describe large-scale diversity patterns and identify their main environmental drivers, in order to provide robust predictors of biodiversity changes in space and time. The continuing effort to assemble deep-sea datasets into a consistent data management system will support analytical work across different scales and habitats. Deep-sea habitats, whether focused on deep open water or seafloor ecosystems spanning muddy slopes, abys-sal plains, canyons, fjords, seamounts, coral reefs or chemosynthetic environments have mostly been studied independently. While each functions in its own ways, a comprehensive study is needed to ad-dress their differences as well as their similarities. Such comparisons will not only provide a better un-derstanding of each system but will prove essential for environmental management through the identi-fication of representative, as well as unique, deep-sea communities and ecosystems.

DIVE IN: Biodiversity

Further reading:Everything you should know about deep-sea ecology:

Baker, M., Ebbe, B., Hoyer, J., Menot, L., Narayanaswamy, B.E., Ramirez-Llodra, E., Steffensen, M. (Eds.), 2007. Deeper than Light. Bergen Museum Pres, Bergen. (Available in English, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish upon request to the IN-DEEP project managers).

Ramirez-Llodra, E., Brandt, A., Danovaro, R., De Mol, B., Escobar, E., German, C.R., Levin, L.A., Martinez Arbizu, P., Menot, L., Buhl-Mortensen, P., Narayanaswamy, B.E., Smith, C.R., Tittensor, D.P., Tyler, P.A., Vanreusel, A., Vecchione, M., 2010. Deep, diverse and definitely different: Unique attributes of the world’s largest eco-system. Biogeosciences 7, 2851-2899.

For further information on ecosystems and habitat see chap-ters in McIntyre, A.D. (Ed.), Life in the World’s Oceans: Diversity, Distribution, and Abundance. Wiley-Blackwell:

Baker, M.C., Ramirez-Llodra, E., Tyler, P., German, C.R., Boetius, A., Cordes, E.E., Dubilier, N., Fisher, C.R., Levin, L.A., Metaxas, A., Rowden, A.A., Santos, R.S., Shank, T.M., Van Dover, C.L., Young, C.M., Warén, A., 2010. Biogeography, ecology, and vulnerability of chemosynthetic ecosystems in the deep sea. pp. 161-182.

Consalvey, M., Clark, M.R., Rowden, A.A., Stocks, K.I., 2010. Life on seamounts. pp. 123-138

Ebbe, B., Billett, D.S.M., Brandt, A., Ellingsen, K.E., Glover, A., Keller, S., Malyutina, M., Martinez Arbizu, P., Molodtsova, T.N., Rex, M.A., Smith, C.R., Tselepides, A., 2010. Diversity of abyssal marine life. pp. 139-160.

Menot, L., Sibuet, M., Carney, R.S., Levin, L.A., Rowe, G.T., Bil-lett, D.S.M., Poore, G., Kitazato, H., Vanreusel, A., Galéron, J., Lavrado, H.P., Sellanes, J., Ingole, B., Krylova, E.M., 2010. New perceptions of continental margin biodiversity. pp79-101.

Vecchione, M., Bergstad, O.A., Byrkjedal, I., Falkenhaug, T., Gebruk, A.V., Godø, O.R., Gilsason, A., Heino, M., Høines, Å.S., Menezes, G.M.M., Piatkowski, U., Priede, I., Skov, H., Søiland, H., Sutton, T., de Lande Wenneck, T., 2010. Biodiversity Patterns and Processes on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. pp. 103-121.

An example of what we would like to achieve for the deep sea:

Tittensor, D.P., Mora, C., Jetz, W., Lotze, H.K., Ricard, D., Berghe, E.V., Worm, B. 2010. Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa. Nature 466 (7310), 1098-1101.

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research ef-forts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Biodiversity. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

Giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) from the E. Pacific hydrothermal vents. © Ifremer (Phare cruise 2002).

Polychaetes, bivalves, isopods and tanaids are highly diverse in deep-sea sediments. ©Ifremer (A. Fifis).

