Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas
Encyclopedia
Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas, or HERMIONE, is an international multidisciplinary project, started in April 2009, that studies deep-sea ecosystems. HERMIONE scientists study the distribution of hotspot
ecosystems, how they function and how they interconnect, partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change
and impacted by humans through fishing
, resource extraction, seabed installations and pollution
. Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information, enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems.The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission
's Seventh Framework Programme, and is the successor to the HERMES project
, which concluded in March 2009.
to the Iberian Margin, and across the Mediterranean to the Black Sea
, spans a distance of over 15,000 km and hosts a number of diverse habitats and ecosystems. Deep water coral
reefs, undersea mountains
populated by a multitude of organisms, vast submarine canyon systems
, and hydrothermal vent
s are some of the features contained therein. The traditional view of the deep-sea realm as a hostile and barren place was discredited long ago, and scientists now know that much of Europe's deep sea is rich and diverse.
However, the deep sea is increasingly threatened by humans: most of this deep-ocean frontier lies within Europe's Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) and has significant potential for the exploitation of biological, energy, and mineral resources. Research and exploration over the last two decades has shown clear signs of direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts in the deep sea, resulting from such activities as over-fishing
, littering
and pollution
. This raises concerns because deep-sea processes and ecosystems are not only important for the marine web of life
, but also fundamentally contribute to the global biogeochemical cycle
.
Continuing with the knowledge obtained by the HERMES project (EC FP6), which contributed significantly to our understanding of deep-sea ecosystems, the HERMIONE project investigates ecosystems at critical sites on Europe's deep-ocean margin, aiming to make major advances in knowledge of their distribution and functioning, and their contribution to ecosystem goods and services. HERMIONE places special emphasis on human impact on the deep sea and on the translation of scientific information into science policy for the sustainable use of marine resources. To design and implement effective governance strategies and management plans to protect our deep seas for the future, understanding the extent, natural dynamics and interconnection of ocean ecosystems, and integrating socio-economic research with natural science, are important. To achieve this, HERMIONE uses a highly interdisciplinary and integrated approach, engaging experts in biology
, ecology
, biodiversity
, oceanography
, geology
, sedimentology
, geophysics
and biogeochemistry
, who will work alongside socio-economists and policy-makers.
s, open slopes and deep basins, chemosynthetic environments, deep water coral reefs, and seamount
s. Hotspot ecosystems support high species diversity, numbers of individuals, or both, and are therefore important in maintaining margin-wide biodiversity and abundance. HERMIONE research ranges from investigation of the ecosystems' dimensions, distribution, interconnection and functioning, to understanding the potential impacts of climate change
and anthropogenic disturbance. The ultimate objective is to provide stakeholders and policymakers with the scientific knowledge necessary to support deep-sea governance, sustainable management and conservation of these ecosystems.
To obtain the data needed, HERMIONE scientists are spending over 1000 days at sea, using more than 50 research vessels across Europe. Sharing vessels and equipment between partners will bring benefits through shared knowledge, expertise and data, and will also maximise the research effort, increasing efficiency and productivity. State-of-the-art technology will be used, with Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) one of the critical pieces of equipment being used for a wide range of delicate manoeuvres and high-resolution surveys, from precision sampling of methane gas at cold seep
s to microbathymetry
mapping to examine the structure of the seabed. Large arrays of instrumented moorings
, shared by different partner institutions, will be deployed in common experimental areas, allowing HERMIONE to develop experimental strategies beyond any national capacity.
The HMMV, PAP, MAR and central Mediterranean sites link to the ESONET long-term monitoring sites and will provide valuable background information.
s. The recent HERMES project lists more than 2000 species associated with cold-water coral reefs worldwide. As well as flourishing live coral, the dead coral frameworks and rubble that are frequently found close by attract a myriad of fauna from the microscopic to the mega, and may be fundamental in coral ecosystem replenishment. Coral reefs provide a habitat for fish, a refuge from predators, a rich food source, a nursery for young fish, and are also potential sources of a wide range of medicines to treat ailments from cancer to cardiovascular disease.
There are several known coral hotspot areas on Europe's deep-ocean margin, including the Scandinavian, Rockall-Porcupine and central Mediterranean margins, and there remain many questions about them, such as how each of the sites are connected to one another, how they arose, what drives the distribution of the reefs, how the larvae disperse
and settle, how the corals and associated species reproduce
, finding their physiological thresholds, how they will fare with increased ocean warming
, and whether ocean warming induces a spread of coral reefs further north into the Arctic Ocean. New research will also build on previous work to define the physical environment around cold-water coral reefs such as hydrodynamic and sedimentary regimes, which will help to understand biological responses.
