HydroSMAC: Combining Habitat Suitability and Physical Oceanography for Targeted Discovery of New Benthic Communities on the West Florida Slope

NOAA Science Seminar Series

Title: HydroSMAC: Combining Habitat Suitability and Physical Oceanography for Targeted Discovery of New Benthic Communities on the West Florida Slope

Presenter(s): Dr. Sandra Brooke and Dr. Jeroen Ingels (Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory).

Sponsor(s):  NOAA Ocean Exploration and NOAA Central Library.

Seminar Contact(s): Ashley Marranzino ashley.marranzino@noaa.gov and NOAA Central Library Seminars (library.seminars@noaa.gov)

Remote access: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6343773497260330254

Accessibility: Captions are added to the recordings of presentations once uploaded to the NOAA Central Library YouTube Channel. Sign language interpreting services and closed captioning are available, but need to be requested at least 5 days before the event.

Abstract: The HydroSMAC NOAA Ocean Exploration expedition (RV Point Sur, ROV Global Explorer) studied benthic communities off the West Florida Escarpment (WFE). The mission focused on morphological and molecular exploration of deep (>1,000m) habitats of the WFE, with particular emphasis on hard-bottom communities such as corals and sponges, and the microscopic meiofauna that live in sediments. Our objectives were to generate new data on distribution of coral species in this understudied area, and to assess whether we can use meiofauna communities as indicators of ambient current regimes. Together with NOAA collaborators, our data will be incorporated into NOAA Habitat Suitability Models and used to ‘ground truth’ oceanographic current models.

Keywords: Deep Sea, Corals, Meiofauna

Bio(s): Sandra Brooke is a member of the Research Faculty at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Lab. Her research focuses on coral communities in shallow and deep waters, specifically understanding their ecology, distribution and community structure, and how they are affected by human activities. She has worked on shallow coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and south Florida and deep-sea coral ecosystems in Alaska, Norway, Western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Jeroen Ingels is a marine biologist from Belgium who has been at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory since 2017. His lab, the @Meiolab, investigates diversity and functions of organisms on the seafloor, particularly meiofauna, microscopic animals that live in between the sediment grains. He has studied benthic ecosystems from the coastline to the abyss for nearly 20 years in the Atlantic, Pacific, Polar oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico, focusing on biodiversity and ecosystem function questions, and how benthic life is affected by anthropogenic stressors.

Slides / Recordings / Other Materials: Recordings will be shared 24 hours after the event on the NOAA Central Library YouTube channel.

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{Dr. Sandra Brooke and Dr. Jeroen Ingels, Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory}