Seamounts as critical habitats for marine biodiversity – SEAMOUNTS
Title: Seamounts as critical habitats for marine biodiversity.
Oases of biodiversity, seamounts are among the least known habitats on Earth. Human impact is rapidly extending with major threats on marine vertebrates so species may disappear from seamounts without realizing it. SEAMOUNTS proposes to illuminate the 3-dimensional distribution of vertebrate diversity and abundance on New Caledonian seamounts combining environmental DNA metabarcoding, seascape genomics, machine learning and baited video. The overreaching goal is to better understand the influence of human, environmental and geomorphological variables on seamounts fauna to inform conservation and management. SEAMOUNTS will be articulated around four hypotheses: (H1) benthic-pelagic coupling promotes biodiversity on seamounts, (H2) vertebrates find refuge in the deepest part of their range, (H3) residual populations of the most threatened vertebrate species (e.g. sharks) are present even close to humans, (H4) seamounts are key to connect remote wilderness reefs to more impacted reefs.
Keywords: Seamounts, Biodiversity, eDNA
Project coordination
Laurent VIGLIOLA (Ecologie marine tropicale dans les Océans Pacifique et Indien)
The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.
Partnership
MARBEC Centre pour la biodiversité marine, l'exploitation et la conservation
CEFE Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
ENTROPIE Ecologie marine tropicale dans les Océans Pacifique et Indien
Help of the ANR 504,936 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project:
February 2019
- 48 Months