HERMIONE scientists are using cutting-edge technology to try to answer these questions. High-resolution mapping of the seafloor will be carried out to determine the location and distribution of cold-water corals, and photographic observations will be made to assess changes in the status of known reefs over time, such as their response to climatic variation or their recovery from destruction by fishing trawlers. To assess biodiversity and its relationship with environmental factors such as climate change, DNA barcoding
and other molecular techniques will be used.
, USA.
One of the most important discoveries is that canyons are major sources and sinks for sediment and organic matter on continental margins. They act as fast-track pathways for sediment and organic matter from the shelf to the deep sea, and can act as temporary depots for sediment and carbon storage. Particle flux through canyons has been found to be between two to four times greater than on the open slope, though the transfer of particles through canyons is thought to be largely “event-driven”, which introduces a highly variable aspect to canyon conditions. Determining what drives sediment transport and deposition within canyons is one of the major challenges for HERMIONE.
The capacity of canyons to focus and concentrate organic matter can promote high abundances and diversity of fauna. However, variability in environmental conditions and topography is very high, both within and between canyons, and this is reflected in the variability of the structure and dynamics of the biological communities. Our understanding of biological processes in canyons has greatly improved with the use of submersibles and ROVs, but this research has also revealed that the relationships between fauna and canyons are more complex than previously thought. The diversity of submarine canyons and their fauna means that it is difficult to make generalisations that can be used to create policies for canyon ecosystem management. It is important that the role of canyons in maintaining biodiversity, and how potential anthropogenic impacts may affect this, is better understood. HERMIONE will address this challenge by examining canyon ecosystems from different biogeochemical provinces and topographic settings, in light of the complex interactions among habitat (topography, water masses, currents), mass and energy transfer, and biological communities.
Recent research in the HERMES (EC-FP6) project gathered a large body of information on local biodiversity at large scales, different latitudes and in different hotspot ecosystems, but the research also highlighted the high degree of complexity of deep-sea habitats. This information is fundamental to our understanding of the factors that control biodiversity at much larger scales, from hundreds to thousands of kilometres. HERMIONE will conduct further studies on the mosaic of habitats found in deep-sea slopes and basins, and will investigate the relationships within and between these habitats, their biodiversity and ecology, and their interconnection with other hotspot ecosystems.
Investigating the impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change in the deep sea is a theme that runs through all HERMIONE research. To the biological communities on open slopes and in deep basins, seafloor warming through climate change is a major threat. Up to 85% of methane reservoirs along the continental margin could be destabilised, which would not only release climate-warming methane gas into the atmosphere, but would also have unknown and potentially devastating consequences on benthic communities. The role of climatic variation on deep-sea benthos is not well understood, although large-scale changes in the structure of seafloor communities have been observed over the last two decades. The use of long-term, deep-sea observatories, e.g., the Hausgarten deep-sea observatory in the Arctic and the time-series analysis of the Catalan margin and Southern Adriatic Sea, will help HERMIONE scientists to examine recent changes in benthic communities, and to study decadal variability in physical processes, such as the dense shelf water cascading events in submarine canyons.
HERMIONE aims to provide quantitative estimates of the potential consequences of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning, to examine how deep-sea benthos adapt to large-scale changes, and, for the first time, to create conceptual models integrating deep-sea biodiversity and quantitative analyses of ecosystem functioning and processes.
Seamounts enhance water flow through localised tides, eddies, and upwelling, and these physical processes may enhance primary production. Seamounts may therefore be considered as hotspots of marine life; fauna benefit from the enhanced hydrodynamics and phytoplankton supply, and thrive on the slopes and summits. Suspension feeders, such as gorgonian sea fans and the cold-water corals like Lophelia pertusa, often dominate the rich benthic (seafloor-dwelling) communities. The enhanced abundance and diversity of fauna is not limited to benthic species, as fish are known to aggregate over seamounts. Unfortunately, this knowledge has led to increasing commercial exploitation of seamount fish by the fishing industry, and a number of seamount fish populations have already been depleted. Part of HERMIONE research will assess the threats and impacts of human activities on seamounts, including comparing data from seamounts in different stages of fisheries exploitation to understand more about the impacts of fishing activities., both on target species and non-target species, and their habitats.