High biodiversity of infauna and epifauna on the deep shelf of the Antarctic (600 m on the West Antarctica Peninsula Shelf). © Pr. Craig Smith, Hawaii.

A new collaborative venture

The deep-sea remains a dark hidden environment. Scientists glimpse tiny snippets of the seafloor us-ing submersibles or sample the fauna using devices dragged or dangled from ships thousands of metres above. We cannot directly see the great ecosystem changes so evident on land, between mountains, canyons, and plains, between nutrient-rich envi-ronments that team with life and impoverished barren regions. In 1876 the great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was able to map the world’s ter-restrial fauna from astute and careful observation. This was just not possible for the oceans. Amaz-ingly, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we still lack maps showing the distribution of life on the seafloor. We do not know where the major deep-sea faunal provinces lie and whether they are framed by depth, geography or environmental fac-tors. Instead, the world’s conservation and resource managers have to rely on maps based on oceano-graphic or geological data which may or may not be adequate surrogates for marine life. It is time we mapped the animals of the deep sea.

If we can’t directly observe the seascape then we will have to build a map from all the samples collected from deep-sea expeditions across the planet over the last 150 years. Many countries have surveyed their national waters and exclusive economic zones. Some countries have ventured further out to sample the seamounts, vents, trenches and abyssal plains of the great oceans. Some of these valuable collections have

DIVE IN: BioGEOGRAPHy

For further information on the Biogeography Working Group contact Tim O’Hara (tohara@museum.vic.gov.au). You can learn more about INDEEP from project man-agers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

Modern modelling and statistical tools can transform collection records (left) into biogeographic maps (right) over large areas (figures derived from O’Hara et al. 2011).

Deep-sea communities can be highly diverse. © DTIS; NIWA.

A dream to map the deep

The path to a global biogeographical understanding of the deep sea

INDEEP’s Working Group on Biogeography aims to map the distribution of seafloor animals across the globe from bathyal to abyssal depths. We will build maps based on actual biological records rather than surrogate environmental data. The task is to com-pile comprehensive datasets of distribution records of selected faunal groups from museum collections across the planet and use the latest modelling tech-niques to interpolate this information into a set of detailed maps that show how the fauna changes from the continental margins to the abyssal plains, across the major oceanic basins. The project will frame the way we think in future about the spatial distribution of the deep-sea fauna, providing much needed background to environmental managers, marine scientists and lovers of the natural world.

DIVE IN: BioGEOGRAPHy

Further reading:O’Hara, T.D., Rowden, A.A., Bax, N.J. 2011. A southern hemi-sphere bathyal fauna is distributed in latitudinal bands. Cur-rent Biology 21, 226–230. [An example of a regional map of the bathyal brittle-star fauna]

Schnabel, K.E., Cabezas, P., McCallum, A., Macpherson, E., Ahy-ong, S.T., Baba, K. 2011. Chapter 6. World-wide distribution pat-terns of squat lobsters. In Poore, G.C.B, Ahyong, S.T. and Taylor, J. (eds) The biology of squat lobsters. CSIRO Publishing: Mel-bourne and CRC Press: Boca Raton. [An example of a coarse-scale global biogeography of the squat lobster fauna].

UNESCO 2009. Global Open Oceans and Deep Seabed (GOODS) – Biogeographic Classification. IOC Technical Series, 84 UNESCO-IOC., Paris. [Example of global deep-sea maps based on environ-mental surrogates].

Bachraty, C., Legendre, P., Desbruyères, D. 2009. Biogeographic relationships among deep-sea hydrothermal vent faunas at global scale. Deep-Sea Research I 56, 1371-1378. [A map of the specialist hydrothermal vent fauna]

Spalding, M.D., Fox, H.E., Allen, G.R., Davidson, N., Ferdaña, Z.A., Finlayson, M., Halpern, B.S., Jorge, M.A., Lombana, A., Lourie, S.A., Martin, K.D., Mcmanus, E., Molnar, J., Recchia, C.A., Rob-ertson, J. 2007. Marine ecoregions of the world: A bioregion-alization of coastal and shelf areas. BioScience 57, 573-583. [A heuristic map of shallow water marine fauna]

Kreft, H., Jetz, W. 2010. A framework for delineating biogeo-graphical regions based on species distributions. Journal of Bio-geography 37, 2029–2053 [Terrestrial maps based on mammal distributions, comparing Wallace’s 1876 maps with those pro-duced by modern statistical methods].

