Publications

Benthos, Deep Sea Corals, Ecology, Habitat, Marine Ecosystem Management, Sponges, Site characterization

Benthic surveys were conducted in the Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary aboard R/V Fulmar, October 3-11, 2012 using the large observation-class remotely operated vehicle Beagle. The purpose of the surveys was to groundtruth mapping data collected in 2011, and to characterize the seafloor biota, particularly corals and sponges, in order to support essential fish habitat designations under Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) and other conservation and management goals under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA).

Porifera, Cladorhizidae, Deep Sea Ecology, Deep Sea Biology, taxonomy

Here we describe four additional species, including two species of Asbestopluma and two species of Cladorhiza. We report on species ranges, habitat, and ecology, including one from a chemosynthetic environment that appears to be using methane-oxidizing bacteria as a nutrient source.

Deep Sea Corals, Ecology, Habitat, Sponges

This article presents in situ observations of coral and sponge habitat and of fishes, crabs, and octopods to depths throughout the range of current fishing activities and well beyond those depths anticipated to be affected by fishing activities in the near future in the central Aleutian Islands.

bathymetric maps; hydrographic surveying; multibeam mapping

We assembled 2.1 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings extending 1,900 km along the Aleutian Islands from Unimak Island in the east to the Russian border in the west, and ranging approximately 500 km north of the central Aleutians to Petrel and Bowers Banks, and also the surrounding deep waters of the southeastern Bering Sea. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others.

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Callyspongiidae; Chalinidae; Callyspongia; Cladocroce; Aleutian Islands; North Pacific; Alaska

Four new species of Haplosclerida are described from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska: Callyspongia mucosa n.sp., Cladocroce infundibulum n. sp., Cladocroce attu n. sp. and Cladocroce kiska n. sp. The new species are described and compared to congeners of the region. This is the northernmost record of the genus Callyspongia and the first record of the subgenus Callyspongia from the North Pacific Ocean. To accommodate Cladocroce kiska in its genus the definition has to be broadened to allow sigmas.

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deep-sea coral; refugia; density; photography; conservation

Octocorals had been considered a common component of the seafloor fauna in the Gulf of Maine, but it appears a century of impacts have reduced coral distribution to small refugia. Here we provide a preliminary report of a recent expedition that discovered dense coral garden communities at two sites >200 m depth.

Black Corals; Coral Communities; Coral Reef Fishes; Corals; Deep-sea Ecology; Fish Surveys; Habitat; Monitoring; Research; Sponges; Underwater Exploration

In 2010, the Program initiated a three-year study to advance our understanding of deep-sea corals off the west coast of the U.S. As part of this study, we conducted a cruise during fall 2010, which focused on the biology and ecology of the Christmas tree black coral and their use by demersal fishes on three deep offshore banks in the Southern California Bight (Hidden Reef, Footprint, and Piggy Bank). Our report provides a summary of the methods and results from underwater surveys of these coral colonies and associated habitats, sponges, and fishes.

This Final Cruise Report provides a detailed analysis of the benthic habitats, biota, and fish
populations at each dive site based on the ROV photo/video transects, CTD casts, and multibeam
sonar surveys.

Florida, Habitat

NOAA bathymetric contour maps and digital elevation models were used to identify and delineate the areal extent of potential deep-sea coral habitat in the region from northeastern Florida through the Straits of Florida. These were ground-truthed with 241 dives with submersibles and remotely operated vehicles which confirmed deep-sea coral habitat.

Christmas tree coral, Antipathes dendrochristos, Southern California Bight

The Christmas tree coral Antipathes dendrochristos is a recently discovered black coral species that represents a habitat associated with numerous sensitive taxa in the Southern California Bight. We evaluated whether broad-scale oceanographic features influence coral density and size by selecting from among generalized additive models (for density) and generalized linear models (for size) that represented competing hypotheses.