Despite our increasing knowledge on seamounts, there is still very little known about the relationships between their ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, and that of the surrounding areas. This information is vital in order to improve our understanding of connectivity between seamount hotspots and adjacent areas, and HERMIONE research will aim to discover whether seamounts act as centres of speciation (the evolution of new species), or if they play a role as “stepping stones”, allowing fauna to colonise and disperse across the oceans.
Methane cycling and carbonate formation by microorganisms in chemosynthetic environments have implications for the control of greenhouse gases. Methane can be trapped and stored under the seabed as a gas hydrate, and under different conditions, can either be controlled by microbial consumption, or can escape into the surrounding seawater, and ultimately the atmosphere. Our understanding of the biological controls of methane seepage and feedback mechanisms for global warming is limited. The distribution and structure of cold seep communities can act as an indicator for changes in methane fluxes in the deep sea, e.g. by seafloor warming. Using multibeam echosounder data and 3D seismic data with in situ studies at seep sites, and by investigating the life histories of fauna at such ecosystems, HERMIONE scientists aim to understand more about their interconnectivity and resilience, and the implications for climate change.
The great variety of fauna present in chemosynthetic environments is a real challenge to scientists. Only a tiny fraction of microorganisms at vents and seeps has been identified, and a huge amount is still to be discovered. Their identification, their association with fauna, and the relationship between their diversity, function and habitat, are vital areas of research as biological communities act as important filters, controlling up to 100 % of vent and seep emissions. By using DNA barcoding and genome analysis in addition to traditional methods of identification and experimentation, HERMIONE scientists will study the relationship between community structure and ecosystem functioning at a variety of vents, seeps, brine pools and mud volcanoes.
(Johannesburg), are to achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010, to introduce an ecosystems approach to marine resource assessment and management by 2010, and to designate a network of marine protected area
s by 2012. A crucial requirement for implementing these is the availability of high-quality scientific data and knowledge, as well as effective science-policy
interfaces to ensure the policy relevance of research and to enable the rapid translation of scientific information into science policy.
HERMIONE aims to provide this by filling the knowledge gap about threatened deep-sea ecosystems and their current status with respect to anthropogenic impacts (e.g. litter, chemical contamination). Socio-economists and natural scientists work together in HERMIONE, researching the socio-economics of anthropogenic impacts, mapping human activities that affect the deep sea, assessing the potential for valuing deep-sea ecosystem goods and services, studying governance options and designing and implementing real-time science-policy interfaces.
HERMIONE natural and social science results will provide national, regional (EU), and global policy-makers and other stakeholders with the information needed to establish policies to ensure the sustainable use of the deep ocean and conservation of deep-sea ecosystems.
Biodiversity hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Norman Myers in two articles in “The Environmentalist” , revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in...
ecosystems, how they function and how they interconnect, partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and impacted by humans through fishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
, resource extraction, seabed installations and pollution
Marine pollution
Marine pollution occurs when harmful, or potentially harmful effects, can result from the entry into the ocean of chemicals, particles, industrial, agricultural and residential waste, noise, or the spread of invasive organisms. Most sources of marine pollution are land based...
. Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information, enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems.The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
's Seventh Framework Programme, and is the successor to the HERMES project
Hermes project
The Hermes project was an United States Army Ordnance Corps rocket program ....
, which concluded in March 2009.
Introduction
Europe's deep-ocean margin, from the ArcticArctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
to the Iberian Margin, and across the Mediterranean to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, spans a distance of over 15,000 km and hosts a number of diverse habitats and ecosystems. Deep water coral
Deep water coral
The habitat of deep water corals, also known as cold water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond where water temperatures may be as cold as 4°C...
reefs, undersea mountains
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
populated by a multitude of organisms, vast submarine canyon systems
Submarine canyon
A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley on the sea floor of the continental slope. Many submarine canyons are found as extensions to large rivers; however there are some that have no such association. Canyons cutting the continental slopes have been found at depths greater than 2 km below sea...
, and hydrothermal vent
Hydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both...
s are some of the features contained therein. The traditional view of the deep-sea realm as a hostile and barren place was discredited long ago, and scientists now know that much of Europe's deep sea is rich and diverse.