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our un-derstanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and pro-vide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and so-ciety to aid in the formation of sustainable management strategies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research efforts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Biogeography. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

Antarctic community. © DTIS; NIWA.

Seamount community. © DTIS; NIWA.

been identified and the results progressively accu-mulated into global datasets. From 2000 to 2010, the first Census of Marine Life funded the synthe-sis of existing data from a variety of marine habi-tats. However, there are still many unidentified or uncatalogued collections lying in the world’s mu-seums and oceanographic institutes hampering the construction of comprehensive and unbiased global maps. Cataloguing and mapping the world’s deep-sea collections are daunting tasks, but achievable for a few well studied animal groups. From 2011 onward, the INDEEP program will take the lead to produce a global biogeographical synthesis for the deep sea.

A new collaborative venture

The types of habitats that individual species oc-cupy depend on their requirements for survival, growth and reproduction. Typically, these habitats are not distributed uniformly across the ocean floor, similar habitats being separated by 10s to 1000s metres. Consequently, the populations of most species are spatially fragmented, as each one may occupy a different patch of suitable habi-tat. The extent of connections (i.e. connectivity) among different patches is determined by the mag-nitude of exchange of individuals either through propagules, such as larvae, or migrating adults.

Population connectivity is an integral part of the

DIVE IN: Population connectivity

For further information on the Population Connectivity Working Group please contact Anna Metaxas (metaxas@dal.ca). You can learn more about INDEEP from project managers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

Typical biological communities in the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents MPA, Canada. Photo Credit: CanRidge, Keck and ROPOS.

In order to understand the impacts of these anthro-pogenic activities on populations in the deep sea, and their resilience and potential for recovery, we need to be able to assess their relative connectiv-ity. The establishment of Marine Protected Areas in the deep oceanic regions of Exclusive Economic Zones of individual countries, as well as in the high seas, is gaining momentum as international agree-ments must be fulfilled. For these to be success-ful, much knowledge remains to be assembled.

INDEEP has brought together a team of interna-tional experts that study dispersal in the deep sea to address the issue of population connec-tivity within and across different habitats, such as continental margins, abyssal plains, canyons, seamounts, hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.

For species that are attached to the seafloor or have limited motility, larval dispersal among patches is the main mechanism that controls con-nectivity. In the deep sea, as in near-shore and coastal ecosystems, organisms experience in-creasingly more frequent and complex human-in-duced disturbances. Additionally, the abundance of organisms in any one habitat patch can be ex-tremely low, making them particularly vulner-able to extirpation. The degree of connectivity among patches will influence the extent of stabil-ity of populations that occupy these patches, as well as their resilience and probability of recovery.

design of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). To be ef-fective, MPAs must act as sources of new individu-als to other populations, mainly through larval dis-persal. Networks of MPAs can only be effective if connectivity among individual MPAs is high. In the deep sea, distances are vast, and unique habitats with highly specialized fauna, such as hydrother-mal vents or seamounts, are extremely patchy and separated by 100s to 1000s of kilometres. Addition-ally, many populations are being threatened by in-creased anthropogenic activities, such as resource extraction, waste disposal and habitat deterioration.

Connecting the deep

Managing a patch work

Recovery from impacts

Close-up of bubblegum coral (Paragorgia arborea) in Northeast Channel, Gulf of Maine. Photo Credit: CHONe/DFO research mission to Discovery Corridor, Gulf of Maine 2010; and ROPOS.