However, the deep sea is increasingly threatened by humans: most of this deep-ocean frontier lies within Europe's Exclusive Economic Zone
Exclusive Economic Zone
Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...
(EEZ) and has significant potential for the exploitation of biological, energy, and mineral resources. Research and exploration over the last two decades has shown clear signs of direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts in the deep sea, resulting from such activities as over-fishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
, littering
Marine debris
Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human created waste that has deliberately or accidentally become afloat in a lake, sea, ocean or waterway. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the centre of gyres and on coastlines, frequently washing aground, when it is known as beach litter or...
and pollution
Marine pollution
Marine pollution occurs when harmful, or potentially harmful effects, can result from the entry into the ocean of chemicals, particles, industrial, agricultural and residential waste, noise, or the spread of invasive organisms. Most sources of marine pollution are land based...
. This raises concerns because deep-sea processes and ecosystems are not only important for the marine web of life
Food chain
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
, but also fundamentally contribute to the global biogeochemical cycle
Biogeochemical cycle
In ecology and Earth science, a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of substances is a pathway by which a chemical element or molecule moves through both biotic and abiotic compartments of Earth. A cycle is a series of change which comes back to the starting point and which can...
.
Continuing with the knowledge obtained by the HERMES project (EC FP6), which contributed significantly to our understanding of deep-sea ecosystems, the HERMIONE project investigates ecosystems at critical sites on Europe's deep-ocean margin, aiming to make major advances in knowledge of their distribution and functioning, and their contribution to ecosystem goods and services. HERMIONE places special emphasis on human impact on the deep sea and on the translation of scientific information into science policy for the sustainable use of marine resources. To design and implement effective governance strategies and management plans to protect our deep seas for the future, understanding the extent, natural dynamics and interconnection of ocean ecosystems, and integrating socio-economic research with natural science, are important. To achieve this, HERMIONE uses a highly interdisciplinary and integrated approach, engaging experts in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, sedimentology
Sedimentology
Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, mud , and clay, and the processes that result in their deposition. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of modern processes to interpret geologic history through observations of sedimentary rocks and sedimentary...
, geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
and biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment...
, who will work alongside socio-economists and policy-makers.
Hotspot research
The HERMIONE project focuses on deep-sea "hotspot" ecosystems including submarine canyonSubmarine canyon
A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley on the sea floor of the continental slope. Many submarine canyons are found as extensions to large rivers; however there are some that have no such association. Canyons cutting the continental slopes have been found at depths greater than 2 km below sea...
s, open slopes and deep basins, chemosynthetic environments, deep water coral reefs, and seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
s. Hotspot ecosystems support high species diversity, numbers of individuals, or both, and are therefore important in maintaining margin-wide biodiversity and abundance. HERMIONE research ranges from investigation of the ecosystems' dimensions, distribution, interconnection and functioning, to understanding the potential impacts of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and anthropogenic disturbance. The ultimate objective is to provide stakeholders and policymakers with the scientific knowledge necessary to support deep-sea governance, sustainable management and conservation of these ecosystems.
To obtain the data needed, HERMIONE scientists are spending over 1000 days at sea, using more than 50 research vessels across Europe. Sharing vessels and equipment between partners will bring benefits through shared knowledge, expertise and data, and will also maximise the research effort, increasing efficiency and productivity. State-of-the-art technology will be used, with Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) one of the critical pieces of equipment being used for a wide range of delicate manoeuvres and high-resolution surveys, from precision sampling of methane gas at cold seep
Cold seep
A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool...
s to microbathymetry
Bathymetry
Bathymetry is the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry. The name comes from Greek βαθύς , "deep", and μέτρον , "measure"...
mapping to examine the structure of the seabed. Large arrays of instrumented moorings
Mooring (oceanography)
thumb|right|Sketch of a mooring with traps and current metersA mooring in oceanography is a collection of devices, connected to a wire and temporarily anchored on the sea floor. The devices are current meters to measure the direction and speed of ocean currents, sediment traps to catch settling...
, shared by different partner institutions, will be deployed in common experimental areas, allowing HERMIONE to develop experimental strategies beyond any national capacity.
Study areas
The HERMIONE study sites were selected on the following basis:- The Arctic because of its importance in monitoring climate change;
- Nordic margin with abundant cold-water corals, extensive hydrocarbon exploration and the Haakon-Mosby mud volcano (HMMV) natural laboratory;
- Celtic margin with a mid-latitude canyon, cold water corals and the long term Porcupine Abyssal PlainPorcupine Abyssal PlainThe Porcupine Abyssal Plain , located in international waters, is adjacent to the Irish continental margin. The PAP lies beyond the Porcupine Bank's deepest point and is southwest of it. It is a muddy seabed, with scattered abyssal hills that covers an area approximately half the size of Europe's...
(PAP) monitoring site; - Portuguese margin with the highly diverse Nazare and Setubal canyons;
- Seamounts in the Atlantic and western Mediterranean as important biodiversity hotspots potentially under threat;
- Mid Atlantic RidgeMid-Atlantic RidgeThe Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. It separates the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate in the North Atlantic, and the African Plate from the South...
(MAR) ESONET site to link cold seepCold seepA cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool...
to hot seepHydrothermal ventA hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both...
chemosynthetic studies; - Mediterranean cold water cascading sites in the Gulf of Lions and outflows of the Adriatic and Aegean Seas.
The HMMV, PAP, MAR and central Mediterranean sites link to the ESONET long-term monitoring sites and will provide valuable background information.
Cold-water coral reefs
Deep water coral reefs are found along the northeast Atlantic and central Mediterranean margins, and are important biodiversity hotspotBiodiversity hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.The concept of biodiversity hotspots was originated by Norman Myers in two articles in “The Environmentalist” , revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in...
s. The recent HERMES project lists more than 2000 species associated with cold-water coral reefs worldwide. As well as flourishing live coral, the dead coral frameworks and rubble that are frequently found close by attract a myriad of fauna from the microscopic to the mega, and may be fundamental in coral ecosystem replenishment. Coral reefs provide a habitat for fish, a refuge from predators, a rich food source, a nursery for young fish, and are also potential sources of a wide range of medicines to treat ailments from cancer to cardiovascular disease.
There are several known coral hotspot areas on Europe's deep-ocean margin, including the Scandinavian, Rockall-Porcupine and central Mediterranean margins, and there remain many questions about them, such as how each of the sites are connected to one another, how they arose, what drives the distribution of the reefs, how the larvae disperse
Marine larval ecology
Marine larval ecology is the study of the factors influencing the dispersing larval stage exhibited by many marine invertebrates and fishes. Marine organisms with a larval stage usually release large numbers of larvae into the water column, where these larvae develop and grow for a certain period...
and settle, how the corals and associated species reproduce
Deep water coral
The habitat of deep water corals, also known as cold water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond where water temperatures may be as cold as 4°C...
, finding their physiological thresholds, how they will fare with increased ocean warming
Ocean acidification
Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH and increase in acidity of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere....
, and whether ocean warming induces a spread of coral reefs further north into the Arctic Ocean. New research will also build on previous work to define the physical environment around cold-water coral reefs such as hydrodynamic and sedimentary regimes, which will help to understand biological responses.
HERMIONE scientists are using cutting-edge technology to try to answer these questions. High-resolution mapping of the seafloor will be carried out to determine the location and distribution of cold-water corals, and photographic observations will be made to assess changes in the status of known reefs over time, such as their response to climatic variation or their recovery from destruction by fishing trawlers. To assess biodiversity and its relationship with environmental factors such as climate change, DNA barcoding
DNA barcoding
DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. It differs from molecular phylogeny in that the main goal is not to determine classification but to identify an unknown sample in terms of a known...
and other molecular techniques will be used.
Submarine canyons
Submarine canyons are deep, steep-sided valleys that form on continental margins. Stretching from the shelf to the deep sea, they dissect much of the European margin. They are one of the most complex seascapes known to man; their rugged topography and challenging environmental conditions mean that they are also one of the least explored. Advances in technology over the last two decades have allowed scientists to uncover some of the mysteries of canyons, the size of which often rival the Grand CanyonGrand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
, USA.
One of the most important discoveries is that canyons are major sources and sinks for sediment and organic matter on continental margins. They act as fast-track pathways for sediment and organic matter from the shelf to the deep sea, and can act as temporary depots for sediment and carbon storage. Particle flux through canyons has been found to be between two to four times greater than on the open slope, though the transfer of particles through canyons is thought to be largely “event-driven”, which introduces a highly variable aspect to canyon conditions. Determining what drives sediment transport and deposition within canyons is one of the major challenges for HERMIONE.