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research ef-forts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Population Connectivity. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

DIVE IN: Population connectivity

The group will use different approaches starting with a comparative study of the role of popula-tion connectivity in designing MPAs: identifying how this issue has been tackled, in shallow water systems, where the approach is quite mature, and how it can be applied to deep-sea ecosystems.

The group will also implement sampling pro-grams using existing platforms, such as SERPENT, and new research projects, to obtain measures of connectivity in the field; and will devise labora-tory experiments that measure factors that con-trol larval survival under controlled conditions.

In combination, these approaches will allow INDEEP to make recommendations on strate-gies for implementing MPAs in the deep sea.

Moving forwards

Five Towers vent, East Diamante, Mariana Forearc. Photo credit: Submarine Ring of Fire 2004 and ROPOS.

Octopus in Northeast Channel, Gulf of Maine. Photo Credit: CHONe/DFO re-search mission to Discovery Corridor, Gulf of Maine 2010; and ROPOS.

Further reading:Ramirez-Llodra, E., Brandt, A., Danovaro, R., De Mol, B., Escobar, E., German, C.R., Levin, L.A., Martinez Arbizu, P., Menot, L., Buhl-Mortensen, P., Narayanaswamy, B.E., Smith, C.R., Tittensor, D.P., Tyler, P.A., Vanreusel, A., Vecchione, M., 2010. Deep, diverse and definitely different: Unique attributes of the world’s largest eco-system. Biogeosciences 7, 2851-2899.

Pineda J, JA Hare and S Sponaugle., 2007. Larval Transport and Dispersal in the Coastal Ocean and Consequences for Population Connectivity. Oceanography 20: 22-39.

Young CM and Eckelbarger KJ (Eds), 1994. Reproduction, larval biology and recruitment of the deep-sea benthos. Columbia University Press, New York. 336 pp.

Young CM, 2003. Reproduction, development and life history traits. In: Ecosystems of the World, Vol. 28: Ecoystems of the

From giant squid to microbes, deep-sea life shapes the world as we know it. In the deep sea, all branch-es of life interact to minimize human’s carbon im-pact, keep vast quantities of green house gas out of the atmosphere, and provide food and mineral resources to supplement the dwindling supplies from land. We’ve learned these facts through in-vestigating ecosystem function, an interdisciplinary field of research which traces the flow and recycling of nutrients and energy within the oceans. As our climate changes and our everyday lives become in-creasingly intertwined with the deep sea, it is nec-essary to construct a global understanding of the goods and services which the deep sea provides. INDEEP, an international group of deep-ocean sci-entists and stake holders, will build this foundation of knowledge and quantify how the deep sea func-tions to facilitate informed policy decisions about this largest but least known habitat on our globe.

The deep sea is a composite of unique habitats whose biological diversity often translates into ecosystem services and resources. Microbiota con-sume methane, a greenhouse gas 23x more effi-cient at warming our atmosphere than CO2, provid-ing a service that keeps our planet inhabitable. This methane consumption can produce rocks which

DIVE IN: Ecosystem Function

For further information on the Ecosystem Function Working Group please contact Andrew Thurber (athurber@coas.oregonstate.edu). You can learn more about INDEEP from project managers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

The deep sea is not an expanse of lifeless mud but instead composed of a diversity of rocky habitats (top), soft muddy sediment (middle), and a com-bination of the two (lower), each providing unique goods and services to our planet. Top and bottom photos courtesy of Dr. Andrew Thurber, Middle photo courtesy of Dr. Andrew Sweetman.

When the oceans are viewed as an ecosystem (i.e. the sum of all chemical and biological activity) the role of the deep sea to the globe is staggering. Half of the CO2 released by human activity is captured by phytoplankton (microscopic plants) or absorbed by the oceans. The carbon that sinks into the deep-sea is removed from the atmosphere and mini-mizes the impact of our carbon footprint on global temperatures. Once in the deep sea, the diversity and activity of animal and microbial communities dictate whether this carbon is buried for geologi-cal periods of time or returned to the atmosphere. When this carbon is consumed, the nutrients re-leased are mixed back into the surface allowing phytoplankton to capture more CO2 and produce the oxygen we all need to breathe. The activity of these micro- to macroscopic organisms therefore determine the true extent of our carbon legacy.

A rain of food from the surface feeds much of the deep sea. How much of this food that survives the 4 km trip through the ocean drives the biodi-versity of the deep. In only the last few decades

we have learned that this rain of food tracks the seasons and, amazingly, our climates fluctua-tions. Yet, we are changing our climate and there-fore the internal climate of the deep sea. Climate models predict that in future, we, on land, will experience greater annual and decadal climatic variation. What will this mean for deep-sea life?

A sum of parts

A changing world

A mosaic of mechanisms

INDEEP’s Working group on Ecosystem Function will provide a mechanism for rapid advances in this sig-nificant field. A series of reviews will be construct-ed as a resource to policy makers and the scientific community. These reviews will: (1) build a theoreti-cal and empirical framework identifying the deep-sea’s goods and services; (2) present the current

Further reading:

Armstrong, C.W., Folely, N., Tinch, R., van den Hove, S. 2011. Ecosystem goods and services of the deep sea. HERMIONE re-port. (http:\\median-web.eu/IMG/pdf/ecosystem_goods_and_services.pdf)

Danovaro, R., Gambi, C., Dell’Anno, A., Corinaldesi, C., Freschet-ti, S., Vanreusal, A., Vincx, M., Gooday, A.J. 2008. Exponential decline of deep-sea ecosystem functioning linked to benthic bio-diversity loss. Current Biology 18, 1-8.

Levin, L.A. and Dayton, P.K., 2008. Ecological theory and conti-nental margins: where shallow meets deep. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24, 606-617.

Ruhl HA, Ellena JA, Smith Jr. KL (2008) Connections between cli-mate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 105, 17006-17011

Smith C.R., De Leo, F.C., Bernardino, A.F., Sweetman, A.K., Marti-nez Arbizu, P. 2008. Abyssal food limitation, ecosystem structure and climate change. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23: 518-528

Smith, K.L., Ruhl, H.A., Bett, B.J., Billett, D.S.M., Lampitt, R.S., Kaufmann, R.S. 2009. Climate, carbon cycling, and the deep-ocean ecosystem. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ence 106,19211-19218

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research efforts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Ecosystem Function. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

DIVE IN: Ecosystem Function

finfish aggregate around, thus enhancing fisher-ies. Although deep and difficult to harvest, deep-sea fisheries are providing more and more food for our dining-room tables. The methane which these microbes eat is a potential fuel for humans and likely to join deep-sea oil as an exploited energy re-source. Similar to these methane-fueled habitats, hydrothermal vents are filled with precious metals and are an oasis of biodiversity. Vast areas of the seafloor are covered with crusts and nodules, full of manganese and copper, each of which has its own unique fauna. Together these habitats of the deep form some of the future resources that man-kind will extract and mine for food, military, and technol-ogy uses. What effects will extraction and mining this precious resources have on deep-sea ecosys-tems and how can we measure how it is impacted?

and future techniques used to measure ecosystem function; and (3) identify testable models of how our changing climate will impact how the deep-sea works. We will use this foundation of knowledge to drive progressive and pertinent international re-search projects designed by this working group.

Less than 1% of the deep sea has been studied even though it spans greater than 60% of our globe. The challenges of working in the deep ocean are sur-mountable. Access to habitats that were nearly in-accessible a few decades ago are now the sites of powered cable-based observatories for long-term and high-resolution studies. With the Census of Ma-rine Life’s incredible success, we have a newfound appreciation of what can be gained through a true global synthesis. This is the age of global synthesis and INDEEP is leading the way.

Benthic landers (such as the one shown sampling the globe) measure the flow of carbon and oxygen through benthic ecosystems and provide insight into how the deep sea functions. This allows us to learn how sediment com-munities, composed of abundant bacteria (middle-left), protists (top), and the diverse animals of the deep (middle-right, bottom) function to shape the world as we know it. Lander photo courtesy of Dr. Andrew Sweetman; Globe from Google Earth; Fauna photos courtesy of Dr. Andrew Thurber.