The capacity of canyons to focus and concentrate organic matter can promote high abundances and diversity of fauna. However, variability in environmental conditions and topography is very high, both within and between canyons, and this is reflected in the variability of the structure and dynamics of the biological communities. Our understanding of biological processes in canyons has greatly improved with the use of submersibles and ROVs, but this research has also revealed that the relationships between fauna and canyons are more complex than previously thought. The diversity of submarine canyons and their fauna means that it is difficult to make generalisations that can be used to create policies for canyon ecosystem management. It is important that the role of canyons in maintaining biodiversity, and how potential anthropogenic impacts may affect this, is better understood. HERMIONE will address this challenge by examining canyon ecosystems from different biogeochemical provinces and topographic settings, in light of the complex interactions among habitat (topography, water masses, currents), mass and energy transfer, and biological communities.
Open slopes and deep basins
Open slopes and deep basins make up > 90 % of the ocean floor and 65 % of the Earth's surface, and many of the goods and services provided by the deep sea (e.g., oil, gas, climate regulation and food) are produced and stored by them. They are intricately involved in global biogeochemical and ecological processes, and so are essential for the functioning of our biosphere and human wellbeing.Recent research in the HERMES (EC-FP6) project gathered a large body of information on local biodiversity at large scales, different latitudes and in different hotspot ecosystems, but the research also highlighted the high degree of complexity of deep-sea habitats. This information is fundamental to our understanding of the factors that control biodiversity at much larger scales, from hundreds to thousands of kilometres. HERMIONE will conduct further studies on the mosaic of habitats found in deep-sea slopes and basins, and will investigate the relationships within and between these habitats, their biodiversity and ecology, and their interconnection with other hotspot ecosystems.
Investigating the impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change in the deep sea is a theme that runs through all HERMIONE research. To the biological communities on open slopes and in deep basins, seafloor warming through climate change is a major threat. Up to 85% of methane reservoirs along the continental margin could be destabilised, which would not only release climate-warming methane gas into the atmosphere, but would also have unknown and potentially devastating consequences on benthic communities. The role of climatic variation on deep-sea benthos is not well understood, although large-scale changes in the structure of seafloor communities have been observed over the last two decades. The use of long-term, deep-sea observatories, e.g., the Hausgarten deep-sea observatory in the Arctic and the time-series analysis of the Catalan margin and Southern Adriatic Sea, will help HERMIONE scientists to examine recent changes in benthic communities, and to study decadal variability in physical processes, such as the dense shelf water cascading events in submarine canyons.
HERMIONE aims to provide quantitative estimates of the potential consequences of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning, to examine how deep-sea benthos adapt to large-scale changes, and, for the first time, to create conceptual models integrating deep-sea biodiversity and quantitative analyses of ecosystem functioning and processes.
Seamounts
Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise from the depths of the ocean, and whose summits can sometimes be found just a few hundred metres below the sea surface. To be classified as a seamount the summit must be 1000 m higher than the surrounding seafloor, and under this definition there are an estimated 1000–2800 seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean and around 60 in the Mediterranean Sea.Seamounts enhance water flow through localised tides, eddies, and upwelling, and these physical processes may enhance primary production. Seamounts may therefore be considered as hotspots of marine life; fauna benefit from the enhanced hydrodynamics and phytoplankton supply, and thrive on the slopes and summits. Suspension feeders, such as gorgonian sea fans and the cold-water corals like Lophelia pertusa, often dominate the rich benthic (seafloor-dwelling) communities. The enhanced abundance and diversity of fauna is not limited to benthic species, as fish are known to aggregate over seamounts. Unfortunately, this knowledge has led to increasing commercial exploitation of seamount fish by the fishing industry, and a number of seamount fish populations have already been depleted. Part of HERMIONE research will assess the threats and impacts of human activities on seamounts, including comparing data from seamounts in different stages of fisheries exploitation to understand more about the impacts of fishing activities., both on target species and non-target species, and their habitats.
Despite our increasing knowledge on seamounts, there is still very little known about the relationships between their ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, and that of the surrounding areas. This information is vital in order to improve our understanding of connectivity between seamount hotspots and adjacent areas, and HERMIONE research will aim to discover whether seamounts act as centres of speciation (the evolution of new species), or if they play a role as “stepping stones”, allowing fauna to colonise and disperse across the oceans.