The path ahead

The deep seafloor is the largest ecosystem on Earth, covering 326 million km2 and 1 billion km3 of wa-ter. It is also one of the least studied places on the planet. What little we know tells us that there are a wide variety of deep-sea habitats with unique geo-physical characteristics that can support a very high biodiversity. The deep sea also provides a wealth of goods and services, with important biological and mineral resources. Although humans have used the sea for millennia, the impact on deep habitats and fauna has rapidly increased in the last decades, in parallel with the depletion of resources on land and shallow waters and the development of new tech-nologies that make this remote system progressive-ly more accessible. Human impacts on deep-sea ecosystems can be classified under 3 main catego-ries: littering, exploitation and climate change.

DIVE IN: Anthropogenic imapct and social policy

For further information on the Anthropogenic Impact and Social Policy Working Group please contact Eva Ramirez-Llodra (ezr@icm.csic.es) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). You can learn more about INDEEP from project managers Maria Baker (mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz). http://www.indeep-project.org/

Marine litter collected from the deep Western Mediterranean (2000 m). © Eva Ramirez-Llodra, ICM-CSIC.

Although dumping of radioactive waste, sewage and pharmaceuticals has been banned for decades and dumping of litter from ships was also banned in 1972 by the London Convention, marine litter con-tinues to accumulate on our shores, in surface wa-ters and in deep-sea ecosystems. Approximately 6.4 million tonnes of litter are dumped into the oceans each year, mainly originating from highly inhabited coastal areas, river discharge and illegal dumping from ships. Although very little quantitative data is available, litter is observed in almost all scientific surveys of the deep seafloor, with plastic, metal and glass being the most abundant items. The ef-

fects of marine litter on the fauna are unknown, but some potential impacts include suffocation, chemi-cal contamination from paint chips, introduction of allochthonous species and ghost fishing from lost or discarded fishing gear such as trawl nets and longlines. The decomposition of plastics into micro-plastics that accumulate in the sediments can be in-gested by the fauna and this important issue needs further investigation.

In the 1960s and 1970s, as many inshore fish stocks became over-exploited, fisheries developed in deeper waters of the continental slope, ridges and seamounts. Most deep-sea fish stocks have shown strong declines, and few have proven sustainable. The main fishing method, bottom trawling, com-monly causes severe damage to the benthos as few taxa are physically resistant to trawling impacts. Invertebrate assemblages associated with deep-sea corals are especially susceptible, and trawling causes the loss of coral habitat from large areas of individual seamounts. While soft sediment commu-nities may be able to withstand some disturbance, the resilience of many deep-sea ecosystems such as those on seamounts is very low and show little sign of recovery in the short term (10 years) following spatial fishing closures. The vulnerability of deep-sea fish stocks to over-fishing, and the fragility of many benthic habitats to impact by fishing or mining, highlight the impor-tance and urgency of effective management of hu-man activities in the deep sea.

Deep-sea Fishing. © Matt Dunn, NIWA.

Moving deep

Littering

Biological resources: fisheries

Further reading:Baker, M.C., German, C.R. 2009. Going for gold! Who will win in the race to exploit ores from the deep sea? Ocean Challenge 16: 10-17.

Clark, M.R. 2009. Deep-sea seamount fisheries: review of global status and future prospects. Lat Am J Aquatic Res 37: 501–512.

Ramirez-Llodra, E., Tyler, P.A., Baker, M.C., Bergstad, O.A., Clark, M.R., Escobar, E., Levin, L.A., Menot, L., Rowden, A.A., Smith, C.R., Van Dover, C.L. (submitted). Man and the last great wilder-ness: human impact on the deep sea. PLoS ONE.

Smith, C.R., Levin, L.A., Koslow, A., Tyler, P.A., Glover AG 2008. The near future of the deep-sea floor ecosystems. In: Polunin, N., editor. Aquatic Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-sity Press. pp. 334-351.

Smith, K.L.Jr, Ruhl, H.A., Bett, B.J., Billett, D.S.M.B., Lampitt, R.S., Kaufmann, R.S. 2009. Climate, carbon cycling, and deep-ocean ecosystems. Proc National Acad Sci 106: 19211-19218.

Tittensor, D. P., Baco, A. R., Brewin, P. E., Clark, M. R., Consalvey, M., Hall-Spencer, J., Rowden, A. A., Schlacher, T., Stocks, K. I., Rogers, A. D. 2009. Predicting global habitat suitability for stony corals on seamounts. Journal of Biogeography, 36: 1111–1128.

Thiel, H. 2003. Anthropogenic impacts on the deep sea. In; Ty-ler, P.A., editor. Ecosystems of the World, Vol. 28, Ecosystems of the Deep Ocean. Amsterdam, Elsevier. pp. 427-472.

Van den Hove, S., Moreau, V. 2007. Ecosystems and biodiversity in deep waters and high seas: a scoping report on their socio-economy, management and governance, Switzerland, UNEP-WCMC. pp. 84.

The aim of the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystems (INDEEP) is to develop and synthesise our understanding of deep-sea global biodiversity and functioning and provide a framework to bridge the gap between scientific results and society to aid in the formation of sustainable management strate-gies. INDEEP aims to bring together and help coordinate research efforts from across the globe through 5 working groups, including one on Anthropogenic Impacts & Social Policy. The membership of each working group is open and envisioned to evolve and change in response to ongoing research activities (coordinated by a nominated lead).

The oil and gas industry is now exploring and ex-ploiting hydrocarbons at depths below 2000 m. Although the impact of exploitation platforms can be local, the risk of accidents (such as the Deepwa-ter Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that caused the largest oil spill in history) and sub-sequent consequences are mostly unknown. The exploitation of deep seafloor minerals is also becoming a reality. While mining for manganese nodules on abyssal plains or cobalt-rich crusts on seamounts is currently not economically viable, the exploitation of massive sulphides on hydrothermal vents is about to begin. Although thorough Environ-mental Impact Assessments have been conducted in pilot projects off Papua New Guinea and signifi-cant efforts have been made to minimise damage, the lack of detailed knowledge on the biogeogra-phy, larval ecology and rare species from active and inactive hydrothermal vents greatly limits our abil-ity to predict any potential impacts.

The Earth has been exposed to changes in climate at geological time scales. However, today and for the first time human forcing is driving climate change, and proceeding at a pace that may outstrip evolu-tionary change. The effects of climate change will affect the deep oceans globally and in a variety of ways. Temperature rise has already been detected in bathyal regions in the Eastern Mediterranean, causing changes in nematode communities. Other consequences may be the release of methane from methane hydrates and changes in deep-water for-mation and ocean circulation, potentially leading to a deep-water formation shut down and conse-quent hypoxia. Variations in surface productivity will cause modifications in organic matter input to the seafloor, directly affecting the faunal communi-ties that depend on this food supply. Atmospheric CO2 levels are now the highest in the last 20 million years and a two-fold increase by 2100 from pre-industrial times has been estimated. Increases in atmospheric CO2 will have serious consequences, causing ocean acidification that will have a pro-

found impact on calcifying fauna such as corals and echinoderms, as well as molluscs and foraminifera.

INDEEP scientists will promote research on the im-pacts of a wide range of anthropogenic activities on deep-sea habitats and their fauna, to ultimately provide the robust scientific data essential for the development of scientific policy, sustainable man-agement and conservation. Through the creation of a pool of researchers and a pool of stakeholders (industry, policy makers and NGOs) INDEEP will pro-vide a framework to bridge the gap between scien-tists and policy makers and facilitate fluent discus-sions and sharing of information.

DIVE IN: Anthropogenic impact and social policy

Mineral resources: hydrocarbons and mining

Climate change

Bridging the gap between science and policy