Chemosynthetic ecosystems
Chemosynthetic environments - such as hot vents, cold seeps, mud volcanoes and sulphidic brine pools - show the highest biomass and productivity of all deep-sea ecosystems. The chemicals found in the fluids, gases and mud that escape from such systems provide an energy source for chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea, which are the primary producers in these systems. A huge variety of fauna profits from the association with chemosynthetic microbes, supporting large communities that can exist independently of sunlight. Some of these environments, such as methane (cold) seeps, can support up to 50,000 times more biomass than communities that rely on photosynthetic production alone. Owing to the extreme gradients and diversity in physical and chemical factors, hydrothermal vents also remain incredibly fascinating ecosystems. HERMIONE researchers aim to illustrate the tight coupling between geosphere and biosphere processes, as well as their immense heterogeneity and interconnectivity, by observing and comparing the spatial and temporal variation of chemosynthetic environments in European Sea’s.Methane cycling and carbonate formation by microorganisms in chemosynthetic environments have implications for the control of greenhouse gases. Methane can be trapped and stored under the seabed as a gas hydrate, and under different conditions, can either be controlled by microbial consumption, or can escape into the surrounding seawater, and ultimately the atmosphere. Our understanding of the biological controls of methane seepage and feedback mechanisms for global warming is limited. The distribution and structure of cold seep communities can act as an indicator for changes in methane fluxes in the deep sea, e.g. by seafloor warming. Using multibeam echosounder data and 3D seismic data with in situ studies at seep sites, and by investigating the life histories of fauna at such ecosystems, HERMIONE scientists aim to understand more about their interconnectivity and resilience, and the implications for climate change.
The great variety of fauna present in chemosynthetic environments is a real challenge to scientists. Only a tiny fraction of microorganisms at vents and seeps has been identified, and a huge amount is still to be discovered. Their identification, their association with fauna, and the relationship between their diversity, function and habitat, are vital areas of research as biological communities act as important filters, controlling up to 100 % of vent and seep emissions. By using DNA barcoding and genome analysis in addition to traditional methods of identification and experimentation, HERMIONE scientists will study the relationship between community structure and ecosystem functioning at a variety of vents, seeps, brine pools and mud volcanoes.
Socio-economics, governance and science-policy interfaces
With increasing ocean exploration over the last two decades has come the realisation that humans have had an extensive impact on the world’s oceans, not just close to our shores, but also reaching down into the deep sea. From destructive fishing practices and exploitation of mineral resources to pollution and litter, evidence of human impact can be found in virtually all deep-sea ecosystems. In response, the international community has set a series of ambitious goals aimed at protecting the marine environment and its resources for future generations. Three of these initiatives, decided on by world leaders during the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable DevelopmentEarth Summit 2002
The World Summit on Sustainable Development, WSSD or Earth Summit 2002 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss sustainable development by the United Nations. WSSD gathered a number of leaders from business and non-governmental...
(Johannesburg), are to achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010, to introduce an ecosystems approach to marine resource assessment and management by 2010, and to designate a network of marine protected area
Marine Protected Area
Marine Protected Areas, like any protected area, are regions in which human activity has been placed under some restrictions in the interest of conserving the natural environment, it's surrounding waters and the occupant ecosystems, and any cultural or historical resources that may require...
s by 2012. A crucial requirement for implementing these is the availability of high-quality scientific data and knowledge, as well as effective science-policy
Science policy
Science policy is an area of public policy concerned with the policies that affect the conduct of the science and research enterprise, including the funding of science, often in pursuance of other national policy goals such as technological innovation to promote commercial product development,...
interfaces to ensure the policy relevance of research and to enable the rapid translation of scientific information into science policy.
HERMIONE aims to provide this by filling the knowledge gap about threatened deep-sea ecosystems and their current status with respect to anthropogenic impacts (e.g. litter, chemical contamination). Socio-economists and natural scientists work together in HERMIONE, researching the socio-economics of anthropogenic impacts, mapping human activities that affect the deep sea, assessing the potential for valuing deep-sea ecosystem goods and services, studying governance options and designing and implementing real-time science-policy interfaces.
HERMIONE natural and social science results will provide national, regional (EU), and global policy-makers and other stakeholders with the information needed to establish policies to ensure the sustainable use of the deep ocean and conservation of deep-sea ecosystems.